COMPLAINTS AND COMPLIMENTS ABOUT SERVICE ENCOUNTERS - A COMPARISON OF AMERICAN AND BULGARIAN CONSUMERS

This paper develops a conceptual model and twelve propositions comparing the complaining and complimenting behavior of American and Bulgarian consumers. The conceptual model describes the nature of relationship between government, consumer and service provider under three scenarios, i.e., in the free-market economy of USA, in the communist party-state controlled economy of Bulgaria (under former communist rule in Bulgaria) and in the democratic party-state controlled economy of Bulgaria (under present situation in Bulgaria). The propositions integrate Weiner's (1980) three-dimensional taxonomy of attributions with this conceptual model and compare the American and Bulgarian consumers in tenus of the type of attributions they make for extremely satisfying and extremely dissatisfying service encounters and their subsequent complimenting/complaining behavior.