Title: Indian consumers' tendency to exit amidst a complaint: a SEM approach

Authors: Amit Kumar; Anupriya Kaur

Addresses: Department of Humanities and Social Sciences, Jaypee University of Information Technology, Waknaghat, P.O. Dumehar Bani, Distt. Solan, Himachal Pradesh, India ' Department of Humanities and Social Sciences, Jaypee University of Information Technology, Waknaghat, P.O. Dumehar Bani, Distt. Solan, Himachal Pradesh, India

Abstract: The purpose of this paper is to develop an integrated model with personality and situational factors to comprehensively understand the determinants of the consumer's tendency to exit (TE) amidst complaints and to assess the psychometric properties of the conceptual model across three service sectors i.e., hotel and hospitality, automobile, and organised retail stores. The research uses survey-based data of 600 consumers by using quota sampling and employs structural equation modelling and multi-group invariance analysis. The results highlight the significant impact of personality factors on consumer's attitude toward complaining (ATC). Further, ATC and situational factors, i.e., perceived likelihood of successful complaint and ease of complaint process, have a significant negative impact on consumers' TE, whereas discouraging subjective norms, lower perceived switching cost, poor employee response, and negative past experience have a significant positive impact on consumers TE. This study is the first of its kind to explore the newly introduced concept of consumers' 'tendency to exit' in the Indian setting.

Keywords: complaints; consumer complaint behaviour; non-complainers; attitude toward complaining; ATC; tendency to exit; SEM; multi-group invariance.

DOI: 10.1504/IJMP.2024.135189

International Journal of Management Practice, 2024 Vol.17 No.1, pp.19 - 50

Received: 11 Sep 2021
Accepted: 04 May 2022
Published online: 02 Dec 2023 *