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This research investigates how provision of calories-per-serving information on serving size labels affects snack consumption quantity. Drawing from expectancy-disconfirmation theory, this research shows that providing calories-per-serving information can ironically create a consumption backfire effect (consumers eat more when presented with calories-per-serving information) for snacks perceived as unhealthy but not for snacks perceived as healthy. The authors find that this effect arises when calorie expectations are higher than the posted calories-per-serving level—a frequent occurrence due to stated serving sizes that are typically smaller than amounts consumed in one sitting. The authors also show that attention to calorie information plays a key role such that the backfire effect occurs among consumers who pay more attention to calorie information. Furthermore, motivational factors including individual differences and perceptions of the risk associated with consuming a snack also play a role in driving consumption differences. The authors offer managerial, policy, and consumer welfare implications, including proposing and testing larger stated serving sizes as an intervention.

Purpose This study aims to identify the determinants of customer disengagement (CD) and negative customer engagement (NCE) behaviours following service failure. Design/methodology/approach This study distributed a survey on negative service experiences to 404 customers in Vietnam and analysed the data using structural equation modelling. Findings Based on the findings, this paper developed a comprehensive model of the determinants of CD and NCE behaviours. CD manifests as “neglect”, while NCE manifests as vindictive, third-party and online complaints and negative word of mouth. The key drivers of CD and NCE are negative expectancy disconfirmation and perceived injustice, mediated by customer outrage. A novel finding is that self-efficacy and risk-taking traits enhance NCE behaviours. Vietnamese customers tend to adopt less confrontational NCE behaviours. Practical implications The findings provide brand managers with insights into unfavourable customer responses to service failure, including CD and NCE behaviours. Customers in Vietnam were predominantly found to disengage. Fulfilling the firm’s promises and treating customers fairly are paramount for preventing customer outrage, CD and NCE. Originality/value This study identifies the determinants of CD and NCE, namely, disconfirmation of service quality expectations and perceived injustice, in the context of an emerging market.

Across four studies, the authors demonstrate that consumers intuitively link disconfirmation, specifically sensory disconfirmation (when touch disconfirms expectations by sight), to a brand’s personality. Negative disconfirmation is often associated with negative posttrial evaluations. However, the authors find that when negative sensory disconfirmation is introduced by an exciting brand, the source of disconfirmation can sometimes be perceived positively. This occurs because consumers intuitively view disconfirmation as more authentic of an exciting personality. Similarly, despite the wealth of literature linking positive disconfirmation to positive posttrial evaluations, the authors find that sensory confirmation is more preferred for sincere brands because consumers intuitively view confirmation as more authentic of a sincere personality. The authors conclude by demonstrating the intuitive nature of this phenomenon by showing that the lay belief linking brand personality to disconfirmation does not activate in a context where sensory disconfirmation encourages a more deliberative assessment of the product.

Purpose This paper aims to address the following question: Do consumer inferences of respect (disrespect) contribute to satisfaction (dissatisfaction)? The research question is explored over two studies. The first aimed to test whether respect spontaneously emerged as an important component of consumer satisfaction. The second aimed to examine whether perceptions of respect could explain consumers’ satisfaction response beyond traditional antecedents of satisfaction (i.e. product and service factors, expectations). Design/methodology/approach The first (pilot) study examined whether respect/disrespect spontaneously emerged in written descriptions of highly satisfactory/dissatisfactory experiences (n = 356). The second (main) study used a survey methodology to test whether perceptions of respect could explain customer satisfaction beyond traditional antecedents (n = 2,641 plus n = 398). Findings Drawing on theories from social psychology and organizational justice, the current study argues that perceived respect, as inferred by customers from elements of their interactions with organizations, may also be critically involved in the satisfaction response. Research limitations/implications Conceptually, the findings place respect as a central antecedent among satisfaction determinants. Practical implications Practically, this research underscores the importance of enacting respect and avoiding actions that communicate disrespect because of their effect on satisfaction. Originality/value Customer satisfaction is critically important to organizations and so a great deal of research or work has sought to understand its causes – traditionally product performance, service quality and expectations. This current work, or This current research argues that inferred respect, as an indicator of the extent to which people perceive they are valued, should have an important, and general, influence on satisfaction that goes beyond what traditional determinants of satisfaction can explain.

Despite the popularity of AI-oriented e-commerce live-streaming, the service failures that can result from real-time interaction and instant transactions have not been taken seriously. This study aims to assess the failure of AI-oriented live-streaming e-commerce services and help retailers identify various risks. Based on expectancy disconfirmation theory and a stressor–strain–outcome framework, this study identified a comprehensive framework including information, functional, system, interaction, and aesthetic failures. The structural equation modeling (SEM) method is used to further examine its effect on consumers’ discontinuance behavior. Further research reveals the mediating role of consumer disappointment and emotional exhaustion, as well as the moderating role of the live-streaming platform type. These results shed light on the negative influence of AI-oriented live-streaming e-commerce service failures and contribute to the literature on live-streaming commerce, service failure, and virtual streamers.

Prior studies showed that optimism has positive benefits for students in higher education. However, research indicates different types of optimism, including the unrealistic optimism associated with the illusion of control. The literature review showed a lack of research on the effect of the illusion of control among students in higher education. Two studies were conducted to fill this gap. In Study 1 ( N  = 210), university students responded to two surveys: one before oral presentations in class (measuring illusion of control and unrealistic optimism) and another after they received their grades for the presentations (measuring disconfirmation and satisfaction). The results show that the illusion of control is positively associated with unrealistic optimism, which leads to disconfirmation and dissatisfaction. Study 2 was a between-subjects design experiment (condition ( N  = 102) vs. control ( N  = 102)) that tested a stimulus to mitigate the illusion of control in this context. The results of Study 2 show that explaining to students their inability to control some variables during the presentation helps to reduce the illusion of control. This influences lower unrealistic optimism and disconfirmation, leading to higher satisfaction after the presentations. When testing moderating effects of demographics among these relationships, we found that gender moderates the effect of the stimulus used to reduce the illusion of control, with females showing a significantly higher decrease in this bias in comparison with male students. Based on these findings, we provide recommendations that can help to decrease the illusion of control in the context of higher education, with benefits for students and educators.

Purpose This paper aims to examine how modern, digital era customers in a business-to-consumer (B2C) setting prioritize salesperson-customer orientation attributes when evaluating their expectations regarding interactions with salespeople, as well as their impact on positive and negative word-of-mouth. In addition, the research further investigates which negative salesperson attributes have an impact on overall customer experience and satisfaction. Design/methodology/approach Role theory and expectancy-disconfirmation theory form the theoretical foundation for two mixed-method studies. Study 1 is an exploratory content analysis of online consumer reviews and social media word-of-mouth related to consumer experiences with salespeople. Study 2 is a three-round Delphi study investigating which salesperson orientation attributes are most important to the customer in B2C interactions. Findings The results uncover which salesperson customer orientation attributes are essential for modern consumers and how they differ as a function of context (retail, direct-selling and follow-up) and how they contribute to the generation of digital word-of-mouth. Originality/value This paper expands B2C sales interaction literature by exploring the need for differing sales attributes based on the differential function of the shopping environment.

Air service failures and negative customer reactions have been the subjects of increasing media attention in recent years. Drawing upon the expectation disconfirmation theory (EDT), this study investigates the impact of airline service failures on various negative emotions and negative behaviors of customers based on prior expectations and actual experiences after a service failure. The collected data was from 561 customers who experienced an air service failure within the past 6 months. The results show that, consistent with the EDT theory, prior expectations and actual experiences when an airline service failure occurs lead to disconfirmation, and this determines the negative emotions of customers. The results also show that, worry and frustration only lead to negative word-of-mouth intentions. Meanwhile, anger over an airline service failure will affect both complaints, negative word-of-mouth, and intention to switch to another airline. This study contributes by expanding and showcasing the applicability of the EDT theory to the domain of airline service failures. Plain Language Summary Customer Responses to Airline Service Failure Air service failures and negative customer reactions are topics of increasing interest in recent times, both practice and academic. Although there are few previous studies on this topic, this study is based on the expectation disconfirmation theory to examine the effect of airline service failures on negative emotions and negative behavior of customers. The collected data was from 561 customers who experienced an air service failure within the past 6 months. The results show that, consistent with the expectation disconfirmation theory, prior expectations and actual experiences when an airline service failure occurs lead to disconfirmation, and this determines the negative emotions of customers. The results also show that, worry and frustration only lead to negative word-of-mouth intentions. Meanwhile, anger over an airline service failure will affect both complaints, negative word-of-mouth, and intention to switch to another airline. The contribution of this study is extending and demonstrating the relevance of EDT theory to the context of airline service failures. Implications and recommendations for future research are also provided.

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to investigate the importance of successful service recovery in the airline sector by examining the interrelationship between perceived justice, recovery satisfaction and overall satisfaction, customer trust and customer loyalty. Furthermore, the research assesses the mediating effect of overall satisfaction and customer trust on customer loyalty. Design/methodology/approach Data were collected via an airport intercept survey of Malaysia Airlines passengers who had experienced service failure. In total, 380 responses were used for the final analysis. The study uses partial least squares structural equation modelling technique with SmartPLS 3.0, in order to test and validate the research model and hypotheses posited. Findings The results reveal that: recovery satisfaction is significantly affected by procedural and interactional justice; distributive and procedural justice, as well as recovery satisfaction influenced overall satisfaction; customer trust is most influenced by interactional justice, distributive justice and recovery satisfaction; customer loyalty is positively affected by customer trust, overall satisfaction and recovery satisfaction; and the influence amongst recovery satisfaction and customer loyalty is partially mediated by customer trust and overall satisfaction. Originality/value The study contributes to a whole conceptual comprehension of the essential determinants of customer loyalty from the combined perspectives of three theories, namely, justice theory, expectancy disconfirmation theory and commitment-trust theory. This study successfully differentiates the three dimensions of perceived justice and assesses them individually to discern and compare their influence on overall satisfaction, recovery satisfaction and trust. In addition, the study finds that the influence of recovery satisfaction on loyalty is partially and sequentially mediated by trust and overall satisfaction.

Culinary culture shock (CCS)—the discomfort and ambivalence travelers feel when encountering unfamiliar foods—remains underexplored from a short-horizon, trip-bounded perspective. While prior work notes both attractions and impediments of food in tourism, a process-oriented account of how ordinary travelers experience and navigate CCS during brief trips is still limited. This study examines CCS in Guangzhou, China and delineates how it shapes travelers’ evaluations of place. We adopt a qualitative design, combining 30 semi-structured interviews with in situ ethnographic observations across markets, street-food settings, restaurants, and guided food tours, supplemented by document analysis (e.g., visitor materials and menus). Using reflexive thematic analysis, we identify three recurrent coping trajectories—avoidance, gradual adaptation, and immersion—that unfold nonlinearly as travelers recalibrate expectations, manage sensory dissonance, and renegotiate comfort boundaries. We integrate expectancy–disconfirmation theory (EDT) with an embodied view of tasting to develop the Palate Adaptation Spiral Model (PASM), which explains CCS as recursive cycles of appraisal, strategy enactment, and re-appraisal within the span of a trip. Social influence (peers, guides, and service staff) operates as a cross-cutting mechanism that can accelerate adaptation or entrench avoidance depending on cue valence and credibility. The study clarifies the scope of CCS as general travel encounters (not restricted to culinary-motivated tourists) and specifies contextual conditions under which negative reactions are reversible. Theoretically, we connect EDT to short-term culinary adaptation through PASM; practically, we outline design levers—pre-trip expectation management, pictorial/transparent menus, and guide-mediated tasting sequences—to reduce anxiety and support constructive exploration.