An exploratory study of collinearity effects between antecedents of post-complaint satisfaction

The issue of the conceptual independence of attributes of perceived justice has received scant direct empirical attention in the complaint-handling literature. The present study aimed to investigate the strength of associations between attributes of perceived justice and, in doing so, contribute to the literature on conceptualisations of apology, politeness, and empathy. A naturally occurring dataset of 524 responses to customers’ complaints posted on France’s largest public forum (www.lesarnaques.com) between September 2003 and September 2013 were analysed. Cramer’s V coefficients demonstrated strong collinearity effects in relation to some of the associations tested and, as such, suggest that existing problems in implementing effective complaint-handling strategies might be due to a lack of clarity concerning how apology, politeness, and empathy should best be defined. Recommendations are provided as to what should be measured, and how, in further research; implications for industry practitioners are also discussed.