Valerie S. Folkes

Consumer Reactions to Product Failure: An Attributional Approach

Attribution theory provides the framework for predicting consumer responses to product failures. Study 1 surveyed reasons for and reactions to product failure and Study 2 manipulated reasons in an experiment. Reasons for product failure influenced reactions such as desiring a refund or an exchange for the product, perceiving that an apology is owed the consumer, and wanting to hurt the firms business.

Recent Attribution Research in Consumer Behavior: A Review and New Directions

Recent consumer behavior research testing attribution theory principles is summarized and critiqued. Most studies on antecedents of causal inferences focus on how information about a product influences attributions, how the discounting effect influences liking for products, and how self-perception processes influence willingness to participate in marketing research. Research examining consequences of causal inferences focuses on product satisfaction. Major trends in attribution theory and future research directions are indicated.

A Field Study of Causal Inferences and Consumer Reaction: The View from the Airport

A field study was conducted at an airport to examine the relationships among attributions, affects, and behavioral responses of consumers experiencing a product failure. Ninety-seven passengers on delayed flights were interviewed about their attributions for the delay, their affective reactions, the importance of on-time arrival, their propensity to complain about the problem, and their desire to fly the same airline again. A path analysis indicates that attributions had not only direct effects on desire to complain about the problem and to fly the same airline, but also indirect effects, mediated by anger at the airline.

Effects of Seller-Supplied Prices on Buyers' Product Evaluations: Reference Prices in an Internet Auction Context

A field experiment investigated the impact of two external reference points under the sellers control on the final price of an auction. When an items seller specified a high external reference price (a reserve price), the final bid was greater than when the seller specified a low external reference price (a minimum bid). When the seller provided both high and low reference prices, the reserve influenced the final bid more. The low reference price led to a lower outcome compared to when the seller did not communicate any reference price. The number of bidders influenced outcomes in the absence of seller-supplied reference prices. Copyright 2004 by the University of Chicago.

The Effect of Package Shape on Consumers’ Judgments of Product Volume: Attention as a Mental Contaminant

A series of experiments examined how a container’s shape can bias judgments of product quantity. Packages that have shapes that are perceived as attracting more attention are also perceived to contain a greater volume of a product than same‐sized packages that attract less attention. The disparity in attention leads to “mental contamination” of the volume judgment. The bias holds for different sets of containers, for containers placed in different contexts, and for containers with contents varying in desirability. Habituation to an unusual container that attracts attention can reduce the effect, as can viewing containers with a disliked content.

The Positivity Effect in Perceptions of Services: Seen One, Seen Them All?

A series of studies show converging evidence of a positivity effect in consumers’ inferences about service providers. When the consumer has little experience with a service, positive information about a single employee leads to inferences that the firm’s other service providers are similarly positive to a greater extent than negative information leads to inferences that the firm’s other service providers are similarly negative. Four studies were conducted that varied in the amount of information about the service provider, the firm, and the service. The positivity effect was supported despite differences across studies in methods as well as measures.

When to Say When: Effects of Supply on Usage

A series of experiments manipulated product supply to investigate the effects on product usage. Subjects were presented with containers filled with various amounts of a product and asked to indicate how much of the product they would use. Consumers tended to conserve diminishing resources so that the amount they indicated they would use generally decreased as the supply decreased. Container size and the fill level of the container did not influence the amount used.

Attribution Theory : Applications to Achievement, Mental Health, and Interpersonal Conflict

Contents: B. Weiner, Searching for the Roots of Applied Attribution Theory. Part I:Applications to Achievement. S. Graham, Communicating Low Ability in the Classroom: Bad Things Good Teachers Sometimes Do. E. McAuley, T.E. Duncan, The Causal Attribution Process in Sport and Physical Activity. C. Peterson, Explanatory Style in the Classroom and on the Playing Field. Part II:Applications to Mental Health. J.H. Amirkhan, Applying Attribution Theory to the Study of Stress and Coping. S.R. L pez, B.H. Wolkenstein, Attributions, Person Perception, and Clinical Issues. F. F rsterling, Attributional Therapies. Part III:Applications to Conflict in Interpersonal and Intergroup Relationships. V.S. Folkes, Conflict in the Marketplace: Explaining Why Products Fail. F.D. Fincham, T.N. Bradbury, J.H. Grych, Conflict in Close Relationships: The Role of Intrapersonal Phenomena. R.A. Baron, Attributions and Organizational Conflict. H. Betancourt, An Attributional Approach to Intergroup and International Conflict.

The Disciplinary Status of Consumer Behavior: A Sociology of Science Perspective on Key Controversies

Critics within the consumer behavior field have consistently debated three fundamental issues about the field’s defining properties and goals: (1) whether consumer behavior should be an independent discipline, (2) what is (and is not) consumer behavior, and (3) whether our field should be interdisciplinary. Taking the perspective of the sociology of science leads us to conclude that (1) consumer behavior is not an independent discipline; (2) consumer behavior is distinguished from other fields by its focus on a consumer role, emphasizing the acquisition, consumption, and disposal of marketplace products, services, and experiences; and (3) consumer behavior is not an interdisciplinary field.

Witnessing Incivility Among Employees: Effects on Consumer Anger and Negative Inferences About Companies

We introduce the incivility construct and demonstrate that witnessing an incident of employee-employee incivility causes consumers to make negative generalizations about (a) others who work for the firm, (b) the firm as a whole, and (c) future encounters with the firm, inferences that go well beyond the incivility incident. We demonstrate the process by which these effects occur, showing that anger at the uncivil employee induces these effects. We find that anger leads to rumination about the uncivil encounter and causes customers to make quicker and more negative generalizations about related entities. We also identify boundary conditions for the relationship between incivility and negative generalizations. These process and boundary condition results add theoretically to the literature on incivility as well as that on angers effect on information processing. (c) 2010 by JOURNAL OF CONSUMER RESEARCH, Inc..