How Embarrassing! An Exploratory Study of Critical Incidents Including Affective Reactions

Using Critical Incident Technique, data are collected from 166 respondents who related incidents involving embarrassment experienced over a total of 44 different service environments. In applying a functional analysis, a number of embarrassment antecedents in the form of sources (e.g., customer, service provider, others present) and stimuli (e.g., criticism, awkward acts, image appropriateness, forgetfulness/lack of knowledge/error, environment/surroundings, and violations of privacy) are identified. Embarrassment was found to be manifested by emotional, physiological, and behavioral reactions, and its long-term consequences include both positive and negative behavioral intentions and word-of-mouth communications. The Functional Analysis of Consumer Embarrassment provides an informative framework to enhance our understanding of affective reactions in service encounters and provides a solid foundation for future research.