Conflicts can occur in a variety of brand-relationship contexts, whether pertaining to poor service or product failure or to companies’ violations in regard to moral or legal issues. Though addressing relationship conflicts has become a pervasive issue in brand-relationship research, little is known about factors influencing consumer responses to conflicts. The goal of this research was to address this issue by exploring how consumers utilize their emotional intelligence in coping with problems when conflicts arise. For this purpose, two experiments were performed in this study. The first experiment showed that consumer emotional intelligence (CEI) was critical in predicting coping responses. When encountering conflicts in relationships, consumers who were highly capable in CEI were more likely to direct their emotions positively and productively, and they were less likely to exit the relationships than were those low in CEI. The second experiment further investigated a moderator and mediator of the association identified in the first study. The study demonstrated that the type of conflict moderated the effect of CEI on coping behaviors; the CEI effect on intention to exit the relationship was more pronounced when a conflict had directly caused problems for individual consumers (vs. to society as a whole). The results further demonstrated that consumers’ appraisals of a company’s intention in regard to conflicts mediated the association between CEI and coping responses. Specifically, low-CEI consumers were more likely to attribute negative intentions to the company; therefore, they were more likely to exit the relationship than were high-CEI consumers. This research demonstrated that CEI is an important construct in explaining why some consumers react destructively to relationship conflicts whereas others do not. Findings of this research provide a greater understanding of the role of individual differences in the maintenance and dissolution of brand relationships. / text

In recent decades, the Swedish welfare system has been characterized by the increasing occurrence of market solutions. One example of this development is the introduction of voucher systems in the elderly care. With the purpose to contribute empirically based knowledge about elderly caretaker’s ability to act in a voucher system, interviews have been conducted with eleven relatives to someone who lives in a residential home. By further focusing on the unique features of the elderly care and putting these in relation to Albert O. Hirschman's concept of exit and voice, several conclusions have been made about the individuals strategies towards the voucher system. The study shows that the individuals relation to the voucher system is characterized by emotions and social relations witch complicates the ability to act rationally towards the market.  The unique character of the elderly care also means that the possibilities for exit (to change residential home when not content) are limited, as it implies a heavy burden for both relatives and caretakers to change residential home. Lack of information about what other options are available also limits the individuals ability to exit. The possibilities of voice (to protest and try to improve the quality of the care) are also limited to the individual as this is an option that takes a lot of energy and dedication. The study shows that protracted voice without improvement ultimately makes the individual give up his attempts to influence the quality of the care. The only option that remains when neither voice or exit is available is for the relative to personally take over the care of the caretaker.