Intern. J.

of Research in Marketing 24 (2007) 268 – 275

www.elsevier.com/locate/ijresmar

The effect of emotional provider support on angry versus anxious consumers

Kalyani Menon a,⁎, Laurette Dubé b
a
School of Business and Economics,Wilfrid Laurier University, 75 University Avenue, Waterloo, ON, Canada N2L 3C5
b
Desautels Faculty of Management McGill University, 1001001 Sherbrooke Street West, Montreal, Quebec, Canada H3A 1G5

Abstract

This paper examines the trend in service firms to integrate an emotional dimension into provider responses to consumer emotions. An
empirical study showed that such a strategy is effective only if the consumer coping demonstrates an emotional engagement with the service
episode. Because both angry and anxious consumers cope primarily by planful problem solving (i.e., attempting to resolve the situation and attain
their consumption goal), provider responses that offered solutions (instrumental support) were more effective than responses that offered
emotional support. Further, angry consumers were emotionally engaged with the situation while anxious consumers emotionally disengaged from
it. Consequently, provider response that included emotional support and instrumental support was the most effective for angry consumers, but
there was no benefit to also including emotional support for anxious consumers.
© 2007 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Keywords: Consumer emotions; Coping; Provider response strategies; Services

1. Introduction tions with consumers may detract from consumer evaluation of

The “People Notice” and “Be Hospitable” campaigns by
Holiday Inn and Hilton Hotels respectively, the employee training
programs of United, Jet Blue, and SouthWest airlines, and
Commerce Bank's business model, all require service providers to
demonstrate an emotional engagement (e.g., caring, compassion,
humor) with consumers while delivering the core, instrumental
aspects of the service. While a large number of service firms have
subscribed to this approach, little research has examined the
effectiveness of such a service strategy, both in terms of the
magnitude of its impact and its underlying mechanisms. This
paper examines whether the practice of integrating emotional
engagement into instrumental service delivery truly optimizes
consumer satisfaction with the service.
Two factors motivated this research. Firstly, while emotional
engagement by providers may be effective in affectively
charged, long-term, intimate service encounters (e.g., Arnould
& Price,1993), its effectiveness is unclear in the transaction-
oriented as opposed to relationship-oriented consumer-service
provider interactions that characterize most commercial ser-
vices. In fact, there is evidence that non-task-oriented interac-
⁎ Corresponding author. Tel.: +1 519 884 0710x2704; fax: +1 519 884 0201.
E-mail address: kmenon@wlu.ca (K. Menon).
0167-8116/$ - see front matter © 2007 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.ijresmar.2007.04.001
the service (McBane, 1995; Menon & Dubé, 2004, 2000;
Suprenant & Solomon, 1987; Sutton & Rafaeli, 1990).
Secondly, integrating an emotional dimension into service
provider responses entails a cost to the provider and the service
firm. Providers have to frequently engage in surface and deep
acting which extracts considerable psychic toll (Grandey,
Dickter, & Sin, 2004; Hochschild, 1983), and firms have to
invest in training and support programs to enable effective
emotional engagement by service providers. It is prudent to
examine the effectiveness of integrating an emotional dimen-
sion into provider responses prior to incurring such costs.
This paper focuses on the effectiveness of integrating an
emotional dimension into provider response to consumers
experiencing two key consumption emotions: anger and anxiety.
If consumers do indeed value emotional engagement, then they
are likely to value it particularly when they themselves are
experiencing specific emotions. Further, negative emotions such
as anger are highly contagious and responding to such emotions
presents a special challenge to providers (Grandey et al., 2004;
Menon & Dubé, 2000, 2004).
We reason that the effectiveness of emotional engagement
with consumers will depend on the consumer's specific response
(coping strategy) to the event that triggers anger or anxiety. We
derive hypotheses for differentiated coping responses to
 K. Menon, L. Dubé / Intern. J. of Research in Marketing 24 (2007) 268–275
consumer anxiety and anger and propose that incorporating an
emotional dimension into provider responses will be effective
only if consumer coping involves a specific need for emotional
support.
1.1. Conceptual framework and research hypotheses
An emotion experience can be thought of as a script
composed of interconnected, organized patterns of cognitive
appraisals, affective responses, physiological changes, and
action tendencies in response to personally relevant events
(Folkman, Lazarus, Dunkel-Schetter, DeLongis, & Gruen, 1986;
Keltner & Gross, 1999; Shaver, Schwartz, Kirson, & O'Connor,
1987; Yi & Baumgartner, 2004). These components of an
emotion script convey to an individual how best to adapt to the
particular event, and this adaptation is seen in the coping that
occurs during emotion experiences. Coping responses aim either
to eliminate or modify the conditions that produce stress
(problem-focused coping) or to keep emotional consequences
within manageable bounds (emotion-focused coping) (Folkman
et al., 1986; Moos & Schaefer, 1993; Zeidner & Hammer, 1990).
Coping reflects a consumer's preferred form of interacting
with the service situation and signals consumer priorities and
requirements in the context of that particular emotion (Thoits,
1995). Based on this, we suggest that provider responses that
complement consumer coping will be the most effective, and
that integrating emotional support into provider response will be
effective only if consumer coping reflects a need for such an
emotional engagement. Fig. 1 describes our conceptual model.
Fig. 1. Conceptual model.
269
1.1.1. Consumer coping with anger
Anger episodes tend to be initiated by appraisals of an event
as being significant to but incongruent with the consumption
goals. There are appraisals of a well-identified cause for the
negative event which frequently involves blaming others. In the
context of services, since it is the service provider's responsi-
bility to ensure a smooth service transaction, blame for any
negative event will thus be directed towards the service
provider, and the service provider, as the causal agent, will be
expected to alleviate the problem (Keltner, Ellsworth, &
Edwards, 1993; Lerner & Keltner, 2000; Smith & Ellsworth,
1985).
Consumer researchers have found evidence linking anger to a
form of planful problem solving, i.e., coping that focuses on goal
achievement (Duhachek, 2005), as well as to confrontive coping
(i.e., showing antagonistic behavior towards the perceived cause of
the event) (Menon & Dubé, 2000; Yi & Baumgartner, 2004).
Coping responses are highly context specific (Folkman et al.,
1986), and individuals typically utilize a variety of coping tech-
niques with distinct functions to respond to the adverse event.
Therefore, we suggest that the service consumer's coping with
anger will be a combination of coping strategies dominated by
planful problem solving and followed by confrontive coping.
Service transactions are purposeful exchanges where the consumer
has invested time and money to achieve specific goals (Bagozzi &
Dholakia, 1999). Therefore the dominant coping response for a
consumer experiencing a high power/energy emotion such as anger
will be planful problem solving, i.e., to see if a solution can be
found, or alternative routes explored, to achieve that consumption
270 K. Menon, L. Dubé / Intern. J. of Research in Marketing 24 (2007) 268–275
goal. Angry consumers may also engage in confrontive coping.
Cognitive appraisals of blame for the negative event attached to a
service provider along with the physiological and behavioral
changes that ready an angry consumer for attack (e.g., Shaver et al.,
1987) will lead to an intense form of negative emotional
engagement i.e., confrontive coping towards the provider.
H1a. For angry consumers, the primary coping tendencies will
be planful problem solving which will be greater than the
secondary coping tendency of confrontive coping.
1.1.2. Consumer coping with anxiety
Anxiety episodes contain attributions of uncontrollable
circumstances (e.g., poor weather) for the negative event over
which a consumer perceives low certainty, low perceptions of
power and higher perceptions of helplessness (Ruth, Brunel, &
Otnes, 2002; Taylor, 1994).
Anxiety tends to be characterized by approach-avoidance
type of coping with anxious consumers likely to approach
certain controllable aspects of the negative event and avoid
other more uncontrollable aspects. In the approach form of
coping, anxious consumers may focus their resources on trying
to alleviate or gain greater control over the more controllable
aspects of it. They may do this on their own account or by
relying on the service provider to help them gain greater control
(Beck & Clark, 1997; Laux & Weber, 1991; Rachman, 1998).
Thus, anxious consumers too will show an instrumental
engagement with the negative event through planful problem
solving forms of coping. But in addition, anxious consumers are
likely to show emotional disengagement or distancing as a
secondary coping tendency that would include trying to control
emotions and distracting oneself to emotionally distance from
the event (e.g., Simpson, Rholes, & Nelligan, 1992; Yi &
Baumgartner, 2004). Due to the absence of a well-defined cause
for the negative event, as well as the absence of physiological
changes and action tendencies that engender aggression,
anxious consumers have no particular target or motivation for
the kind of venting and confrontive coping we see in anger.
Therefore,
H1b. For anxiety, the primary coping tendencies will be planful
problem solving which will be greater than the secondary
coping tendency of distancing.
1.1.3. Complementary provider response to consumer coping
The most efficient and effective use of provider resources
will require providers to adapt their responses in keeping with
the needs conveyed by consumer coping. The social support
literature argues that coping serves to marshal not just an
individual's own resources but also resources from the social
environment to respond to the negative event in a manner that
the individual is most comfortable with (Holahan, Moos, &
Schaefer, 1996; Thoits, 1995).
The social support literature groups supportive strategies into
two categories: instrumental support and emotional support.
Instrumental support actively attempts to alter the situation and
enable movement towards the particular goal. In a service
context, this instrumental support will relate to adapting the core
service offering because this is crucial to the service
consumption. Emotional support extends empathy and under-
standing while showing affiliation and reassurance and aiding in
an individual's emotion management. It acknowledges the
emotional impact of a situation on an individual and focuses on
helping the individual manage the emotions rather than on
resolving the situation directly (Thoits, 1995). Such support
relates to the more interpersonal and communal aspects of the
service delivery (Clark & Mills, 1993).
Since planful problem solving is the primary coping tendency
for both anxiety and anger, a response strategy that focuses on
instrumental support and focuses on the core service issue will
be more effective for both these emotions rather than one that
focuses only on emotional support. The hypothesized secondary
coping tendency for anger indicates aggressive, confrontive, and
continuous emotional engagement with the situation (Buss &
Perry, 1992; Harmon-Jones & Sigelman, 2001). It will be
necessary for the service provider to acknowledge this
confrontation and the ego-damage to the angry consumers, and
provide emotional support. Providing emotional support and
attempting to dilute the confrontive nature of angry consumers
may also make it easier for providers to deliver instrumental
support. Hence, provider response combining emotional with
instrumental support in a hybrid response strategy (instead of an
instrumental support only provider response) should lead to
higher service evaluation for angry consumers (because of their
specific combination of coping strategies).
In contrast, the secondary coping tendency for anxiety is
distancing and reflects emotional disengagement. Consequent-
ly, any addition of emotional support is unlikely to have a
significant incremental impact on the perceived value of
supportive provider responses. In fact, providing emotional
support to consumers who are trying to distance themselves
from the situation may have a negative impact because it
contradicts their own instinctive coping and forces them to
deal with an aspect of the issue, i.e., the emotional aspect,
when in fact they would rather distance themselves from it.
Therefore,
H2A. Instrumental support strategy will lead to higher service
evaluation than emotional support in both anxiety and anger
episodes.
H2B. A hybrid support strategy that adds emotional support to
instrumental support will lead to higher service evaluation for
angry consumers. A hybrid support strategy will not increase
service evaluation for anxious consumers.
2. Method
We used an experimental setting manipulating cognitive
appraisals to evoke episodes of consumer anger and anxiety and
then manipulating provider responses to test our hypotheses.
The subjects were regular users of airline services and they were
required to role-play scenarios of episodes of anger and anxiety,
indicate their coping tendencies, and then evaluate the provider
response strategies they were exposed to. Waiting in line at the
 K. Menon, L. Dubé / Intern. J. of Research in Marketing 24 (2007) 268–275
check-in counter became the core event for the written
scenarios. After eliciting either anxiety or anger in the partic-
ipants through the use of pre-tested scenarios and measuring
their distinctive pattern of coping tendencies, participants were
exposed to one of four provider response strategies: instrumen-
tal, emotional, hybrid (instrumental plus emotional support), or
no support. Service evaluation was then measured in terms of
perceived provider performance. Such a methodology where
written scenarios describing negative service events and service
recovery are used to measure consumer evaluations of the
response strategy has been utilized by Smith, Bolton, and
Wagner (1999) and Smith and Bolton (2002). As Smith et al.
suggest, this method reduces biases such as memory lapses and
rationalization tendencies that may be common when using
retrospective self-reports. In addition, the use of written
scenarios or recall instructions that manipulate cognitive ap-
praisals to elicit emotions and then study the effect of these
emotions on a range of perceptual and behavioral responses has
been used extensively by emotion researchers (e.g., Lerner &
Keltner, 2000; Smith, Haynes, Lazarus, & Pope, 1993) as well
as consumer researchers (e.g., Yi & Baumgartner, 2004).
2.1. Experimental stimuli
The scenarios for the experimental study were developed
according to a full factorial design combining, on a between-
participants basis, 2 emotion experiences (anxiety, anger) × 2
emotional support provider response (present, absent) × 2
instrumental support provider response (present, absent). The
scenarios were divided into three sections with the first
containing the emotion experience manipulation; the second,
the provider response manipulation; and the third and final
section, describing the conclusion to the air travel experience.
This last section described the passenger as making it to the
flight on time and arriving at the destination after an uneventful
flight. The questionnaire began with a brief description of the
study and then asked participants to provide demographic
information. This was followed by instructions on how to
proceed through the questionnaire. Participants were informed
that the questionnaire described an event that may occur during
air travel, and that this event was described in three sections.
They were to read each section carefully, imagine themselves in
the role of the passenger described in that section, answer the
questions that followed each section, and only then move on to
the next section.
2.1.1. Emotion manipulation
Emotion elicitation typically involves the use of written
scenarios that provide rich details of a specific event designed to
enable individuals to vividly visualize themselves in that
setting. Embedded in the details of the event are manipulations
of appraisal dimensions of a situation (e.g., Bagozzi, Gopinath,
& Nyer, 1999; Keltner et al., 1993; Lerner & Keltner, 2000;
Smith & Bolton, 2002; Smith et al., 1993).
The written scenarios used for this research were closely
modeled on the scenarios used in the psychological approaches.
Written scenarios described an air travel event; waiting in a long
271
line at the check-in counter at an airport. To enable subjects to
vividly visualize themselves in that situation, details were
provided about the service setting, about other consumers in the
setting, and about the provider(s) in the setting. Scenarios were
designed to manipulate anxiety and anger experiences inde-
pendently. Negative emotion experiences arise when events are
perceived to be relevant to, but incongruent with a goal. The
specific negative emotion experience i.e., anger or anxiety, then
depends on appraisals like the causal attribution for the event
(Keltner et al., 1993; Lerner & Keltner, 2000). Accordingly, the
emotion experience manipulation was achieved by making the
core event – waiting in a long line at the check-in counter at an
airport – relevant and incongruent with the participant's goal of
getting on the flight, and by varying the attribution for the event
across the two emotion conditions. In the anxiety condition, the
participant was told that he/she attributed the long line to it
being the holiday season (uncontrollable circumstances). The
description ensured that no one, including the provider, was
directly responsible for the long line. In the anger condition, the
participant was told that the long line at the check-in counter
seemed to be because the airline had not opened enough check-
in counters and that the staff operating the few open counters
appeared to be inefficient and unconcerned about the long line
of passengers waiting to check-in (attribution of provider
blame).
2.1.2. Provider response manipulation
Emotional support was manipulated by describing a
situation where airline personnel approached the participant
waiting in line at the check-in counter and reassured the
participant. The personnel is described as showing understand-
ing for the situation and trying to comfort the subject by saying
that everything would turn out all right. Instrumental support
manipulation was achieved by having the airline personnel
approach the subject and offer to try and change the negative
situation. Specifically, the provider was described as offering to
go to the supervisor and ask for more counters to be opened.
Both the emotional support and the instrumental support
manipulations appeared in the hybrid support condition. The
no-support condition (emotional support absent, instrumental
support absent) was achieved by replacing the description of the
provider reaction with a neutral description of the passenger
continuing to wait in line and the airline personnel (who in the
support providing conditions approached the subject with some
form of support) described as continuing to do some work
unrelated to the passenger.
2.2. Pre-test
A pre-test was conducted to test the effectiveness of
manipulations as well as to control for potential confounds. A
pre-test (as opposed to a manipulation check in the main
experiment) has been recommended to reduce demand
characteristics (Keltner et al., 1993; Lerner & Keltner, 2000).
One hundred and twenty eight MBA students (male = 88;
female = 40) enrolled at a Canadian university participated in an
in-class administration of the pre-test questionnaire. Subjects
272 K. Menon, L. Dubé / Intern. J. of Research in Marketing 24 (2007) 268–275
Table 1
Pre-test results: Mean (S.D.) values for emotion manipulation
Variable Emotion condition
Anger (n = 38) Anxiety (n = 54) No emotion (n = 36)
Self-reported anger 4.141a (.81) 3.401b (.82) 3.011b(.84)
Self-reported anxiety 3.542a (.98) 4.022b (.76) 3.561a (.95)
Relevance 5.76a (1.51) 5.52a (1.36) 4.83b (1.53)
Incongruence 4.68a (2.02) 4.22a (1.76) 3.11b (1.38)
Provider blame 5.571a (1.05) 3.971b (1.36) 4.33b (1.25)
Uncontrollable 2.612a (1.3) 4.072b (1.23) 3.84b (1.05)
circumstances
Note: Means with different numeric superscripts in a column are significantly
different at p b .01. Means with different alphabetic superscripts in a row are
significantly different at p b .01.
were randomly assigned to the different conditions. The modal
class for age was 26–35 years (64.8%) and for frequency of air
travel, “at least once every six months” (47.7%). While the main
experimental study was designed as a 2 emotion experiences
(anxiety, anger) × 2 emotional support provider response
(present, absent) × 2 instrumental support provider response
(present, absent), the pre-test was designed as a 3 emotion
experiences (anger, anxiety, no emotion) × 2 emotional support
provider response (present, absent) × 2 instrumental support
provider response (present, absent). A control no-emotion
condition was included in the pre-test to ensure that our stimuli
are indeed eliciting emotions. The manipulations of anxiety and
anger were tested in terms of the intensity of the subjective
experience as well as the extent to which consumers used
specific appraisals in response to the emotion manipulation.
Following Richins (1997), self-reported anxiety was measured
by anxious, worried, nervous, tense, (α = 0.86); 4 items were
used to measure anger: anger, irritation, hostility, outrage
(α = 0.80). Single item 7-point scales (not at all–very much so)
were used to measure appraisals of perceived relevance and
perceived incongruence, a 2-item 7-point scale measured
uncontrollability of event and a 3-item 7-point scale measured
provider blame for the event. ANOVA was conducted and
means are presented in Table 1.
The provider response manipulation was followed by 7-point
scales measuring perceived emotional support provider showed
empathy, reassured you, comforted you, (α = 0.85) – and
instrumental support – provider tried to change the situation,
and gave concrete assistance (α = 0.85) (Dunkel-Schetter,
Folkman, & Lazarus, 1987). The last section describing the
conclusion of the air travel experience was followed by an
assessment of the ecological validity of the scenario in 2 items,
(very unlikely/very likely; unrealistic/realistic), which was
found to be satisfactory (M = 5.19, on 7-point scale) and equal
across experimental conditions. We first conducted an overall
MANOVA to test for the emotion × provider response interac-
tion on respondents' perceptions of emotional support and
instrumental support. Results showed there was no interaction
effect (F b 1). ANOVA tests were then conducted and the
relevant means are presented in Table 2.
The pre-test results indicate that the manipulations were
effective.
2.3. Main study
2.3.1. Participants
To enhance generalizability of the study, we used a sample of
actual consumers of air travel drawn from different parts of
USA and Canada working in a variety of economic sectors. The
most cost-efficient way of collecting such data was to use a
snowball sampling technique whereby individuals from a range
of corporate and governmental organizations across North
America were contacted and the study explained to them. If they
agreed to participate, they were sent a random mix of survey
questionnaires reflecting the various experimental conditions.
They were asked to respond to the study and to recruit others
from their organizations for data collection purposes. Respon-
dents were told that the study concerned service experiences
during air travel. Beyond this all were blind to the conditions
and to the more specific objectives of the research. The sample
consisted of 175 employed adults (54.7% male, 45.3% female).
The modal age was 20 to 30 years (43.7%), and frequency of air
travel “at least once every 6 months” (51.7%). Subjects were not
asked to indicate the purpose of these trips (i.e., the trips could
have been for business or personal reasons).
2.3.2. Procedure
Participants were randomly assigned to one cell of a 2-emotion
(anger, anxiety)× 2-emotional support (present, absent) × 2-in-
strumental support (present, absent) experimental design. Section
1 of the questionnaire contained the air travel scenario with the
emotion eliciting manipulation followed by measures of coping
responses. The second section of the questionnaire contained the
provider response manipulation: emotional support, instrumental
support, mixed support, or no support. Participants were then
provided with the same description of the remaining part of the
trip as being relatively eventless and all getting to the destination
under the same condition. The final segment of the questionnaire
consisted of measures of service evaluation on the trip.
2.3.3. Measures
We adapted the well established Ways of Coping scale
(Folkman et al., 1986) to measure the three theoretically-relevant
Table 2
Pre-test results mean (S.D.) values for provider response manipulation
Dependent Provider response condition
variables
Emotional Instrumental Hybrid No support
support support support (n = 44)
(n = 35) (n = 26) (n = 23)
Perceived 4.51a (1.21) 3.641b (1.29) 4.661a (1.22) 2.711c (1.14)
emotional
support
Perceived 2.852b (1.37) 4.662a (1.42) 4.431a (1.49) 2.881b (1.14)
instrumental
support
Note: Means with different numeric superscripts in a column are significantly
different at p b .01. Means with different alphabetic superscripts in a row are
significantly different at p b .01.
Scales increasing from 1–7.
 K. Menon, L. Dubé / Intern. J. of Research in Marketing 24 (2007) 268–275
forms of coping: planful problem solving, confrontive coping,
and distancing. Planful problem solving was measured by a
seven-item scale: asking provider for advice, finding out what
can be done, trying to follow a plan of action, trying to change
part of the scenario, coming up with different solutions, drawing
on past experiences to decide what to do, and trying to get the
provider to do something about the situation (α = .87).
Distancing was measured by a 4-item scale: trying not to let
this event get to you, wishing the situation would end, thinking
you have bad luck, and controlling your feelings, (α = .73).
Confrontive coping was measured by a three-item scale:
expressing anger to the provider, showing antagonism towards
the provider, standing your ground and fighting for what you
want (α = .73). All items were presented in random order.
Participants were asked to indicate on 7-point scales (not at all–
very much so) the extent to which they would use each of the
listed coping strategies. Average scores were created for each
dimension. Service evaluation was measured in terms of the
participants' perception of the provider performance, using a 7-
point (not at all–very much so) 3-item scale: response met needs
and wants, showed concern, and was in keeping with specific
requirements, (α = .94). Subjects were asked to respond by
taking into consideration the entire air travel experience scenario
from arriving at the airport to landing at the destination. An
average score was created as a measure of service evaluation.
3. Results
3.1. Coping responses
Comparisons between coping responses to consumer anxiety
and consumer anger were conducted by within-participants
contrasts. Confirming H1a, for anger episodes, planful problem
solving (M = 5.6) was greater than confrontive coping (M = 4.17,
t(80) = 9.39, p b .01) and both these were greater than distancing
(M = 3.45, t(80) = 11.7, p b .01 and t(80) = 3.74, p b .01, respec-
tively). Confirming H1b, anxiety episodes were dominated by
planful problem solving (M = 5.55) which was greater than
distancing (M = 3.90, t(93) = 10.74, p b .01), and both these were
greater than confrontive coping (3.51, t(93) = 13.23, p b .01 and
t(93) = 2.13 p b .05, respectively). Correlation analysis revealed
that distancing and confrontive coping were inversely, but not
significantly, related to each other. Thus, both angry and
anxious consumers used planful problem solving as the dom-
inant form of coping. However, angry consumers used con-
frontive coping and anxious consumers used distancing as their
secondary coping strategies.
3.2. Effect of provider response strategies
Table 3 presents the mean service evaluations. We conducted a
2 emotion (anxiety/anger) × 2 emotional support (present, ab-
sent) × 2 instrumental support (present, absent) ANOVA. The main
effect of emotion was not significant ( p b .10). However, the main
effects of emotional support ( p b .001) and instrumental support
(p b .001) were both significant, as was the emotion× emotional
support × instrumental support interaction (F[4, 167] = 13.31,
273
p b .001). For both anger and anxiety, the presence of support-
providing reaction from the provider (whether it be instrumental,
emotional, or hybrid support) led to higher perceived performance,
(anxiety, M = 5.15, anger, M = 4.85) than the absence of a
supportive reaction (anxiety: M = 2.36, F(1,167) = 105.34,
p b .01; anger: M = 1.60, F(1,167) = 103.55, p b .01). Pairwise
comparisons similarly revealed that each type of support led to
higher evaluation than the absence of support.
H2a predicted that the provision of instrumental support
alone would lead to higher service evaluation for both angry and
anxious consumers than emotional support alone. Consistent
with expectations, across both emotions, an instrumental
support strategy induced higher service evaluation (anger,
M = 4.92; anxiety, M = 5.56) than an emotional support strategy
alone (anger M = 4.03, F(1, 167) = 6.26, p b .05, anxiety,
M = 4.88, F(1, 167) = 3.79, p b .05). The predictions of H2b
were also supported. In episodes of anger, hybrid support
(M = 5.60) led to higher perceived performance than either an
emotional support, (M = 4.03, F(1, 167) = 18.96, p b .01) or an
instrumental support strategy (M = 4.92, F(1, 167) = 3.62,
p b .05). In anxiety episodes, however, there was no significant
benefit to adding emotional support to instrumental support to
create a hybrid support strategy (M = 5.15, F b 1). A hybrid
support strategy in fact tended to reduce perceived performance
below the levels achieved by an instrumental support strategy
alone, though this difference was not statistically significant.
We had proposed that these results would occur because of
different coping responses to anger (where confrontive coping
occurs more than distancing) and anxiety (where distancing
occurs more than confrontive coping). To further explore the
central argument that the effectiveness of provider response is
contingent on the degree of match with consumer coping, a
mean split was conducted, aggregating across both emotions, to
form groups with different levels of distancing and confrontive
coping. That is, groups that were high in distancing and
confrontive coping were isolated and an ANOVA with provider
response as a between-subjects function was conducted.
Analyses revealed that while subjects with high levels of
distancing had higher service evaluation when they received some
form of support (F(1, 167) = 93.04, p b .01), the various support-
providing strategies did not significantly impact evaluation (all
ps N .15). On the other hand, high confrontive coping subjects
were very sensitive to the type of provider response. A hybrid
Table 3
Results for main study: mean (S.D.) values for service evaluation
Anger Anxiety
No support 4
1.60 (.63) 2.363 (.77)
n = 17 n = 24
Instrumental support 4.922 (.82) 5.562 (1.27)
n = 22 n = 22
Emotional support 4.033 (1.76) 4.881 (1.27)
n = 21 n = 24
Hybrid support 5.601 (.76) 5.151, 2 (1.09)
n = 21 n = 24
Note: Means in a column with different superscripts are significantly different at
p b .05.
274 K. Menon, L. Dubé / Intern. J. of Research in Marketing 24 (2007) 268–275
strategy received higher evaluation (M = 5.57) than an instrumen-
tal support strategy (M = 4.90, F(1, 167)= 4.19, p b .05), which in
turn was evaluated more positively than emotional support
strategy alone (M = 4.18, F(1,167) = 4.75, p b .05).
4. Discussion
This study highlights the need for provider responses to
complement consumer coping with negative emotions such as
anger and anxiety. Results show that because both angry and
anxious consumers use planful problem solving strategies as the
dominant form of coping, instrumental support is more critical
than emotional support for both emotions. In addition to this
dominant form of coping, angry and anxious consumers also
use secondary coping strategies of confrontive coping and
distancing respectively. Hybrid strategies paid off in episodes of
anger given its confrontive coping showing emotional engage-
ment but not in anxiety episodes with its emotional disengage-
ment and distancing.
Anxious consumers choose to approach only one aspect of
the event (the instrumental aspect) and avoid the emotional fall-
out while angry consumers approach both aspects of the event.
While anxiety is often conceptualized as a flight emotion, we
show that in a goal-oriented service situation with its implicit
promise of service satisfaction, anxious consumers will try and
approach and resolve the anxiety-causing problem. The paper
also shows that consumers are actively participating in the
service experience, using their coping to elicit specific
responses from the service provider, and basing their service
evaluations on the extent to which provider response comple-
ments their coping.
In keeping with the growing evidence indicating service
providers should tailor their responses to the specifics of the
consumer experience of failure (e.g., Patterson, Cowley, &
Prasongsukarn, 2006; Smith & Bolton, 2002; Smith et al.,
1999), we show that service firms should not indiscriminately
incorporate both instrumental and emotional aspects into their
responses. Delivering “more” service requires greater use of
resources and the pay-off is questionable. We found that when
more service than was desired by consumers were delivered –
as when anxious consumers received more support (both
instrumental and emotional) than they needed (since their
primary coping strategy was planful problem solving) – they
actually had lower evaluation of provider performance than
when they received instrumental support alone. This excess
utilization of provider resources thus backfired from both the
consumers' and providers' perspective. This study also high-
lights the primacy of instrumental support, and the need for
firms to consider such support as the essential core of any
response strategy.
Providers need to be trained to identify consumer coping as it
occurs in a service context and to tailor their responses
accordingly. Past research (e.g., Menon & Dubé, 2000; Shaver
et al., 1987) has developed a list of expressive and behavioral
cues accompanying distinct emotion experiences that service
providers should familiarize with to help identify consumer
emotion and coping experiences. Further, this study shows that
providers often need to respond to angry and anxious con-
sumers in ways that are contrary to their natural tendency to
respond. When faced with an angry consumer using confrontive
coping, the instinctive tendency of providers may be to try and
ignore this confrontation and focus solely on the core
instrumental support. However, when faced with anxious
consumers who are not confrontational, service providers may
find it easier to be emotionally supportive. Our study shows that
in fact it is the exact opposite response that consumers desire
from providers. Designing such counter-intuitive provider
responses may be particularly challenging since research in
psychology has consistently shown that anger is one of the more
contagious emotions (Averill, 1982). Provider recruitment
(Randall & Randall, 1990) and training should consider their
ability to recognize their own natural anger response and replace
it with a more effective response (Menon & Dubé, 2004). There
may be significant long-term rewards to managing consumer's
episode-level anger, because research shows that anger also has
an optimistic bias causing angry individuals to have a more
positive appraisal of future stressful events, thus making them
more amenable to long-term relationships (Hemenover &
Zhang, 2004).
It is important to note that while emotional disengagement in
response to consumer coping strategies like distancing may
achieve immediate consumer satisfaction, this may be at the
expense of a fruitful, long-term relationship between the service
and the consumer. Repeated consumer use of distancing coping,
and the matching of this by provider responses, may lead to a
situation where consumers are increasingly distanced from all
aspects of the service experience. Provider support strategies
may have to cater to the anxious consumer's immediate
tendency to use emotional distancing as well as help anxious
consumers develop alternative coping abilities such as seeking
emotional support even if the event appears uncontrollable.
Identifying critical points in service delivery that may be
particularly likely to evoke anxiety, encouraging consumers to
seek emotional support at these stages, or providing illustrations
of alternative coping strategies may go a long way to developing
a sense of self-efficacy in anxious consumers. Similarly, while
the confrontive coping of angry consumers increases their
engagement with the service, it can also be disruptive to the
service setting and the other consumers. Service firms may need
to consider campaigns to educate consumers about appropriate
and effective forms of coping.
While the experimental setting with actual consumers of
airline services allowed for a controlled test of our hypotheses,
and we elicited anger and anxiety using standard manipulations –
attributing causality for the negative event to the provider or the
circumstances respectively – there is the possibility that the
manipulations were confounded with locus of control over the
perceived negative event. The role-playing methodology also
involves a self-conscious, cognitive effort to portray how one
would have behaved in an imagined situation while real-life
experience of aversive events often involves spontaneous, non-
rational responses (Mikolic, Parker, & Pruitt, 1997) and ideally
these results should be replicated in a real-life context. Also, this
research was conducted in the specific context of air travel and
 K. Menon, L. Dubé / Intern. J. of Research in Marketing 24 (2007) 268–275
this restricts its generalizability. Finally, while the study did
control for certain individual level variables such as prior
experience with flying, age, and gender, and found no effect for
these variables, it should be noted that other individual char-
acteristics such as coping tendency as a personality trait, trait
anger/anxiety, and emotional expressiveness were not included
but might also impact the results.
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