Research in Brief A Field Study of Causal Inferences and Consumer Reaction: The View from the Airport VALERIE S. FOLKES SUSAN KOLETSKY JOHN L. GRAHAM* A field study was conducted at an airport to examine the relationships among at- tributions, affects, and behavioral responses of consumers experiencing a prcxJuct failure. Ninety-seven passengers on delayed flights were interviewed about their attributions for the delay, their affective reactions, the imponance of on-time arnval, their p'-opensity to complain about the problem, and their desire to fly the same airline again, A path analysis indicates that attributions had not only direct effects on desire to complain about the problem and to fly the same airline, but also indirect effects, mediated by anger at the airline. A ttribution theory has provided a useful framework for examining consumers* reactions to product failure (e.g.. Bettman 1979; Richins 1983; Valle and Wallendorf 1977). The research presented here employs a more complex model than previous research has used in order to analyze how consumers' attributions for product failure are related to desire to repurchase a ser- vice and to complain about a problem. Drawing on Weiner's (1985) attributional approach, we hypothe- sized that causal inferences would have direct effects on desire to repurchase and complain as well as indirect effects, which would be mediated by anger at the firm. But this study departs from the role play and critical "Valerie S. Folkcs is Assistant Professor of Marketing at the School of Business Administration, University of Southern California. Los Angeles, CA 90089. Susan Koleisky is an Associate of Morgan Stanley and Company. Inc., New York, NY 10020. John L. Graham is As- sociate Professor of Marketing at the School of Business Adminis- tration, University of Southern California. The authors appreciate the helpful comments of Scott Greene and Bernard Wciner on an earlier draft of this anicle and gratefully acknowledge the help of Sandra Graham and Peter Bentler in analyzing the data and Jerr> Radder. Douglas Cain, and Mark Dennett in conducting this research 534 incident methodologies that have been used to inves- tigate Weiner's theories about affect and attribution (e.g.. Meyer and Mulherin 1980; Weiner 1980: Weiner, Russell, and Lerman 1979). In the present research, consumers' reactions to product problems were ex- amined in a field setting. Specifically, passengers at an airport were interviewed about their attributions for flight delays while waiting for their planes lo depart. BACKGROUND When a product fails, the consumer often attempts to determine why. Thus, when an airline flight is de- layed, the passenger may attribute the delay to a variety of reasons, including bad weather, a mechanical break- down, air traffic control problems, or poor management practices. This variety of explanations can be classified by underlying causal properties or dimensions. Two or- thogonal dimensions relevant to this research are con- trollability and stability. On the one hand, causes differ by the extent to which they are either under volitional control and involve choice or are not under volitional control and are constrained (Weiner 1985). When fog or ice delays a flight, the delay is not controlled by the € JOURNAL OF CONSUMER RESEARCH • Vol l.l»March 198"