Attributing blame in customer-to-customer interactions in online and face-to-face environments: structured abstract

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Lee, L.W. ORCID: 0000-0002-3818-4445, McCarthy, I.P. and Yu, Y., 2020. Attributing blame in customer-to-customer interactions in online and face-to-face environments: structured abstract. In: Academy of Marketing Science World Marketing Congress, Brisbane, Australia, 14-17 July 2020.

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Abstract

Customer-to-customer (C2C) interactions can be pivotal to business performance because they can influence customer satisfaction and other outcomes. While previous studies have largely studied non-group contexts in which C2C interactions are incidental to the service experience, this study examines a group context in which face-to-face and online C2C interactions are deliberate and core to the service being provided: graduate business education. This study compares C2C interactions between face-to-face and online graduate business education where students (whether enrolled in a face-to-face or online program) are expected to interact, engage in discussion, debate, and work with other students within the student cohort.

Using semi-structured interviews and the critical incident technique, we seek new insights on how C2C interactions may affect customers’ perceptions of a group service, and how differences in their experiences of C2C interactions may make them attribute service success or failure to different parties involved in this group service (e.g. the school, the program, students in the same cohort, or themselves). Further, we compare whether and how students attribute credit or blame differently for face-to-face versus online C2C interaction. The findings may be of interest to other group services that involve heavy C2C interactions.

Item Type:

Conference contribution

Creators:

Lee, L.W., McCarthy, I.P. and Yu, Y.

Date:

July 2020

Identifiers: