Critical incidents and dissatisfaction in B2B relationships: an appraisal theory analysis

What is it about?

Industrial customer satisfaction has received attention from academics and marketers. Nowadays, the factors that influence satisfaction and how to convince customers through reason and emotion continue to be explored. There are numerous studies on satisfaction, but what about dissatisfaction? This research examines industrial customers´ negative reactions and analyses their impact on dissatisfaction through an empirical study of critical incidents based on Appraisal Theory. The study, which is qualitative in nature, is based on 18 in-depth interviews with managers in the industrial sector to which a textual and conceptual analysis was applied to obtain performance patterns. The results show that negative cognitions have greater predictive power than confrontation emotions, and those customers dissatisfied with products or services received may respond by expressing complaints, ending transactional relationships, reporting the other party legally, asking for explanations and/or continuing transactional relationships, even though they are dissatisfied. Proactivity and understanding of this situation will allow for understanding what specific actions to take in order to resolve conflicts and mitigate the negative effects between the parties.

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