The Impact of External and Internal Negative Feeling on Consumers’ Desire for Revenge and Negative Word of Mouth

Abstract

Service failure is a common problem that creates feelings of displeasure and dislike among consumers towards the service. Such feelings trigger negative word of mouth (NWOM) and desire to take revenge due to the anger and regret they feel caused by the service failure. However, there seldom any research on these emotional aspects of service failure in Pakistan related to consumers’ motivation regarding such dire actions has been conducted in Pakistani context. This study therefore has examined the effects of negative emotions on the consumer's desire for revenge and spreading of negative word of mouth set off by having a bad experience using the delivery service of foodpanda[1]. The sample size comprised of 280 participants. The questionnaire consisted of four sections based on four constructs. SPSS and SmartPLS softwares were used to test and analyze the validity, reliability, measurement and structural model. The results highlighted that anger and regret had a positive and significant effect on NWOM. The study further found that anger and regret had no significant effect on the desire for revenge. Similarly, no such relationship was identified between revenge and NWOM. Likewise, there was no significant relationship between revenge and NWOM.

[1] Foodpanda is a food delivery service