An Exploratory Study of Consumer Complaining Behaviour (CCB) in Saudi Arabia

An Exploratory Study of Consumer Complaining Behaviour (CCB) in Saudi Arabia
Saeed Badghaish, University of Western Sydney, [e-mail]
*Richard Fletcher, University of Western Sydney, [e-mail]
John Stanton, University of Western Sydney, [e-mail]
Key words: consumer; complaining behaviour; Saudi Arabia; Filipino; Saudi; differences
Abstract
This paper presents an exploratory study intended to obtain a better understanding of consumer complaint behaviour (CCB) in Saudi Arabia in terms of whether differences exist between Filipino guest workers and Saudi nationals. Drawing from the CCB literature, two questions were posed: When dissatisfied with a product, how do the customers proceed to complain? Do differences in complaining behaviour exist between customers of different nationality residing in Saudi Arabia? Focus groups, interviews and observation of complainants are used to provide evidence of differences in terms of expectations, style of complaining and assessment of the complaints handling process, justifying future research into the causes.
Introduction
CCB in this study refers to “an action taken by an individual that involves communicating something negative regarding a product or service to either the firm manufacturing or marketing that product or service, or to some third-party organizational entity” (Jacoby and
Jaccard, 1981, p. 6). This response may or may not be triggered by perceived dissatisfaction with a purchase episode (Singh 1988), although in this study the investigation is postpurchase, commencing with a respondent’s perceived dissatisfaction.
Published research on CCB in the Arab world and specifically Saudi Arabia, is negligible.
Saudi Arabia has a large resident, guest worker population from Asian economies with one estimate at more than 20% of the total population, with Filipinos constituting the largest
Asian
guest worker group
(CDSI,
2010;
CIA
FactBook

References: Alruwaigh, K. 2010. Saudi Retail Sector. Al Rajih Capital. Retrieved June 22, 2012, from: www.alrajhi-capital.com/NR/rdonlyres/.../RetailSectorMerged.pdf Andreasen, A.R., Manning, J., 1990. The dissatisfaction and complaining behavior of vulnerable consumers Bailey, B., 2000. Communicative behavior and conflict between African-American customers and Korean immigrant retailers in Los Angeles Baker, T.L., Meyer, T., Johnson, J.D., 2008. Individual differences in perceptions of service failure and recovery: the role of race and discriminatory bias Berry, J., 1989. Imposed etics-emics-derived etics: the operationalization of a compelling idea Blodgett, J.G., Hill, D., Bakir, A., 2006. Cross-cultural complaining behavior? An alternative explanation Central Department of Statistics (CDSI), Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, 2010. Population Distribution of Saudi Cities, Retrieved February 17, 2010, from: http://www.cdsi.gov.sa/pdf/census31-prim-04.pdf CIA The World Factbook, 2009 2009, from https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/sa.html Creswell, J.W., Plano Clark, V.L., Garrett, A.L., 2008 Day, R., 1984. Modeling choices among alternative responses to dissatisfaction. Advances in Consumer Research 11 (1), 496-499. Extra Store, 2010. Return and exchange policy. Retrieved May 25, 2010, from http://www.extrastores.com/EnglishPages/ReturnExchangePolicy.aspx  Guest, G., Bunce, A., Johnson, L., 2006. How many interviews are enough? An experiment with data saturation and variability Hernandez, S.A., Strahle, W., Garcia, H.L., Sorensen, R.C., 1991. A Cross-cultural study of consumer complaining behavior: VCR owners in the U.S Jacoby, J., Jaccard, J.J., 1981. The sources, meaning, and validity of consumer complaint behavior: A psychological analysis Kertzer, D., Fricke, T., 1997. Toward an anthropological demography. In D. Kertzer & T. Kim, C, Kim, S, Im, S, Shin, C, 2003. The effect of attitude and perception on consumer complaint intentions, Journal of Consumer Marketing 20 (4), 352-371. Liu, R.R., McClure, P, 2001. Recognizing cross-cultural differences in consumer complaint behavior and intentions: an empirical examination LiYin J, 2010. Determinants of customers ' complaint intention: empirical study in the context of China 's retail industry Marinov, M., 2007. Marketing in Saudi Arabia. In M. Marinov (Ed.), Marketing in the emerging markets of Islamic countries, pp.132-152 Morris, D., Al Dabbagh, M., 2004. The development of consumer protection in Saudi Arabia, International Journal of Consumer Studies 28 (1), 2-13. Neuman, W.L., 2006. Social research methods: qualitative and quantitative approaches. New York: Pearson Education Inc. Ngai, E.W.T., Heung, V.C.S., Wong, Y.H., Chan, F.K.Y., 2007. Consumer complaint behaviour of Asians and non-Asians about hotel services: An empirical analysis. European Journal of Marketing 41 (11/12), 1375-1391. Piekkari-Marschan, R., Welch, C., 2004. Handbook of Qualitative Research Methods for International Business Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA), 2009. Philippine Overseas Employment Statistics http://www.poea.gov.ph/html/statistics.html Sharma, P., Marshall, R., Reday, P., Na, W., 2010 Singh, J, 1988. Consumer complaint intentions and behavior: definitional and axonomical issues Singh, J., Wilkes, R., 1996. When consumers complain: A path analysis of the key antecedents of consumer response estimates Swartz, T.A., Iacobucci, D., (Eds.), 2000. Handbook of Services Marketing & Management, Sage: London.