This PhD thesis examines the effects of product defects on customers’ relationship with the product manufacturer and retailer. Three essays form the dissertation, which reports the analyses to the answers to a survey of 1,348 US customers who purchased a brand new car recently. First, building on Voorhees, Brady, & Horowitz’ (2006), I looked at the customers’ (non-)complaining for product defects and the subsequent repairs on their relationship with the retailer and the manufacturer. Second, I examined the effects of the severity of the experienced product defect and the eventual warranty coverage of repairs on the customers’ perceptions of product quality. Third, I appraised the effects of the frequency of product defects and experiencing each defect type assigned to their product quality category (Brucks, Zeithaml, & Naylor, 2000) on the customers’ perceptions of product quality and loyalty to the product manufacturer.
Authors: Giuseppe Catenazzo
DOI: https://doi.org/10.13097/archive-ouverte/unige:122801
Publish Year: 2018
