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The effects of outward and inward negative emotions on consumers’ desire for
revenge and negative word of mouth

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DOI: 10.1108/OIR-03-2016-0069

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OIR
43,5 The effects of outward and
inward negative emotions on
consumers’ desire for revenge
818 and negative word of mouth
Received 2 March 2016
Revised 21 March 2017
Chih Wen-Hai
25 July 2017 Department of Business Administration, National Dong Hwa University,
17 October 2017
18 November 2017
Hualien, Taiwan
2 January 2018
Accepted 12 October 2018
Chien-Yun Yuan
Department of Marketing and Logistics Management,
Chihlee University of Technology, New Taipei City, Taiwan
Ming-Te Liu
Department of Business Administration, China University of Technology,
Taipei City, Taiwan, and
Jiann-Fa Fang
Chunghwa Telecom Co. Ltd, Taipei City, Taiwan

Abstract
Purpose – All previous research seldom considered the proliferation process from the perspective of
consumers or from a negative perspective to examine the desire for revenge and negative word of mouth
(WOM) caused by deficiencies in innovative products. The purpose of this paper is to investigate consumers’
subsequent behaviors after they have outward and inward negative emotions such as anger and regret.
The objective of this study is to explore the different effects of customers’ anger and regret on desire for
revenge and negative WOM.
Design/methodology/approach – This research uses structural equation modeling to analyze 226 samples.
Findings – The results showed that regret has significant and positive effects on desire for revenge and
negative WOM but anger has only a significant and positive effect on desire for revenge. Moreover, desire for
revenge has a significant and positive effect on negative WOM. In addition, the desire for revenge plays a
crucial mediator between anger and negative WOM as well as regret and negative WOM.
Practical implications – Corporations can use tangled emotions among consumers to predict the
development of the desire for revenge and immediately implement remedies for deficiencies to prevent
consumers from developing the desire for revenge and spreading negative WOM regarding the corporation or
product, or engaging in other revenge behaviors. Corporations can easily detect and prevent the path between
anger and revenge behaviors simply based on the desire for revenge. In contrast to the outward negative
behavior that is anger, regret is implicit and internal.
Originality/value – This study explored two negative emotions of affect (anger and regret) based on
affection and conation/action of the tricomponent attitude model and their different effects on consumers’
revenge behaviors such as desire for revenge and negative WOM. The contributions of this research are to
clarify the different relationships between outward negative emotion (anger) and desire for revenge/negative
WOM as well as inward negative emotion (regret) and desire for revenge/negative WOM.
Keywords Tricomponent attitude model, Desire for revenge, Inward/outward negative emotions,
Negative word of mouth (WOM)
Paper type Research paper

1. Introduction
Online Information Review Leisure time refers to all time excluding which was spent working and on other necessary
Vol. 43 No. 5, 2019
pp. 818-841
activities. The activities performed during leisure time will be referred to as “leisure
© Emerald Publishing Limited
1468-4527
activities.” Taiwanese leisure activities vary widely and can be categorized roughly as either
DOI 10.1108/OIR-03-2016-0069 static or dynamic. Dynamic activities include cycling, hiking and sports, which are
highly popular. Static activities include attending exhibitions, surfing online, watching Revenge and
movies, reading and watching television. Because of the global economic recession in 2008, negative word
the slowing economy reduced disposable income across household, which affects the of mouth
recreational activity patterns of all people living in Taiwan. According to a survey reported
by Pollster (http://www.pollster.com.tw), a polling website, 30.48 percent of Taiwanese
population prefers to remain at home on the weekends and during holidays. This is one of
the main reasons that watching television has become the primary recreation activity for 819
Taiwanese people. In addition to economic considerations, other reasons for the popularity
of television include convenience (the activity only necessitates turning on a television),
speed of receiving information and content diversity. A separate survey of time spent
watching television showed that 70 percent of Taiwanese people spend an average of more
than 1 h and less than 5 h watching television every day, which indicates that watching
television is a crucial leisure activity for the majority of Taiwanese people.
The Global Competitiveness Index of World Economic Forum indicated that Taiwan was
the top 15 out of 140countries and top 11 in innovation in 2015. Taiwan has been successful
in economic miracles and has become the leading country for its electronic industry as well
as the important supply chains in information and communications technology industry in
the world. Executive Yuan of Taiwan initiated the Digital Nation and Innovative Economic
Development Plan (2017–2025) to respond the advocacy for Digital Nation, Smart Island.
The Taiwanese Government tries to enhance digital infrastructure as well as digital
economy and develop vivacious internet society to establish sustainable living environment
(Kuo, 2016). Bureau of Audiovisual and Music Industry Development, Ministry of Culture
(2014) estimated that the total value of Taiwanese television industry was $4.5bn. Cable
television is very popular and the rate of spread is very high in Taiwan which is very rare
compared to the rest of the world. Chunghwa Telecom is a leading system provider in
Taiwan and its multimedia on demand (MOD) achieves the new era of interactive
communication and leads in Taiwan by providing two-way service and creates huge
influence of media ecology and informational society. The charge of MOD is relatively
complicated and the interface between human and machine is not easy to manipulate which
makes MOD not easily compete with cable television (Chuang, 2009).
Broadband internet access providers belong to one of two categories: telecommunications
carriers that provide broadband internet services, including asymmetric digital subscriber line
(ADSL), fiber to the building (FTTB) and leased lines, and cable television providers who use
cable modems to provide broadband internet access. In the first quarter of 2012, access to
MOD and broadband internet reached 79.56 percent of all households in Taiwan, becoming
main stream for most families. According to statistics, regarding broadband internet access in
Taiwan published by the Taiwan Network Information Center in March 2012, 44.20 percent of
Taiwanese people use ADSL and 42.08 percent use FTTB, but only 8.10 percent use cable
modems. Compared with the 60.7 percent market share of cable television, MOD poses no
threat. MOD is a system that allows users to select any video program lists whatever they
want to see on the internet. MOD system can play the video stream in real time by all means
through streaming media to allow user to manipulate just like operating VCR, including
pause, fast forward, fast rewind, replay and so on after user selects the video program. The
advantages of MOD technology are to provide updated dynamic information in real time, with
two-way information communication features which result in two-way communication effect,
and with richer program in any content. Besides general cable television functions, MOD has
more powerful features such as stock market, e-learning, e-commerce, online cinema, online
games, KTV, enterprise internal announcements, training and so on which general cable
television cannot compete with. Compared to the traditional cable television system, MOD is
an innovation product/service with two-way communication systems and more complex
operating interface for the users.
OIR System provider needs greater network bandwidth for home MOD services in order to
43,5 achieve above MOD features because most MOD services for home users are through the
telephone line digital subscriber circuit (XDSL) or FTTB to send signal. Data of broadband
internet access in Taiwan published by the TWNIC reveal that market shares of Chunghwa
Telecom’s ADSL and FTTB are 73.16 and 90.23 percent, respectively. In other words,
Chunghwa Telecom dominates the home broadband network and has a monopoly on
820 broadband internet service for Taiwanese families through this advantage which provides
promotion niche for Chunghwa Telecom VOD business. There are three most serious
problems complained by users according to internal data of Chunghwa Telecom Company.
The first problem is the complicated MOD interface and user unfriendliness. Extra charge
for payment channel is the second problem. The third problem is that users cannot see the
familiar programs from cable television in the MOD system. These three problems are the
main challenge for the MOD development. Chunghwa Telecom is often hindered by
negative word of mouth (WOM) for its MOD promotion. This is not beneficial for product
promotion and severely damages its corporate image. This study emphasizes the outward
and inward negative emotions of consumers elicited by product or service deficiencies and
their subsequent desire for revenge and negative WOM behaviors.
The rapid advancements in information technology and continual promotion of
innovative products, including continuous, dynamically continuous and discontinuous
products, offer consumers a plethora of options. Previous studies of innovative
technological products have primarily employed the technology acceptance model and
information system successes as the theoretical foundation, and researchers have tended to
adopt positive perspectives. In actuality, not all innovative products have been successfully
proliferated and adopted. In this study, we adopted the negative view, exploring consumers’
vengeful behavior caused by different emotions to obtain a more complete understanding of
innovative product development and to address the deficiencies of existing research. In the
past, scholars categorized consumer emotions elicited by product or service deficiencies
based solely on differences in characteristics (i.e. anger, fear, happiness and sorrow) and
typically used these differences as standards for delineation. They did not consider the
possibility that emotions vary according to different attributions of blame or targets of
blame. Investigating service failures, Heider (1958) categorized causes into situational
factors and personal factors. Situational factors are the primary reference for assessing
responsibility using external environmental factors, whereas internal factors are the
primary reference for assessing responsibility using internal personal factors. We extended
external environmental attribution and internal personal attribution to outward and inward
emotions through product and service failure. Yi and Baumgartner (2004) asserted that
angry reactions are outward attacks that prompt people to take action to eliminate the
source of harm. Anger is an outward negative emotion. Regret typically involves self-blame
when individuals perceive that they can only accept the situation and cannot take any
action. Regret is an inward negative emotion. The revenge models used by previous
scholars (Bradfield and Aquino, 1999; Tsang et al., 2006) did not emphasize the correlation
between motive and vengeful behaviors. They focused on motive instead of emotions, which
seems primitive while neglecting the revenge intentions generated by emotions and
behaviors. Therefore, further studies of consumer vengeance should target consumers’
mental state and intentions. “The use of exclamation marks and emotional messages are far
less acceptable in negative messages” (Kwon et al., 2011, p. 114). The inclusion of consumers’
emotional factors, in addition to highlighting their heterogeneity, can affect vengeance at the
individual level through the influence of different values (Namkung et al., 2011; Zourrig
et al., 2009). Balaji et al. (2016, p. 528) indicated that “although many studies have examined
the electronic word-of-mouth communication, studies on negative word-of-mouth (WOM)
communication remain sparse.” Yi and Baumgartner’s (2004) research implied that when
customers face negative emotions those strategies they take to deal with this situation. Revenge and
Our research is different from Yi and Baumgartner’s (2004) study. The purpose of our negative word
research is to investigate consumers’ subsequent behaviors (desire for revenge and negative of mouth
WOM) after they have negative emotions such as anger and regret as well as the mediation
effects of desire for revenge between anger/regret and negative WOM. The objective of this
study is to explore the different effects of customers’ anger and regret on desire for revenge
and negative WOM. The contributions of this research are to clarify the different 821
relationships between outward negative emotion (anger) and desire for revenge/negative
WOM as well as inward negative emotion (regret) and desire for revenge/negative WOM.

2. Literature review and hypotheses

2.1 Tricomponent attitude model
Rosenberg and Hovland (1960) proposed the tricomponent attitude model, which postulates
the formation of personal attitudes toward events or objects influenced by external factors,
such as message stimuli, situations and social groups. Attitudes contain three components:
cognition, affect and behavior (conation and action). The cognitive component comprises the
knowledge and beliefs that a person has toward something. These beliefs stem from the
person’s personal beliefs, knowledge, concepts, experiences and learning. The affective
component comprises the emotional response elicited by a person’s like or dislike of
something. The conation and action component comprises behavioral intention or actual
behavior based on a person’s beliefs or feelings toward something. Regarding the cognitive
component, Smith and Lazarus (1993) contended that cognition is the consumer’s behavioral
response to a specific affect elicited after evaluation.
Grégoire et al. (2010) investigated consumer vengeance resulting from the emotion of
anger and a desire for revenge based on consumers’ cognition of corporate greed. They
adopted the cognition-affect-behavior (conation and action) research framework of the
tricomponent attitude model as the basis of their research. Parasuraman et al. (1996)
believed that consumer attitudes can influence their positive or negative behavioral
intentions. When consumers have negative behavioral intentions toward corporations,
these intentions lead to brand switching, negative WOM and complaints. Examining
consumer loyalty, Oliver (1999) established a conceptual model of the overall framework
for developing brand loyalty. Consumers gain an awareness of their cognition before their
affects, which result in behavior (conation and actions). Grimm (2005) developed a
theoretical structure for exploring the characteristic factors of brand preference based on
the cognition-affect-behavior structure of the tricomponent attitude model. Prior study
explored the interrelationship between structured and unstructured user-generated
content from the perspective of human cognitive psychology for on online hotel reviews
(Zhang et al., 2016).
The cognition-affect-behavior (conation and action) conceptual structure of the
tricomponent attitude model is employed in this study as a theoretical basis for exploring
the formation and structure of consumer vengeance. We examined deficiencies in innovative
products or product services and the different emotional reactions elicited by these
deficiencies. These reactions lead to a desire for revenge, which can result in various
vengeful behaviors.

2.2 Affect
Affect is a collective term that describes specific psychological processes, including emotion,
mood and attitude. Affect can be considered the general term for psychological processes
related to feelings (Bagozzi et al., 1999; O’Neil and Lambert, 2001). Feelings are weaker than
emotions and emotions involve specific intentions, goals and targets although the
OIR distinction between feelings and emotions can be difficult to clearly define (Groenland and
43,5 Schoormans, 1994; Hornik, 1993; O’Neil and Lambert, 2001). An emotion is a personal
psychological state and a subjectively perceived affective state caused by something. When
elicited by cognition and stimulated by events or thoughts, emotions are often expressed
through physical reactions such as actions or expressions to achieve specific behavioral
intentions (Bagozzi et al., 1999; Johnson and Stewart, 2005) and can be used to respond to
822 specific events (Zeelenberg and Pieters, 2004). In addition, Grégoire et al. (2010) used the
cognition-affect-behavior (conation and action) structure of the tricomponent attitude model
as a basis for examining consumer vengeance resulting from anger and a desire for revenge
based on consumer cognition of corporate greed. Their results further confirmed that
negative emotions generated vengeful intentions and behaviors.
In addition to the explanation of how affect influences intentions, numerous
researchers have suggested that affect directly influences consumer behavior. Kotler
(2003) asserted that the response hierarchy model, as applied to consumer information,
should be separated into cognition, affect and behavior components. In this model,
consumer receives, compares and interprets external product information, which produces
cognition. Affect and attitude toward the product then influence behavior. The cause and
effect relationship between the three components is unidirectional. According to the
cognition-affect-behavior model (Lazarus, 1982), people in a specific situation often
attribute blame to the source of stimuli based on their cognitions of the stimuli or
situation, thereby developing corresponding emotions and coping behaviors. Numerous
researchers have proposed theories regarding affect and its influence on users’ behaviors.
Zeelenberg and Pieters (2004) explored the effect that various emotions had on behavioral
responses and proposed that negative emotions such as disappointment and regret
directly affect consumers, prompting behaviors that include complaints, negative WOM
and brand transfers. Consumers’ anger easily leads to complaints, negative WOM, and
influences their willingness to repurchase (Folkes et al., 1987) or desire to switch to a
competing provider (Bechwati and Morrin, 2003; Bougie et al., 2003).
The definition of emotions has long featured excessive categories and divisions, which
overcomplicates the process and increases the difficulty of measuring emotions (Zourrig
et al., 2009). Elison (2005) identified three levels of basic emotions according to clear and
discrete mental states, an innate or acquired ability to adjust, and independent and
distinguishable affective conditions. At the highest level, “emotions” were further
subdivided into negative and positive emotions. The basic level consists of “affects,” and the
subordinate level consists of “cognitive affect.” Lazarus (1991) described two approaches to
classifying emotions: categorical and dimensional. The categorical approach to classifying
emotions is based on defining personal, innate and basic emotions, such as fear, anger,
happiness, sadness and surprise. The dimensional approach to classifying emotions is
based on the belief that emotions have two or three dimensions, for example, emotional
states that can be either positive or negative. Related studies that have also explored this
issue, with varying degrees of similarity, are too numerous to list individually, and many
ideas and views still exist regarding the classification of emotions. Therefore, the choice of
emotion in various contexts remains crucial ( Jang and Namkung, 2009; Mattila and Wirtz,
2000). This study measured consumers’ outward and inward negative emotions when
encountering innovative products with deficiencies, and the effects that anger and regret
exert on negative emotions.

2.3 Anger
Anger is a negative emotional state that results from evaluating cognitions, emotional
changes and action tendencies (Kassinove et al., 1997) and the worry or anger, loss of
temper, or rage in response to certain events. Regarding social exchanges and interactions,
anger is a highly influential negative emotional factor (Sánchez-García and Currás-Pérez, Revenge and
2011). Bougie et al. (2003) found that anger is the primary emotional reaction when negative word
consumers experience a deficient encounter. Heider (1958) reported that after encountering a of mouth
service failure, even if consumers attribute their dissatisfaction to environmental factors
(i.e. external factors such as the product or the company), service failures still elicit
consumers’ anger. Weiner (1985) developed the attribution theory of motivation to explain
how consumers attribute causes when encountering product deficiencies. The three main 823
dimensions of this theory are locus of control, stability and controllability. When the locus of
control is external and controllability is high, this generates consumers’ anger or blame
toward the group. Anger tends to be focused on a specific target (Sukhodolsky et al., 2001),
such as the salesperson or corporation associated with a deficient product. Overall, anger is
the outward expression of an aggressive negative emotion (Buss and Perry, 1992). “The
attribution-affect model asserts that the attribution of undesirable events to specific targets
stimulates individual anger with those targets, an emotional state ranging from minor
irritation to intense fury” (Teng et al., 2011, p. 346). Therefore, anger is a strong and
powerful emotion related to intense and hateful behaviors (Berkowitz, 1990; Bougie et al.,
2003). Behavioral responses to anger are outward attacks and prompt angry people to take
action to eliminate the source of harm (Yi and Baumgartner, 2004), which generates a desire
for revenge and vengeful behaviors. Anger is considered an outward negative emotion.

2.4 Regret
Regret is a personal negative emotion that results from introspection and the evaluation of
personal behavior (Brooks and Reddon, 2003). When people experience regret regarding
their personal behaviors, it is often caused by circumstances beyond their control (Laros and
Steenkamp, 2005; Nyer, 2000; Wong and Kwong, 2007) or because they feel that different
choices may have provided superior results (Zeelenberg and Pieters, 1999). Heider (1958)
suggested that in situations of service failure, consumers believe that deficiencies are the
result of their personal characteristics or factors (i.e. personal internal factors of the
consumer). Grief has various interpretations and opposite attitudes (Rubin and Camm,
2011). Weiner (1985) proposed the attribution theory of motivation to explain how
consumers assign causes when encountering product deficiencies. According to this theory,
if the locus of control is internal and controllability is low, consumer blame toward
organizations is reduced, thereby producing self-blame or the emotion of regret. Regret is
the expression of defensive behavior to compensate for self-deficiencies (Bornstein et al.,
2002; Schmitt et al., 2004). Regret typically involves self-blame, and the wish that an event
has not occurred or those mistakes are corrective. The most common emotional response is
regret if a situation is immutable and consumers can find no one else to blame, or if
consumers can only accept the situation and cannot take any action (Yi and Baumgartner,
2004). Regret is an inward negative emotion.

2.5 Conation and action

Conation and action refer to people’s behavioral intentions and actual behavior toward
something based on their personal beliefs or emotions (Rosenberg and Hovland, 1960). From
the perspective of behavioral theory, behavioral intentions and actual behavior possess a high
correlation (Venkatesh and Agarwal, 2006; Venkatesh and Davis, 2000). Wu (2006) defined
behavioral intentions as personal subjective judgments regarding the probability of a specific
behavior. In other words, behavioral intentions involve immediate decisions regarding
whether to undertake behavior and also determine actual behavior. In research on
consumer behavior, behavioral intentions are specific activities or behavioral tendencies that
consumers adopt toward a product or company after a purchase (Engel et al., 1995).
In addition, behavioral intentions are subdivided into positive or negative intentions
OIR (Parasuraman et al., 1996). Behavioral intentions are often an accurate assessment indicator of
43,5 personal behavior; in other words, behavioral intentions are a mandatory process before the
expression of actual behavior (Ajzen and Driver, 1991). In actuality, a clear boundary exists
between intentions and behaviors. Therefore, in research of consumer vengeance, many
scholars have differentiated between intentions of revenge and actual vengeful actions
(Bechwati and Morrin, 2003; Folkes, 1984; Grégoire and Fisher, 2008; Grégoire et al., 2009;
824 Huefner and Hunt, 2000). This study explored vengeful intentions and behaviors executed by
consumers who experience deficiencies in new products. Regarding intentions, we contend
that the attribution of blame following evaluations in the cognitive stage and negative
emotions such as anger and regret elicited in the affective stage both lead to the negative
behaviors of a desire for revenge. Regarding the behaviors of consumers who encounter
product deficiencies, we assert that vengeful behaviors are the cognitions and efforts elicited
when people conclude that specific circumstances are detrimental and subsequently adjust
their emotional states to satisfy their internal and external needs. Zourrig et al. (2009) clearly
defined vengeful behaviors as “behaviors aimed at correcting and adapting to emotional
imbalances produced by stimuli.” In this study, we explored vengeful behaviors prompted by
a desire for revenge when consumers encounter product deficiencies. By consolidating
numerous studies, we infer that negative WOM is one of the most crucial consumer behaviors
of vengeance (Bechwati and Morrin, 2003; Bitner, 1990; Grégoire et al., 2009; Wetzer et al.,
2007; Zeelenberg and Pieters, 2004; Zourrig et al., 2009).

2.6 Desire for revenge

The desire for revenge involves a type of consumer intention for vengeance toward
enterprises and a hope to cause harm to the enterprises (Bechwati and Morrin, 2003).
Consumers generally believe that corporations should be punished and pay for the harm
they cause (Grégoire and Fisher, 2006). Using the tricomponent attitude model, which
comprises the three components of cognition, affect and conation and action, Rosenberg and
Hovland (1960) asserted that behavioral intentions elicit actual behavior. Zourrig et al. (2009)
postulated that when consumers evaluate the difference between their expectations and
cognitions, the emotion elicited when attributing blame for the difference is the stimulus for
reactive behavior. Baron (1988) conducted clinical psychology experiments and
demonstrated that revenge results from actions and motives prompted by negative
emotions. Bobocel (2013) pointed out that when employee faces unfair event in the processes
of organizational system, the desire for revenge is obvious for the victims who are of lower
status than the perpetrators when procedural justice climate is low. In recent years, the
value of examining negative emotions has increased in correlation to the value of explaining
how service failures occur (Chebat and Slusarcsyk, 2005).

2.7 Negative WOM

The definition of WOM is communication regarding a product, service or brand between
information receivers and broadcasters when the information receiver perceives that the
information broadcaster has no commercial intentions (Harrison-Walker, 2001). With the
emergence of the internet, online WOM exhibits the characteristics of immediacy,
interactivity, anonymity and convenience, and not limited by time or location
(Hennig-Thurau et al., 2004). In addition, because information is easy to reproduce, online
WOM can be transmitted anywhere the internet can reach. Therefore, the visibility and
dissemination of this information is substantially higher than traditional WOM. WOM
information can be subdivided into positive and negative WOM. Positive WOM refers to
consumers sharing positive information regarding products or services after consumption
(Brown et al., 2005). Negative WOM refers to dissatisfaction with certain products or services
regarding purchases or experiences and involves consumers relaying their dissatisfactory
experiences and negative evaluations to others, recommending that others do not purchase or Revenge and
use the products (Balaji et al., 2016; Singh and Pandya, 1991). Negative WOM is also an negative word
interpersonal communication that slanders corporations or products (Richins, 1984). of mouth
Romaniuk (2007) emphasized the seriousness of negative WOM because dissatisfied
consumers often disseminate a greater amount of negative information among friends and
family compared with satisfied consumers. WOM communication has been a vital indicator of
consumer decisions (Xia and Bechwati, 2008). Prior research investigated a theoretical 825
framework to identify authentic online reviews from the perspectives of positive and negative
comments (Banerjee and Chua, 2014). Kotler (2003) thought that consumer response to
response hierarchy models is divided into cognitive stage, affective stage and behavior stage.
The idea of this model is to propose the effect of affective attitude toward product on user’s
final behavior. Zourrig et al. (2009) argued that negative emotions lead to corresponding
behaviors via the self-evaluation and attribution when customers are treated unfairly or
dissatisfied. In the past, many scholars proposed the theory of the influence of user’s emotion
on behavior. Zeelenberg and Pieters (2004) indicated that negative emotions such as
disappointment and regret directly affect complaint, negative WOM and switch in the study
of the effect of different emotions on behavior. Consumer’s anger emotion is more likely to
generate complaint, negative WOM which subsequently affects the willingness of repurchase
(Folkes et al., 1987). Grégoire et al. (2010) thought that consumer’s desire for revenge has direct
impact on negative WOM. The generation of revenge is through negative emotions which lead
to desire for revenge (Grégoire et al., 2009).

2.8 The relationships among constructs

2.8.1 The relationships between anger/regret and desire for revenge. Anger is typically
considered the optimum predictor of consumer revenge in many situations (Aquino et al.,
2006; Bonifield and Cole, 2007; McColl-Kennedy et al., 2009; Wetzer et al., 2007; Zourrig
et al., 2009). The desire for revenge is based on anger (Grégoire et al., 2009). Furthermore,
in relation to regret, which is an internal negative emotion, researchers in the field of
marketing have found that consumers’ internal affects play a substantial role in their
usage intentions, particularly for brick-and-mortar and online consumers (Koo and Ju,
2010; Wu et al., 2008). Revenge behavior elicited by negative emotions and a subsequent
desire for revenge leads to actual behavior (Grégoire et al., 2009). The negative emotions
such as anger, disregard and disgust anger cause the formation of certain behavior
intentions (Breitsohl and Garrod, 2016). Combining the literature reviewed in this study,
and the desire for revenge formed by the negative emotions anger and regret, we proposed
the following hypotheses:
H1. Consumer anger has a significant and positive effect on the desire for revenge.
H2. Consumer regret has a significant and positive effect on the desire for revenge.
2.8.2 The relationships between anger/regret/desire for revenge and negative WOM. When
consumers encounter service failure situations, there are anger, hostility and provocative
moods, and the results of emotional reactions would disseminate negative WOM (Bonifield
and Cole, 2007; Folkes et al., 1987; Mattila and Ro, 2008; Nyer, 1997). Zeelenberg and Pieters
(2004) indicated that consumers share their unsatisfied experiences with other people when
they feel regret as a direct negative WOM. Regret emotions generate negative WOM
behavior (Blodgett et al., 1993; Bonifield and Cole, 2007). Consumers would evoke negative
emotions such as anger, regret and retaliatory intention as desire for revenge and this desire
would translate into retaliatory action when they have been unfairly treated (Bechwati and
Morrin, 2003; Funches et al., 2009; Grégoire and Fisher, 2008; Grégoire et al., 2010; Lee et al.,
2013; McColl-Kennedy et al., 2009). Based on the aforementioned explanations of cognition,
OIR affect and conation and action referenced from related literature, we proposed the
43,5 following hypotheses:
H3. Consumer anger has a significant and positive effect on negative WOM.
H4. Consumer regret has a significant and positive effect on negative WOM.
H5. Consumer desire for revenge has a significant and positive effect on negative WOM.
826
2.9 The mediating effect of desire for revenge
In the research field of psychology and its related clinical empirical study, revenge mainly
arises from its motive through negative emotions and changes the position of the target
subject with contents of harmful criticism and words (Baron, 1988). Revenge is driven by
emotional factor (e.g. anger) with character of derogatory revenge object, which is a kind of
psychological and emotional bad behavior (Fitzgibbons, 1986). Anger has been identified as
the most powerful prediction of consumer retaliation under many circumstances (Bonifield
and Cole, 2007; McColl-Kennedy et al., 2009; Wetzer et al., 2007; Zourrig et al., 2009). Emotion
may not cause immediate behavior, on the contrary, it changes person’s cognition and
motive (He and Harris, 2014). Based on aforementioned, this study infers that desire for
revenge is a mediating factor between anger/regret and negative WOM. The following
hypotheses are proposed:
H6. Desire of revenge has the mediating effect between anger and negative WOM.
H7. Desire of revenge has the mediating effect between regret and negative WOM.

3. Methodology
3.1 Proposed model
Figure 1 shows the research framework for this study. By adopting a negative perspective,
we explored the influences that various aspects of emotions exert on the desire for revenge
and negative WOM of MOD users. Regarding affects, we divided user emotions into anger,
which is an outward negative emotion used to eliminate the source of harm, and regret,
which is an inward negative emotion involved in self-blame and the expression of defensive
behavior to compensate for self-deficiencies. This study treats desire for revenge and
negative WOM as variables related to conation and action.

Affect Conation and Action

Anger
H3
H1
H5 Negative
Desire for
Revenge WOM

H2
H4
Figure 1. Regret
Research framework
3.2 Measures Revenge and
All of the constructs included in the proposed model were measured using multi-items scales negative word
drawn from previous studies. The scales for the anger construct were from Gelbrich (2010) of mouth
and used six-point Likert scales ranging from strongly disagree (1) to strongly agree (6).
Inman and Zeelenberg (2002) developed the regret construct and used ten-point Likert scales
ranging from strongly disagree (1) to strongly agree (10). Grégoire et al. (2010) developed the
constructs of desire for revenge and negative WOM and adopted seven-point Likert scales 827
ranging from strongly disagree (1) to strongly agree (7). The Appendix illustrates the items
used to measure these constructs.

3.3 Pretest
This research collected data from the Chunghwa Telecom Company MOD users with at least
three months of experience in Taiwan. Structural equation modeling tests the research model
via the AMOS 17.0 version computer software with the maximum likelihood estimation (MLE).
This study adopted measurement items from prior studies and validated them through
two phases of pretest and two phases of pilot tests. We asked Chunghwa Telecom Company
MOD users to join the pretest. These users were our target participants and they did not
participate in the pilot tests and final survey. This study revised measurement items’
wordings of constructs based on the feedback of Chunghwa Telecom Company MOD users.
This study invited three professors of marketing management and two active Chunghwa
Telecom Company MOD users to review the measurement items’ wordings for the first phase
of pretest. Then, this study asked Chunghwa Telecom Company MOD users to participate in
seven independent rounds (three people for each) for the second phase of pretest. The
measurement items’ wordings were revised during the face-to-face interactive interview with
Chunghwa Telecom Company MOD users to ensure the easy understanding of questionnaire
for the following pilot tests. This study adopted online survey on the mySurvey website
(http://www.mysurvey.tw/index.htm) and offered one-month discount for customers’
payments to encourage them to fill out the questionnaire. This study conducted small-scale
survey (100 copies) to modify and re-confirm the wordings of the questionnaire during the first
phase of pilot test. Subsequently, a large-scale survey (250 samples) was performed for the
final confirmation of formal survey at the second phase. This study conducted pilot tests from
November 12, 2012 to February 20, 2012 and obtained 199 samples. The valid sample was
154 and the valid response rate was 77.39 percent. This study made sure the final
questionnaire by checking the convergent validity, reliability analysis and discriminant
validity of the measurement items.

3.4 Common method variance for pretest data

This study adopted procedural remedies proposed by Podsakoff et al. (2003) to avoid or
minimize CMV problem and conducted ex ante approach as well as post hoc approach to deal
with CMV problem. For the ex ante approaches, we used different formats and different
Likert scales as anchor for the measurement items, randomly arranged constructs, and did
not expose research objective in the questionnaire at the design stage. In addition, this study
maintained the anonymity of Chunghwa Telecom Company MOD users to diminish their
consistent replies. For the post hoc approaches, Eichhorn (2014) indicated that there are three
analytical techniques to conduct the post hoc approaches of CMV. These three techniques
are Harman’s single factor, common latent factor (CLF) and common marker variable. This
study applied these three approaches even though some weaknesses of Harman’s single
factor to investigate whether the CMV problem exist in the sample data (Eichhorn, 2014;
Harman, 1967; Podsakoff and Organ, 1986). For the pretest, this study analyzed the
exploratory factor analysis with all items for Harman’s single factor. The results showed
that the first factor explained 44.20 percent variance (lower than 50 percent). In addition,
OIR this study also conducted CLF and common marker variable separately. The CLF values
43,5 equaled to 0.683 and 0.391 of CLF and common marker variable technique and the common
method variance was the square of 0.683 ( ¼ 0.4665) and 0.391 ( ¼ 0.1529). Therefore, both
CLF and common marker variable technique indicated that there was no common method
bias since the calculated variance (46.65 and 15.29 percent) was below the threshold of 50
percent. The results indicated that CMV is not a significant problem for the pretest data.
828 Pretest results showed the convergent validity (Table I) of each construct and met the
requirements of confirmatory factor analysis criteria proposed by Anderson and Gerbing
(1988). Moreover, the discriminant validity (Table II) met the criteria proposed by Bagozzi
and Yi (1988) and Cronbach’s α of each construct was greater than 0.7, exceeding the
standard value suggested by Nunnally (1978). In addition, the squared multiple correlations
(SMCs) of each item were greater than 0.2, which met the criteria suggested by both Bentler
and Wu (1993) and Jöreskog and Sörbom (1993).

3.5 Formal survey sample and data collection

The research collected data from the Chunghwa Telecom Company MOD users with at least
three months of experience in Taiwan for the formal survey. This study conducted online

MLE estimates factor Squared multiple Composite Average of variance

Constructs loading/measurement error correlation (SMC) reliability (CR) extracted (AVE)

Anger 0.863 0.678

ANG1 0.792 0.373 0.627
ANG2 0.904 0.183 0.817
ANG3 0.768 0.409 0.591
Regret 0.891 0.732
REG1 0.842 0.291 0.709
REG2 0.921 0.152 0.848
REG3 0.799 0.361 0.639
Desire for revenge 0.874 0.582
DR1 0.810 0.343 0.657
DR2 0.713 0.466 0.534
DR3 0.820 0.328 0.672
DR4 0.733 0.462 0.538
DR5 0.732 0.465 0.535
Table I. Negative WOM 0.872 0.697
Analysis of NW1 0.827 0.317 0.683
measurement NW2 0.941 0.115 0.885
model of pretest NW3 0.722 0.479 0.521

Constructs ANG REG DR NWOM CR AVE

ANG 0.823 0.863 0.678

REG 0.606** 0.856 0.891 0.732
DR 0.374** 0.383** 0.763 0.874 0.582
NWOM 0.463** 0.480** 0.408** 0.884 0.872 0.697
Table II. Cronbach’s α 0.861 0.889 0.874 0.843
Correlation matrix Notes: ANG, anger; REG, regret; DR, desire for revenge; NWOM, negative word of mouth; CR, composite
for measurement reliability; AVE, average variance extracted. Diagonal value is the square root of AVE; lower triangle value is
scales of pretest the Pearson correlation coefficient. **po 0.01
survey on the mySurvey website (www.mysurvey.tw/index.htm) for the data collection with Revenge and
the exclusion of respondents of pilot test and pretest. Online questionnaire was setup on the negative word
mySurvey website (http://www.mysurvey.tw/index.htm). Formal online survey was of mouth
conducted from March 1, 2013 to April 8, 2013. A total of 340 questionnaires were
obtained, 120 (53.10 percent) questionnaires from the north and 106 (46.90 percent) from the
south. Overall, 226 valid questionnaires were collected.
Chunghwa Telecom Company proclaimed that the percentages of MOD users were 829
57.28 and 42.72 for the northern region and the southern region MOD, respectively, in
December 2012. The χ2 test of the goodness-of-fit test was applied to certify the population
percentage. The results indicated that degree of freedom is equal to 1 and χ2 value is equal to
1.163, p ¼ 0.201W0.050, below the level of significance (not rejecting the null hypothesis). The
sample group of this study met the percentage of the MOD users region in Taiwan.
Respondents comprised 45.58 percent male and 54.42 percent female, 40.27 percent were
aged 31–40 years, 71.68 percent held junior college and college degree, the majority lived in
the northern region (50.44 percent), 38.50 percent used MOD for more than two years, every
week use of MOD, 30.53 percent were 4–5 times, everyday use of MOD, 38.94 percent were
above 4 h. Table III shows the demographics of respondents.

Demographics Frequency Percentage Accumulated percentage

Gender
Male 103 45.58 45.58
Female 123 54.42 100.00
Age (years)
Under 20 7 3.10 3.10
21–30 56 24.78 27.88
31–40 91 40.27 68.15
41–50 53 23.45 91.60
Over 51 19 8.40 100.00
Education
Senior high school 17 7.52 7.52
Junior college/college 162 71.68 79.20
Graduate degree 47 20.80 100.00
Living area
North 114 50.44 50.44
South 112 49.56 100.00
How long have used MOD
3–6 months 32 14.16 14.16
7–12 months 38 16.81 30.97
1–2 years 69 30.53 61.50
Over 2 years 87 38.50 100.00
Every week use of MOD
1 29 12.83 12.83
2–3 times 68 30.09 42.92
4–5 times 69 30.53 73.45
Over 6 times 60 26.55 100.00
Everyday use of MOD (hours)
Under 1 20 8.85 8.85
1–2 56 24.78 33.63 Table III.
2–4 62 27.43 61.06 Respondent
Over 4 88 38.94 100.00 demographics
OIR 3.6 Common method variance of formal survey data
43,5 This study adopted the same procedural remedies for the formal survey regarding ex ante
approaches. For the post hoc approaches, Harman’s single factor indicated that the first factor
explained 54.70 percent variance, which is larger than 50 percent. Eichhorn (2014, p. 4)
indicated that “Harman single factor is sensitive to the number of variables involved. Large
models have a greater chance for multiple common method factors to exist. As the number of
830 variables increases, this technique becomes less conservative.” Then, this study conducted
CLF and common marker variable separately. The CLF values equaled to 0.603 and 0.470 of
CLF and common marker variable technique and the common method variance was the
square of 0.603 ( ¼ 0.3636) and 0.470 ( ¼ 0.2209). Therefore, both CLF and common marker
variable technique indicated that there was no common method bias since the calculated
variance (36.36 and 22.09 percent) was below the threshold of 50 percent. The results indicated
that CMV is not a significant problem for the formal survey data (Table IV).

3.7 Convergent and discriminant validity

As shown in Table V, the composite reliability for each construct is above 0.851, demonstrating
a reasonable degree of internal consistency between the corresponding indicators. The results

MLE estimates factor Squared multiple Composite Average of variance

Constructs loading/measurement error correlation (SMC) reliability (CR) extracted (AVE)

Anger 0.905 0.761

ANG1 0.888 0.211 0.789
ANG2 0.882 0.222 0.778
ANG3 0.847 0.283 0.717
Regret 0.925 0.804
REG1 0.898 0.194 0.806
REG2 0.894 0.201 0.799
REG3 0.898 0.194 0.806
Desire for revenge 0.909 0.667
DR1 0.888 0.211 0.789
DR2 0.814 0.337 0.663
DR3 0.850 0.277 0.723
DR4 0.779 0.393 0.607
DR5 0.743 0.448 0.552
Table IV. Negative WOM 0.851 0.658
Analysis of NW1 0.845 0.286 0.714
measurement model NW2 0.887 0.213 0.787
of formal survey NW3 0.687 0.528 0.472

Constructs ANG REG DR NWOM CR AVE

ANG 0.872 0.905 0.761

REG 0.596** 0.897 0.925 0.804
DR 0.666** 0.590** 0.817 0.909 0.667
NWOM 0.479** 0.526** 0.553** 0.811 0.851 0.658
Table V. Cronbach’s α 0.902 0.924 0.910 0.843
Correlation matrix for Notes: ANG, anger; REG, regret; DR, desire for revenge; NWOM, negative word of mouth; CR, composite
measurement scales of reliability; AVE, average variance extracted. Diagonal value is the square root of AVE; lower triangle value is
formal survey the Pearson correlation coefficient. **po 0.01
also showed support for the convergent and discriminant validity. As evidence of convergent Revenge and
validity, each item loaded significantly on its respective construct (Hair et al., 2010). Evidence of negative word
discriminant validity exists when the square root of the average variance extracted (AVE) in of mouth
each construct exceeds the coefficients of correlation with this particular construct and other
constructs (Fornell and Larcker, 1981). In addition, the AVE of each construct exceeds 0.60
(Gaski and Nevin, 1985). Cronbach’s α of each construct is larger than 0.7 meeting the standard
suggested by Nunnally (1978). As presented in Table I, the results indicate adequate 831
discriminant validity.
As presented in Table V, factor loading and SMCs meet the criteria of convergent
validity. Bentler and Wu (1993) and Jöreskog and Sörbom (1993) suggested that SMCs value
exceed 0.2, suitable for subsequent analysis for structural model.

4. Results
4.1 Model fit and hypotheses tests
The structural model provided evidence of a good model fit: χ2 ¼ 190.855, df ¼ 71, χ2/
df ¼ 2.688, GFI ¼ 0.880, AGFI ¼ 0.823, RMSR ¼ 0.053, RMSEA ¼ 0.087. Based on the
suggestions of Jöreskog and Sörbom (1993) and Hair et al. (2010), the criteria of model fit of
this model would be adequate. Overall, the structural model showed adequate fit. Figure 2
shows the hypotheses results and path coefficients. Only, H3 is not supported, whereas H1,
H2, H4 and H5 are supported with all path coefficients, p o0.001.
The results of this study showed that the standardized path coefficient for H1 (consumer
anger had a significant and positive effect on the desire for revenge) was 0.554. The
standardized path coefficient for H2 (consumer regret had a significant and positive effect
on the desire for revenge) was 0.279. The standardized path coefficient for H3 (consumer
anger did not have significant and positive effect on negative WOM) was 0.081 and was not
supported. These results support the study by Grégoire et al. (2010), who asserted that
consumer anger leads to a desire for revenge, which subsequently influences consumer
vengeance. Our findings also conform to the tricomponent attitude model proposed by
Rosenberg and Hovland (1960), in which affect influences behavior through intentions. The
standardized path coefficient for H4 (consumer regret had a significant and positive
influence on negative WOM) was 0.344. The standardized path coefficient for H5 (consumer
desire for revenge had a significant and positive effect on negative WOM) was 0.312.
The explanatory power of a desire for revenge was 58.6 percent, indicating strong
explanatory power. This suggests that anger and regret can sufficiently explain the desire

Affect Conation and Action

Anger
1 H3
H1 21= 0.081
2
2
R = 0.586 R = 0.432
11= 0.554***
Desire for H5 Negative WOM
Revenge 1 21= 0.312** 2
12 = 0.279***

H2 22 = 0.344***
Regret H4
2
Figure 2.
Structural model
diagram
Notes: **p < 0.01; ***p < 0.001
OIR for revenge on innovative consumer products. The explanatory power of negative WOM
43,5 was 43.2 percent, also indicating strong explanatory power. This suggests that anger, regret
and desire for revenge can sufficiently explain negative WOM behaviors of innovative
products users. Nonetheless, a more comprehensive study of other factors can explore the
explanation of negative WOM of innovative products users.

832 4.2 The mediating effect of desire for revenge

Regarding mediating effects, anger showed a significant and positive effect on negative
WOM ( β ¼ 0.556, p o0.001). After including the mediating variable of the desire for
revenge, the regression coefficient remained statistically significant but decreased
( β ¼ 0.230, p o0.01). These results imply that the desire for revenge has a partial
mediating effect between anger and negative WOM. Regret showed a significant and
positive effect on negative WOM ( β ¼ 0.339, p o0.001). After including the mediating
variable of the desire for revenge, the regression coefficient not only remained statistically
significant but also decreased ( β ¼ 0.197, p o0.01). These results imply that the desire for
revenge has a partial mediating effect between regret and negative WOM. Anger and regret
generate the desire for revenge, which subsequently leads to negative WOM. In other words,
an emotion of strong anger can easily lead to thoughts of revenge. When the emotion
of self-blame is strong, the desire for revenge can lead to intentions to cause negative
behaviors toward enterprises.
This study further explored the mediating effect of the desire for revenge between anger
and negative WOM and regret and negative WOM, respectively. Table VI shows that the
statistics of Sobel tests are all significantly greater than 1.96, and the 95% confidence
intervals of 2,000 simulations of bootstrapping do not contain 0, indicating that the desire
for revenge is the mediator between anger and negative WOM and regret and negative
WOM (Efron and Tibshirani, 1993; Sobel, 1982). Furthermore, the stepwise regression
analysis of Table VII shows that the desire for revenge partially mediates both anger and
negative WOM (ANG–DR–NW path) and regret and negative WOM (REG–DR–NW path)
(Baron and Kenny, 1986).

Bootstrapping 95% confidence intervals

Percentile CI Bias CI
Table VI. IV M DV Sobel test Lower Upper Lower Upper
The Sobel test and
bootstrapping ANG DR NWOW 0.578*** 0.1912 0.4684 0.1924 0.4730
confidence interval for REG DR NWOW 0.542*** 0.0839 0.2054 0.0894 0.2159
mediator effect of Notes: IV, independent variable; M, mediator; DV, dependent variable; ANG, anger; REG, regret; DR, desire
desire for revenge for revenge; NWOW, negative word of mouth. ***p o 0.001

IV + M→ DV
IV → DV IV → M IV M
IV M DV β SE β SE β SE β SE
Table VII.
The stepwise ANG DR NWOW 0.556*** 0.068 0.834*** 0.062 0.230** 0.085 0.391*** 0.068
regression for REG DR NWOW 0.339*** 0.037 0.411*** 0.038 0.197*** 0.043 0.346*** 0.061
mediator effect of Notes: IV, independent variable; M, mediator; DV, dependent variable; ANG, anger; REG: regret; DR, desire
desire for revenge for revenge; NWOW, negative word of mouth. **p o0.01; ***p o0.001
5. Conclusion and theoretical implications Revenge and
We used the tricomponent attitude model proposed by Rosenberg and Hovland (1960) and negative word
the model’s three components of cognition, affect and behavior (conation and action) as the of mouth
research framework of this study to explore consumer revenge behaviors. We examined the
formation of an outward emotion – anger – among consumers due to external
environmental factors in the failure of products or services and the individual’s inner
emotions – regret – generated by attributing blame to one’s self, as well as their effects on 833
desire for revenge and negative WOM. This study investigated the mediation process of
desire for revenge to establish an appropriate relationship model. The results showed that
attributing blame to different targets results in varying emotions and affects negative WOM
differently. This study confirms that desire for revenge plays a crucial mediating role.
The negative emotions, anger and regret, proposed by Elison (2005) and Zourrig et al.
(2009), incorporated into the revenge model developed for this study, which correlates the
negative emotions elicited by product deficiencies with the attribution of blame. Observation
presented by Yi and Baumgartner (2004) revealed that anger implies external aggressive
behaviors and induces behaviors to eliminate the source of harm. Regret was also
incorporated into this study to explore how different attributions of blame generate different
negative emotions (i.e. anger and regret), and the effect that these emotions exert on the
desire for revenge and negative WOM (Bonifield and Cole, 2007; McColl-Kennedy et al., 2009;
Wetzer et al., 2007; Zourrig et al., 2009). The results of this study indicated that anger and
regret both have significant and positive effects on the desire for revenge (Grégoire et al.,
2009). Nevertheless, anger does not have a significant and positive effect on negative WOM,
although regret does. People’s inference process is possibly affected by emotion (Pham,
2007). Algoe and Haidt (2009) indicated that emotion does not cause immediate behavior.
However, behavior is generated by altering cognition and motives. This research verifies the
mediation effect of desire for revenge between anger and negative WOM. In this
investigation of cognition, affect and behavioral dimensions, the desire for revenge has a
significant and positive effect on negative WOM (Bechwati and Morrin, 2003; Bitner, 1990;
Grégoire et al., 2009; Wetzer et al., 2007; Zeelenberg and Pieters, 2004; Zourrig et al., 2009).
These results conform to the tricomponent attitude model proposed by Rosenberg and
Hovland (1960), who asserted that the expression of revenge behaviors is a result of an affect
(i.e. anger or regret), which stimulates a desire for revenge (i.e. conation).
In previous studies of management, the classification of individual emotions was based
purely on various dimensions (i.e. positive or negative) or categories (e.g. sadness, fear,
anger or happiness), and different attributions of responsibility (i.e. external environmental
or personal factors) resulting in the expression of different emotional aspects were ignored.
In this study, we infer that a consumer’s psychological state can elicit both outward and
inward emotions. The first is anger, a behavioral response that is an outward attack and
induces behaviors aimed at eliminating the source of harm (Yi and Baumgartner, 2004),
which we categorized as an outward negative emotion. The second is regret, which
often involves self-blame and is an expression of defensive behavior to compensate for
self-deficiencies (Bornstein et al., 2002). Regret is an implicit emotion hardly detected by
enterprise, which we categorized as an inward negative emotion. Integrating past research
and empirical data, we developed two paths for explaining revenge behaviors. The first is
the desire for revenge, which is an indirect path that conforms to the tricomponent attitude
model proposed by Rosenberg and Hovland (1960). We suggest that an affect (anger or
regret) guides conation (a desire for revenge). The second is the affect path. In this study, we
verified that consumers’ inward negative emotion directly and positively affects vengeful
behaviors. The response hierarchy model proposed by Kotler (2003) is divided into
cognition, affect and behavior stages. Lazarus (1982) proposed a cognition-affect-behavior
model. The results of both studies confirmed that affect directly influences behavior.
OIR This study confirms the mediation effects between anger/regret and negative WOM,
43,5 which is not explored by previous scholars. The results show that users generate anger
and regret emotions and facilitate desire of revenge as well as the negative WOM of
revenge behavior in the context of product or service failure. In this study, we further
verified the mediating role played by the desire for revenge. We found that consumers
form strong emotions of anger based on external factors, leading to a desire for revenge
834 and resulting in aggressive behavioral responses. Regret, however, is the expression of
defensive behavior to compensate for self-deficiencies after reflection and evaluation.
These results agree with those reported in previous studies. Yi and Baumgartner (2004)
stated that the behavioral response of anger is an outward attack and induces behaviors
aimed at eliminating the source of harm, whereas regret typically involves self-blame
generated when people perceive that they can only accept the situation and cannot take
any action. Anger is an outward negative emotion, whereas regret is an inward negative
emotion. Folkes (1984) asserted that when encountering product deficiencies, consumers
attribute blame based on their feelings, and this attribution determines their subsequent
reactions. Therefore, the desire for revenge is a crucial behavioral intention in this process.
The desire for revenge acts as the mediator between the negative emotions (i.e. anger and
regret) and negative behaviors elicited by the unsatisfactory experience when consumers
encounter service failures.

5.1 Managerial implications

To improve the deficiencies of Chunghwa Telecom Company MOD is the most fundamental
way to prevent negative WOM according to the research results of this study. This study
proposes practical suggestions for the three most major problems criticized by customers.
First, Chunghwa Telecom Company must develop more user-friendly interface to solve the
complicated interface problems. Second, Chunghwa Telecom Company designs different
premium programs for the usage of different customers to solve the problem of extra
charge. Third, Chunghwa Telecom Company sets up program contents which users like to
watch to strengthen the program contents and solve the users’ complaints that they cannot
see some of the programs in different cable television systems.
For the revenge behavior generated by emotional path, user’s implicit and inward
emotion such as regret directly impacts on negative WOM. We recommend that Chunghwa
Telecom Company must inform new customer detailed and accurate information regarding
product operation, content and charge for the promotion of MOD due to the difficult
detection of the inward regret by enterprise. In addition, Chunghwa Telecom Company can
provide new customer a period of free trial use of MOD for new program to reduce the
negative WOM arising from regret emotion.
The desire for revenge stimulating by explicit and outward anger and implicit and
inward regret based on the mediation effect path of desire of revenge generates negative
WOM related to MOD. This study suggests that Chunghwa Telecom Company establishes
two-way communication channels for customers’ complaints to proactively discover
customers’ unsatisfied emotions and provide immediate service recovery. For example,
dispatching maintenance personnel to fully understand the situation, taking care of
the customers’ emotions and providing discount due to product/service failure can reduce
the desire for revenge. The ideas for all kinds of methods are to avoid the un-recovery
damage of Chunghwa Telecom Company caused by negative WOM. Chunghwa Telecom
Company must provide excellent products and services to create a positive WOM in order to
sustain a long-term business.
Consumer anger is an explicit outward emotion. Corporations can use tangled emotions
among consumers to predict the development of the desire for revenge and immediately
implement remedies for deficiencies to prevent consumers from developing the desire for
revenge and spreading negative WOM regarding the corporation or product, or engaging in Revenge and
other revenge behaviors. Corporations can easily detect and prevent the path between anger negative word
and revenge behaviors simply based on the desire for revenge. In contrast to the outward of mouth
negative behavior that is anger, regret is implicit and internal. Regret is comparatively more
difficult for corporations to detect through consumers’ emotional reactions and form part of
the two paths to vengeful behaviors. The first is the indirect path to the revenge behaviors,
where regret induces the desire for revenge, which subsequently leads to revenge behaviors. 835
The second is the direct path to revenge behaviors, where regret leads to revenge behaviors
(i.e. negative WOM). WOM is an important source of product information in the marketing
process. However, this kind of information source is not under the direct control of the
organization (Cohen and Golden, 1972; Hoye and Lievens, 2009). Therefore, enterprises
should carefully handle the impact of WOM as information source. Corporations should
continue caring for their clients while also developing relationships as well as connections.
Enterprises should pay more attention to customer service failures and provide
compensation for service recovery to reduce customer dissatisfaction (Liao, 2007). They
should also establish clear communication to enable customer service channels to
proactively identify consumer dissatisfaction and offer compensation to prevent formation
of negative WOM, which can result in irreparable damage to reputation.

5.2 Limitations and future research directions

There are some limitations in this study. First, we employed cognition-affect-behavior
(conation and action) of the tricomponent attitude model as the theoretical foundation for
investigating the negative WOM from the negative perspective of consumers. It is
appropriate to identify the relationships among customers’ outward and inward emotion on
desire for revenge and negative WOM. However, other contextual constructs may influence
consumers’ decisions. For instance, trust and perceived risk can affect consumers’ purchase
intentions (Chang and Chen, 2008) as well as habit plays a major role in directly and
indirectly influencing consumers’ decisions (Hu et al., 2017; Limayem et al., 2007). Likewise,
brand attachment and source credibility have effects on perceived negative change in brand
evaluation and perceived brand risk (Chiou et al., 2013). Future research may integrate these
factors to enhance the proposed model more rigorous.
Second, this study only collected 226 valid samples from Chunghwa Telecom Company
MOD users. It cannot represent other companies’ users. The generalizability of the findings
across other companies and service types is limited. It is recommended that future research
validates this model across heterogeneous populations and various service types from
diverse companies and compare the differences in a different context.
Third, the measurement items were adopted from previous studies and amended to fit
the research context. Future researchers can apply this questionnaire or proposed model to
other countries. It is recommended that future researchers develop more appropriate
measurement items to fit the context in Taiwan. Finally, this research adopted the
tricomponent attitude model except cognition. Future research direction can focus on the
possible factors for cognition to enrich the proposed model.

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Appendix. Scale items Revenge and
negative word
Construct/Items
Anger (Gelbrich, 2010) of mouth
(1) I would feel angry with the Chunghwa Telecom Company employees.
(2) I would feel mad with the Chunghwa Telecom Company employees.
(3) I would feel furious about the Chunghwa Telecom Company employees.
841

Regret (Inman and Zeelenberg, 2002)

(1) How much would you regret your decision to stay with (switch to) Chunghwa Telecom Company?
(2) If you could do it over, would you change your decision?
(3) How much happier would you have been if you had made a different decision?

Desire for revenge (Grégoire et al., 2010)

(1) Indicate to which extent you wanted to take actions to get the Chunghwa Telecom Company
in trouble.
(2) Indicate to which extent you wanted to punish the Chunghwa Telecom Company in some way.
(3) Indicate to which extent you wanted to cause inconvenience to the Chunghwa Telecom Company.
(4) Indicate to which extent you wanted to get even with the Chunghwa Telecom Company.
(5) Indicate to which extent you wanted to make with the Chunghwa Telecom Company get what
it deserved.

Negative WOM (Grégoire et al., 2010)

(1) I spread negative word of mouth about the Chunghwa Telecom Company.
(2) I denigrated the Chunghwa Telecom Company to my friends.
(3) When my friends were looking for a similar service, I told them not to buy from the Chunghwa
Telecom Company.

Corresponding author
Chien-Yun Yuan can be contacted at: cy_yuan@mail.chihlee.edu.tw

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