Alliance encounter satisfaction attributions

What is it about?

We aim to explain how prior consumer satisfaction with each alliance partner affects consumer attributions (i.e. credit or blame) directed toward each partner for both highly satisfying and less-than-highly satisfying alliance experiences. We surveyed 1,510 consumers and found an intriguing host effect. That is, consumers tend to hold host partners more responsible for both highly satisfying and less-than-highly satisfying alliance encounters.

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Why is it important?

This paper is among the first to investigate consumer reactions to actual alliance encounters, especially in market rather than experimental conditions. Further, whereas the literature has focused on positive consumer experiences with brand alliances, the authors’ research includes both highly satisfying and less-than-highly satisfying alliance experiences and thus they uniquely report on the full range of alliance encounter outcomes.