Understanding complaints: the role of moral transgressions in e-commerce interactions
Abstract This discourse-pragmatic study examines why a past or on-going action become the focus of customer complaints in e-commerce service encounters. Analyzing interactions between customers and service agents on Taobao, the study reveals how customer complaints are triggered by perceived moral t...
Saved in:
| Main Authors: | , |
|---|---|
| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Springer Nature
2025-01-01
|
| Series: | Humanities & Social Sciences Communications |
| Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.1057/s41599-024-04316-3 |
| Tags: |
Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
|
| _version_ | 1841559835523416064 |
|---|---|
| author | Xu Huang Xuekun Liu |
| author_facet | Xu Huang Xuekun Liu |
| author_sort | Xu Huang |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Abstract This discourse-pragmatic study examines why a past or on-going action become the focus of customer complaints in e-commerce service encounters. Analyzing interactions between customers and service agents on Taobao, the study reveals how customer complaints are triggered by perceived moral transgressions attributed to service agents. The findings identify two types of transgressions: distributive and interactional. The study highlights metapragmatic expressions that reveal customers’ beliefs about appropriate standards in the complaint resolution process. Customers perceive service agents as violating distributive justice by infringing on their benefactive, epistemic, and deontic rights, and as breaching interactional justice through lapses in responsibility and honesty. Overall, the study illustrates how customers’ metapragmatic perceptions of moral transgressions shape complaint interactions in e-commerce settings, providing crucial insights for both theoretical analysis and practical applications. |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-a7f8098ecdaa4594aa18d7464c77ee86 |
| institution | Kabale University |
| issn | 2662-9992 |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2025-01-01 |
| publisher | Springer Nature |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Humanities & Social Sciences Communications |
| spelling | doaj-art-a7f8098ecdaa4594aa18d7464c77ee862025-01-05T12:11:41ZengSpringer NatureHumanities & Social Sciences Communications2662-99922025-01-0112111310.1057/s41599-024-04316-3Understanding complaints: the role of moral transgressions in e-commerce interactionsXu Huang0Xuekun Liu1Guangdong University of Foreign StudiesCentral China Normal UniversityAbstract This discourse-pragmatic study examines why a past or on-going action become the focus of customer complaints in e-commerce service encounters. Analyzing interactions between customers and service agents on Taobao, the study reveals how customer complaints are triggered by perceived moral transgressions attributed to service agents. The findings identify two types of transgressions: distributive and interactional. The study highlights metapragmatic expressions that reveal customers’ beliefs about appropriate standards in the complaint resolution process. Customers perceive service agents as violating distributive justice by infringing on their benefactive, epistemic, and deontic rights, and as breaching interactional justice through lapses in responsibility and honesty. Overall, the study illustrates how customers’ metapragmatic perceptions of moral transgressions shape complaint interactions in e-commerce settings, providing crucial insights for both theoretical analysis and practical applications.https://doi.org/10.1057/s41599-024-04316-3 |
| spellingShingle | Xu Huang Xuekun Liu Understanding complaints: the role of moral transgressions in e-commerce interactions Humanities & Social Sciences Communications |
| title | Understanding complaints: the role of moral transgressions in e-commerce interactions |
| title_full | Understanding complaints: the role of moral transgressions in e-commerce interactions |
| title_fullStr | Understanding complaints: the role of moral transgressions in e-commerce interactions |
| title_full_unstemmed | Understanding complaints: the role of moral transgressions in e-commerce interactions |
| title_short | Understanding complaints: the role of moral transgressions in e-commerce interactions |
| title_sort | understanding complaints the role of moral transgressions in e commerce interactions |
| url | https://doi.org/10.1057/s41599-024-04316-3 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT xuhuang understandingcomplaintstheroleofmoraltransgressionsinecommerceinteractions AT xuekunliu understandingcomplaintstheroleofmoraltransgressionsinecommerceinteractions |