We often assume that emotions play little to no role in business-to-business (B2B) relationships. Rather, decisions in a B2B context are deemed to be purely rational, and to follow a complex process with multiple decision makers. Yet, a metanalysis of research on this topic, conducted by Anne-Madeleine Kranzbühler, Alfred Zerres, Mirella H. P. Kleijnen and Peeter W. J. Verlegh suggests otherwise.
Agnihotri and colleagues found that, in B2B settings, anger has a strong negative effect in outcomes such as evaluation of the interaction, purchase or sharing behaviour (i.e., word of mouth): -0.576 (95% confidence interval). This effect is even stronger that in business-to-consumer (B2C) settings: −0.262 (95% confidence interval).
The researchers suggest that the strong (negative) impact of anger on service outcomes is because: “B2B customers—due to their higher experience and enhanced knowledge—will be more certain about the antecedents and consequences of the encounter than B2C consumers” (p. 484). Thus, when B2B customers feel angry, that emotion becomes highly consequential for their decision making.
Agnihotri and colleagues emphasise the role of front-line employees in emotion management in the B2B context:
“Given that B2B often characterizes itself by more personal, long-term relationships, firms also have an opportunity here to focus their training of account managers specifically on signalling early signs of this emotion and how to deal with this, in their specific role” (p. 495). Actions to deal with anger in B2B could include clear recovery efforts, and compensations.
This paper reminded me of the recent news that consulting firm Deloitte had to make several corrections to a report produced for the Australian Government, after it was found to include several non-existent references and citations, presumably due to use of generative AI. According to a spokesperson of the department that had ordered the report, the problem did not impact the quality of the recommendations. Nonetheless, Deloitte ended up returning part of the fee received.
The Deloitte case is a reminder that even “simple” technical failures can evoke strong reactions in business clients and require decisive action to save the relationship.
The result of this metanalysis is reported in the paper “Beyond valence: a meta-analysis of discrete emotions in firm-customer encounters”, published in the Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science.
Ana Canhoto 