The Two Types of Consumer Anger: An Extended Abstract

A significant body of work explores the nature and potential consequences of anger at the firm in a marketing context. The existing research is fragmented and presents inconsistent findings. While some argue that anger has a key role in explaining consumer revenge (e.g., Grégoire et al. 2010), others maintain that the emotion is mostly focused on the attainment of circumscribed goals and can help foster relationships (e.g., Kalamas et al. 2008). Furthermore, scholars use the label “anger” to describe qualitatively different emotional experiences. Some conceive anger as an emotion caused simply by the appraisal of incongruent goals attributed to external causes (e.g., Folkes 1984), while others assume anger to be a very intense emotion, intrinsically associated with aggression (e.g., Grégoire et al. 2010). These inconsistencies suggest the need to reexamine anger at the firm.