Abstract
The highly competitive and saturated South African cell phone network service provider industry is often fraught with service failures. These service failures cause disconfirmation of service expectations, which lead to dissatisfaction among consumers, and a motive for engaging in service brand avoidance behaviour, thus resulting in negative consequences. Service brand avoidance entails the deliberate rejection of a service brand despite consumers being able to afford the brand. Literature professes that there are several possible antecedents that could contribute to service brand avoidance and these include experiential aspects, as well as non-experiential aspects such as unmet expectations, symbolic incongruence, unacceptable trade-offs, ideological incompatibility and failed communications. Literature highlights several negative behavioural outcomes associated with service brand avoidance behaviour, including resistance, culture-jamming, complaining, boycotting, dissatisfaction, voluntary simplification and the spread of negative word-of-mouth communication. Thus, it is imperative for cell phone network service providers to uncover the antecedents and outcomes of service brand avoidance to avoid the loss of valuable customers.
The primary objective of this study is therefore to determine the interrelationships between service brand avoidance, its antecedents as proposed in the literature, and negative word-of-mouth communication as a possible outcome of service brand avoidance in the South African cell phone network service provider industry. In order to achieve the objective of this study, a descriptive research design was followed, and an online survey method was used in the form of an online internet survey to collect data. The online internet survey was administered to those individuals who actively avoid a cell phone network service provider operating in South Africa, and who reside in the Johannesburg Metropolitan Area. To select the sampling elements of this study, judgemental and convenience sampling methods were used. A total number of 455 online internet surveys were analysed.
With regards to the descriptive results obtained for this study, respondents indicated that their expectations were not met by the cell phone network service provider they avoid, that the cell phone network service provider they avoid is symbolically incongruent with who they are and that they experienced an unacceptable trade-off from the cell phone network service provider they avoid. Respondents indicated furthermore that they did not experience ideological incompatibility with, and failed communications from the cell phone network service provider they avoid. Furthermore, respondents indicated that they spread negative word-of-mouth communication relating to the cell phone network service provider they avoid...
M.Com. (Marketing Management)