Frågeställning: Vilken påverkan har attityd, subjektiv norm och eWoM på konsumentens klagomålsintention? Syfte: Syftet med denna studie är att studera klagomålsintention ur ett konsumentperspektiv. Studien ämnar undersöka vilken påverkan attityd, subjektiv norm och eWoM har på konsumenten klagomålsintention. Undersökningen utgår från en kvantitativ forskningsstrategi av deduktivt anslag.  Metod: Denna studie baseras på en kvantitativ forskningsmetod där primärdata har samlats in via en digital enkätundersökning med frågor utformade från tidigare forskning. Kvantitativa primärdata samlades in med ett resultat av 314 respondenter där 17 respondenter blev bortfall, vilket gav 297 medverkande respondenter. En teorimodell skapade tillsammans med tillhörande hypoteser. Resultatet av studien undersöktes via en korrelations- och multivariat regressionsanalys i IBM SPSS-Statistics. Slutsats: Resultatet visade att attityd-tidigare erfarenhet, attityd-inställning att klaga samt subjektiv norm har en påverkan på klagomålsintentionen. Attityd-inställning till att klaga och subjektiv norm hade störst  påverkan med en mycket säker signifikans på klagomålsintentionen. Studiens resultat visade därmed att attityd-inställning till att klaga hade en större påverkan på klagomålsintentionen än attityd-tidigare erfarenhet. EWoM visade ingen direkt påverkan klagomålsintenitonen. Däremot kan vi konstatera att eWoM visade sig ha en relation till de oberoende variablerna attityd-inställning att klaga samt subjektiv norm. Vilket indikerar att det krävs fortsatt forskning inom detta ämne. / Research questions: Which effect do attitude, subjective norm, and eWoM have on the consumer's complaint intention?          Purpose: The purpose of this study is to examine complaint intention from a consumer perspective. The study examines the impact of attitude, subjective norm, and eWoM on the consumer's complaint intention. The study is based on a quantitative research strategy of    deductive funding.               Method: This study is based on a quantitative research strategy where primary data has been collected via a digital survey with questions designed from previous research. Quantitative primary data were collected with a result of 314 respondents where 17 respondents were excluded, which gave 297 participating respondents. A theoretical model was created together with associated hypotheses. The results of the study were examined via a correlation and multivariate regression analysis in IBM SPSS-Statistics.    Conclusion: The results showed that attitude previous experience, attitude to complaining, and subjective norm have an influence on the intention to complain. Attitude to complaining and subjective norm had the greatest impact with a very certain significance on the intention to complain. The results of the study thus showed that attitude to complaining had a greater impact on the intention to complain than attitude to previous experience. EWoM showed no direct impact on the complaint intention. However, we can state that eWoM was found to have a relationship to the independent variables' attitude to complain as well as subjective norm. This indicates that further research is required in this subject.

The retail industry is faced with increased customer service demands and a competitive market environment. For retailers to survive in a competitive marketplace, a customer orientation is vital in order to establish and maintain long-term relationships with customers. As the clothing retail industry is characterised as an industry with high human involvement, employee-related service failures are inevitable. Service failures cause the disconfirmation of service expectations which lead to customer dissatisfaction, a motivator of customer complaint behaviour. Given that the resolution of a customer complaint is critical in order to restore customer satisfaction, retailers are providing customers with a variety of innovative complaint channels, such as online complaining. Although online complaint channels have become commonplace, little research has been undertaken regarding the effect of a complaint channel on customers‟ complaint behaviour and customers‟ expectations in the clothing retail industry. South African clothing retailers could therefore benefit from an understanding of customers‟ online complaint intention and ensuing service recovery expectations. Scholars profess that complaint intention correlates positively with service recovery expectations as customers decide to post a complaint when they generally have high recovery expectations. Furthermore, complaint intention and service recovery expectations are increased by a positive attitude towards complaining. Consequently, attitude towards complaining plays a significant role in forecasting complaint behaviour of dissatisfied customers. Moreover, service failure severity has been used to measure how customers assess the intensity of service failures and is said to also influence customers‟ complaint intention and their subsequent service recovery expectation. The primary objective of this study was to uncover customers‟ online complaint intention and subsequent service recovery expectations after experiencing an employee-related service failure in the clothing retail industry. The empirical study was based on a descriptive research design in which a structured, self-administered questionnaire was fielded amongst respondents within the Johannesburg metropolitan area of South Africa. A non-probability, convenience sampling method was used and a total of 400 respondents participated in this study. The results indicate that although the majority of respondents use the Internet daily and exhibit a high propensity to complain, they prefer to complain in-store. After respondents had been presented with a fictional employee-related service failure scenario, they did not indicate a high intention to complain online. Very few differences were uncovered between different groups of respondents pertaining to their attitude towards complaining, online complaint intention, service failure severity perception and strength of service recovery expectation. Finally – with respect to an empirically tested theoretical model – respondents‟ attitude towards complaining in general and their perceptions of the severity of the service failure experienced, significantly and positively influence their strength of service recovery expectations, while no significant positive influences were uncovered for paths linking the aforementioned constructs with online complaint intention. As a result, online complaint intention was omitted from the measurement model seeing that respondents who participated in this study did not indicate a high tendency to complain online. It is recommended that clothing retailers recognise the importance of in-store complaint management programmes and ensure that in-store complaint channels are easily accessible, efficient and pleasant to use. Clothing retailers should actively educate customers regarding alternative mechanisms and channels available for complaining. In order to increase customers‟ online complaint intention, clothing retailers should provide a visible complaint portal on their website and communicate the benefits of online complaining during in-store advertising. Clothing retailers should furthermore provide the appropriate strength of service recovery for particular levels of service failure severity when managing customer complaints. Consequently, it is recommended that clothing retailers provide their employees with sufficient training that will educate them regarding their interaction with customers and the best practice thereof, the difference between minor and major service failures, and the selection of an appropriate service recovery strategy during different service failure severity encounters. It is recommended that this study is extended to other service settings in order to uncover online complaint intention and strength of service recovery expectations of customers in other industries. Finally, seeing that respondents‟ strength of service recovery expectations vary according to the severity of the service failure, scenarios representing different levels of service failure severity can be used as basis to measure the key constructs measured in this study. / MCom (Marketing management), North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2014

The retail industry is faced with increased customer service demands and a competitive market environment. For retailers to survive in a competitive marketplace, a customer orientation is vital in order to establish and maintain long-term relationships with customers. As the clothing retail industry is characterised as an industry with high human involvement, employee-related service failures are inevitable. Service failures cause the disconfirmation of service expectations which lead to customer dissatisfaction, a motivator of customer complaint behaviour. Given that the resolution of a customer complaint is critical in order to restore customer satisfaction, retailers are providing customers with a variety of innovative complaint channels, such as online complaining. Although online complaint channels have become commonplace, little research has been undertaken regarding the effect of a complaint channel on customers‟ complaint behaviour and customers‟ expectations in the clothing retail industry. South African clothing retailers could therefore benefit from an understanding of customers‟ online complaint intention and ensuing service recovery expectations. Scholars profess that complaint intention correlates positively with service recovery expectations as customers decide to post a complaint when they generally have high recovery expectations. Furthermore, complaint intention and service recovery expectations are increased by a positive attitude towards complaining. Consequently, attitude towards complaining plays a significant role in forecasting complaint behaviour of dissatisfied customers. Moreover, service failure severity has been used to measure how customers assess the intensity of service failures and is said to also influence customers‟ complaint intention and their subsequent service recovery expectation. The primary objective of this study was to uncover customers‟ online complaint intention and subsequent service recovery expectations after experiencing an employee-related service failure in the clothing retail industry. The empirical study was based on a descriptive research design in which a structured, self-administered questionnaire was fielded amongst respondents within the Johannesburg metropolitan area of South Africa. A non-probability, convenience sampling method was used and a total of 400 respondents participated in this study. The results indicate that although the majority of respondents use the Internet daily and exhibit a high propensity to complain, they prefer to complain in-store. After respondents had been presented with a fictional employee-related service failure scenario, they did not indicate a high intention to complain online. Very few differences were uncovered between different groups of respondents pertaining to their attitude towards complaining, online complaint intention, service failure severity perception and strength of service recovery expectation. Finally – with respect to an empirically tested theoretical model – respondents‟ attitude towards complaining in general and their perceptions of the severity of the service failure experienced, significantly and positively influence their strength of service recovery expectations, while no significant positive influences were uncovered for paths linking the aforementioned constructs with online complaint intention. As a result, online complaint intention was omitted from the measurement model seeing that respondents who participated in this study did not indicate a high tendency to complain online. It is recommended that clothing retailers recognise the importance of in-store complaint management programmes and ensure that in-store complaint channels are easily accessible, efficient and pleasant to use. Clothing retailers should actively educate customers regarding alternative mechanisms and channels available for complaining. In order to increase customers‟ online complaint intention, clothing retailers should provide a visible complaint portal on their website and communicate the benefits of online complaining during in-store advertising. Clothing retailers should furthermore provide the appropriate strength of service recovery for particular levels of service failure severity when managing customer complaints. Consequently, it is recommended that clothing retailers provide their employees with sufficient training that will educate them regarding their interaction with customers and the best practice thereof, the difference between minor and major service failures, and the selection of an appropriate service recovery strategy during different service failure severity encounters. It is recommended that this study is extended to other service settings in order to uncover online complaint intention and strength of service recovery expectations of customers in other industries. Finally, seeing that respondents‟ strength of service recovery expectations vary according to the severity of the service failure, scenarios representing different levels of service failure severity can be used as basis to measure the key constructs measured in this study. / MCom (Marketing management), North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2014

Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior / With a differentiated approach to physical stores, online stores attract more consumers and, unlike the low sales growth in traditional commerce, they come increasing your earnings. According to the Brazilian Chamber of Electronic Commerce (2013), in 2013, online sales in Brazil exceeded R$28 billion and grew by 25%. In the United States, it is estimated that online sales should grow between 8% to 10% per year (Wu, 2013). With sales growth, increase the numbers of complaints and problems that consumers face in online shopping, and to improve a service it is necessary to listen to customer complaints (HOLLOWAY, WANG E PARISH, 2005). According Breazeale (2009), research shows that acquiring a new customer is five to eight times more expensive than keeping an existing one, this provides motivation to understand the complaint intentions in online shopping. Thus, came the need to study what are the antecedents of customer satisfaction in online shopping and its relationship with the intention of complaining. This study aimed to examine the relationship of antecedents constructs: Distributive Justice, Procedural Justice, Interactional Justice, Confirmation of Expectations, Perceived Usefulness and Trust in the Satisfaction. As well, we analyzed the impact of Satisfaction on Intention to Complain mediated by Prior Shopping Experience and Perceived Responsiveness. Was developed a descriptive, causal and quantitative approach through an online survey adapted Wu's study (2013) and applied to university professors from all over Brazil. After the model is validated satisfactorily, it was confirmed that the interactional justice, the Expectation Confirmation, the Perceived Usefulness and Trust impact on satisfaction. It was also observed that the Confirmation of Expectations impacts the Perceived Usefulness. The moderating effect of Perceived Responsiveness was partially confirmed. Despite the limitations, it is considered that the study brought academic contributions, as a validation of the model operated by Wu in Taiwan in 2013 for the Brazilian context that might serve as a basis for further research, and managerial contributions as a greater understanding of consumer behavior in online shopping, because the results can be used in practice within the business environment. / Com uma abordagem diferenciada das lojas físicas, as lojas online atraem cada vez mais consumidores e, ao contrário do baixo crescimento das vendas no comercio tradicional, elas vem aumentando os seus ganhos. Segundo a Câmara Brasileira de Comércio Eletrônico (2013), em 2013, as vendas online no Brasil ultrapassaram os R$ 28 bilhões e tiveram um crescimento de 25%. Nos Estados Unidos, estima-se que as vendas online devam crescer entre 8% a 10% ao ano (WU, 2013). Com o crescimento das vendas, aumentam os números de reclamações e problemas que os consumidores enfrentam em compras online, e para melhorar um serviço é preciso ouvir as reclamações dos clientes (HOLLOWAY, WANG E PARISH, 2005). Segundo Breazeale (2009), pesquisas mostram que a aquisição de um novo cliente é cerca de cinco a oito vezes mais onerosa do que manter um já existente. Isso proporciona motivação para compreender as intenções de reclamação em compras online. Assim, surgiu a necessidade de estudar quais são os antecedentes da satisfação do consumidor em compras online e a sua relação com a intenção de reclamar. Este estudo teve como objetivo examinar o relacionamento dos construtos antecedentes Justiça Distributiva, Justiça Processual, Justiça Interacional, Confirmação das Expectativas, Utilidade Percebida e Confiança na Satisfação, bem como, o impacto da Satisfação na Intenção de Reclamar mediado pelos construtos de Experiência Anterior de Compra e Capacidade de Resposta Percebida. Desenvolveu-se uma pesquisa descritiva, causal e com abordagem quantitativa, por meio de uma survey online adaptada do estudo de Wu (2013) e aplicada com professores universitários de todo o Brasil. Após o modelo ser validado satisfatoriamente, confirmou-se que, a Justiça Interacional, a Confirmação das Expectativas, a Utilidade Percebida e a Confiança impactam na Satisfação. Observou-se também, que a Confirmação das Expectativas tem impacto na Utilidade Percebida. O efeito moderador da Capacidade de Resposta Percebida foi parcialmente confirmado. Apesar das limitações, considera-se que o estudo trouxe contribuições acadêmicas, como a validação do modelo operacionalizado em Taiwan por Wu em 2013 para o contexto brasileiro que pode servir de base para novas pesquisas, e contribuições gerenciais como a maior compreensão do comportamento do consumidor em compras online, pois os resultados podem ser utilizadas na prática, dentro do ambiente empresarial.