The Effects of Self-Construals and Interactive Constraints on Consumer Complaint Behaviors Across Cultures

This study predicts cross-cultural associations between task and face constraints in relation to consumer complaint behaviors. Participants comprised 1200 undergraduates from Kyoto City in Japan and 420 undergraduates from Las Vegas and Tennessee in the USA. The complaint methods studied include direct voice responses, private responses (negative word of mouth and exit action), and third-party responses. We found that complaints are usually made when service failures occur at the level of co-consumption, rather than at the level of the unaccompanied consumer. The results elucidate intrapersonal and interpersonal views regarding the role played by task constraints and face constraints in mediating the relationship between independent and interdependent self-construals and complaints expressed in various ways. Discussion of these results and their implications is provided, followed by suggestions for future research on culture and conversational constraints (task and face constraints), which leads to complaint behavior, and implications of such research.