The purpose of this study is to examine the moderating effect on student dissatisfaction and complaint behavior after service failure in university settings.
First, the moderating effect of compliance as personality and service failure causal factors as situational characteristics on student dissatisfaction were studied.
Second, assertiveness as personality and problem solving possibility as situational characteristics on complaint behavior were analyzed as moderating variances.
The hypothesis test results are as followings, using SPSS 21.0 program for Regression Analysis.
The hypothesis [1] that student dissatisfaction would be higher as student perceives service failure higher was adopted, because it was significant statistically(p=0.000).
The hypothesis [2] that dissatisfaction on service failure would be moderated on compliance was rejected as the p-value 0.104, but it showed consistent direction when Z value was used by spotlight method.
The hypothesis [3] that dissatisfaction on service failure would be moderated on service failure causal factors(task/relation) was rejected(beta=-0.044, p=0.059).
The hypothesis [4] that complaint behavior would be higher as dissatisfaction is higher was adopted; the value of dissatisfaction expression intention is beta=0.457, p=0.000, the value of personal complaint behavior is beta=0.536, p=0.000, and the value of public complaint behavior is beta=0.450, p=0.000.
The hypothesis [5] that complaint behavior on dissatisfaction would be moderated on assertiveness was adopted partially; the value of dissatisfaction expression intention is beta=0.059, p=0.081, the value of personal complaint behavior is beta=-0.012, p=0.698, and the value of public complaint behavior is beta=0.097, p=0.007, when the analysis was done by median split method.
The hypothesis [6] that complaint behavior on dissatisfaction would be moderated on problem solving possibility was adopted; the value of dissatisfaction expression intention is beta=0.129, p=0.000, the value of personal complaint behavior is beta=0.158, p=0.000, and the value of public complaint behavior is beta=0.082, p=0.022.
In conclusion, dissatisfaction to service failure and complaint behavior to dissatisfaction were significant. The moderating effect of compliance was insignificant, and the moderating effect of service failure factors(task/relation) was insignificant. The assertiveness’s and problem solving possibility’s moderating effect showed partially and fully significant p-value levels each other.
Many universities are suffering from the sharp decrease in student admission rate and the government’s restructuring policy. Facing such a crisis, university should deal with student dissatisfaction and complaint behavior very carefully to keep and maximize a university’s good reputation. Also it is needed not to let students transfer to other universities domestically or abroad that leads to negative result in tuition profits and university’s stable growth.