Assessing a Model of Customer Rage: Does Customer Entitlement Moderate Relationships Between Rage Emotions, Expressions and Behaviors?

Abstract

Across travel and tourism services research, studies investigating “customer rage” typically prioritize the direct point-of-consumption, often within airport, airline, or hotel contexts. However, the sector is awash with intermediaries (e.g., travel agencies, insurance brokers, booking platforms), which serve as primary points-of-contact capable of shaping customer expectations. Accordingly, the consequences of service failure therein are nuanced and complex. Yet, extant research often portrays service failure as unilateral (i.e., solely the firm in question’s responsibility), overlooking one core demand-side characteristic: the customer’s sense of entitlement. Thus, while this study draws upon the Iranian travel agency setting (as a service intermediary) to assess a model of customer rage, it also explores whether customer entitlement moderates the relationships between customers’ rage emotions, expressions, and behaviors. Doing so, 736 survey responses were analyzed. Findings demonstrate how customer rage emerges in response to service failure, alongside the conditions under which customer entitlement moderates relationships therein.