Desire for Revenge

What it measures

This scale measures how likely a customer is to engage in a range of negative behaviors against an online retailer in retaliation, from negative word-of-mouth to switching to competitors. Li and Fumagalli (2022) used it across five studies on how discontinuing repetitive delight offers heightens customers' desire for revenge, drawing ideas for the items from prior betrayal and complaining-behavior research.

Response format

7-point scale (1=extremely unlikely, 7=extremely likely)

Scale items

• I will talk unfavorably about this online retailer on social media (e.g., Twitter, Facebook, etc.).
• I will leave a negative online review for this online retailer.
• I will say negative things about this online retailer to other people (e.g., friends, family, co-workers).
• I will contact them and give them a hard time (e.g., call customer service, email them, send a letter to CEO).
• I will actively promote their competitors on social media (e.g., Twitter, Facebook, etc.).
• I will unsubscribe from this online retailer’s loyalty program.
• I will be no longer interested in what this online retailer offers.
• I will stop browsing this online retailer’s website.
• I will stop supporting this online retailer online (e.g., unlike Facebook page, unfollow them on Twitter, delete their pins from my Pinterest account).
• I will remove this online retailer’s website from my browser bookmarks.
• I will remove this online retailer’s app from my phone/tablet.
• I will not purchase from this online retailer again in the future.
• I will start buying groceries from this online retailer’s competitors.

Full scale items shown. Always cite the original source when using this scale in research.

Usage notes & scoring

Instructions asked participants to rate how likely they were to engage in each behavior (1=extremely unlikely, 7=extremely likely). Alphas ranged from .88 (Study 1c) to .95 (Study 1b) across administrations (Li and Fumagalli 2022). Validity was not separately discussed. The authors drew ideas for the items from scales by Grégoire and Fisher (2008) and Huefner and Hunt (2000) rather than adapting them directly. Separate EFAs across studies sometimes found a two-factor (more active vs. more passive) solution, though results were consistent either way; a six-item subset (items 3, 4, 6, 7, 12, 13) was used in Study 1c.

Citation

Li, Yi and Elena Fumagalli (2022), "Spoiled Rotten: How and When Discontinuation of Repetitive and Regular Delight Offers Increases Customer Desire for Revenge," Journal of Retailing, 98 (3), 412-431.

Keywords