Consumers Complain More Fiercely Through Small-Screen Devices: The Role of Spatial Crowding Perception

Abstract

<jats:p> Previous research has mainly focused on the determinants of consumers’ complaint channel choices. Little attention has been paid to the behavioral consequences of different complaint channels, particularly different complaint devices. Drawing on spatial crowding perception theory, this study finds that in an online complaint context, consumers’ complaint intensity is shaped by complaint devices that differ in screen size. Crowding perception produced by visually restrictive tension mediates the relationship between the screen size of the complaint device and the complaint intensity. The results of secondary data confirm that consumers’ complaint intensity is higher while complaining through a small-screen device (as opposed to a large-screen one). Three scenario-based experiments are conducted to examine the role of perceived spatial crowding in producing a more intense complaint behavior when complaints are submitted through smaller screen devices (as opposed to larger screen devices). The fourth experiment reveals that crowding perception can be lessened by adjusting certain design elements of the interface, ultimately mitigating the intensity of the complaint submitted through a small-screen device. Our research identifies the specific causality and underlying mechanism of the influence of device type on consumers’ postconsumption behavior, thus contributing to clarify some ambiguities in the literature. </jats:p>

Investigating the interplay of device type, product familiarity, and shopping motivations on the accuracy of product size estimations in e‐commerce settings

“…Familiarity improves one's performance in accurately retrieving information from memory (Benjamin et al, 1998a, 1998b). Consumers who are familiar with products also tend to better recall product information (Alba & Hutchinson, 1987; Krishen et al, 2016), better differentiate unique product features from others (Zhou & Nakamoto, 2007), and recognize product attributes more accurately (Krishen et al, 2016). Overall, consumers who are familiar with a product are assumed to know more about the particular product (Alba & Hutchinson, 1987; Schunurr et al, 2017), which we believe will help them accurately assess its size.…”

Perceived injustice and brand love: the effectiveness of sympathetic vs empathetic responses to address consumer complaints of unjust specific service encounters

“…However, in an electronic medium, where a face-to-face interaction does not take place, a sympathetic response performs better than an empathetic response in addressing procedural and distributive injustice specific negative reviews. This might be a particularly relevant finding given the prevalence of consumer complaints being transmitted though social media (Osuna Ramírez et al , 2019) and small-screen mobile devices (Zhou et al , 2020). These findings thus further contribute to the managerial response literature and the growing literature on brand hate (Fetscherin, 2019; Roy et al , 2022; Zarantonello et al , 2016; Zhang and Laroche, 2020).…”

“…The use of a homogenous sample of students from a university research pool, although adequate for testing the studied effects, presents a limitation in terms of the external validity of the results. Furthermore, as per Zhou et al ’s (2020) recent findings and suggestions, exploring how consumers respond to different kinds of injustice depending on the type of device through which a complaint is communicated, could be another potential avenue of research. Finally, it is possible that a serial mediation containing the following sequence exists: injustice > emotion > willingness to punish > brand love.…”

“…Consumer perceived injustice has wide-ranging ramifications for brands in today’s hyperconnected world. Consumers’ ability to quickly share those injustices on social media (Alvarado-Karste and Kidwell, 2022; Zhou et al , 2020) has important implications, given that brands are collectively defined through an assemblage of heterogenous human and nonhuman actors (Price and Coulter, 2019). According to Aristotle, “injustice consists in what is unlawful and unfair, with fairness involving equitable distributions and the correction of what is inequitable” (Miller, 1997).…”

Sport consumers: perceiving and enjoying danger in American football

“…Not surprisingly, more recent research has been interested in the difference between mobile devices and standard screen sizes. For example, research has found for small screens, lower levels of cognitive access to video news (Dunaway and Soroka, 2021), more fierce complaint behavior due to perceptions of crowding (Zhou et al, 2020) and shorter online reviews (Zhu et al, 2020). Of theoretical interest has been the extent to which individuals experience the illusion that their experience is real.…”