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Most of the research on children’s consumer behavior focuses on pre-purchase processes, with brand choice typically being the last stage investigated. This paper aims to examine the outcome of children’s purchase decisions, with an emphasis on dissatisfaction and outcome resolution. Of particular interest was the comprehension level of the corporate communication and the extent to which clear, understandable communication influenced children’s ultimate satisfaction.

Eighty-seven children wrote authentic letters of complaint to manufacturers about a recent product purchase. The study examined what happened after the children complained – i.e. how companies responded to children, and how satisfied children were with the resolution and the overall complaint handling process. Two widely regarded readability formulas were used to measure the complexity of the written correspondence.

The present study suggests that child complainants are the most concerned with the bottom-line results of their communication efforts. Like adults, they want the problem corrected. Unfortunately, the majority of children did not feel fully satisfied with the corporate complaint handling process. Over one-third of the companies in the sample did not even bother to respond to children’s legitimate complaints, despite the fact that each child specifically asked the company to write back. Those firms which did were more likely to respond with a letter only than with a letter plus add-on. And the corporate letters, by and large, were written at an educational level which would preclude full understanding by the child.

Because consumer complaint behavior is not randomly distributed in the population, the use of probability sampling was precluded. Published studies which have used consumer complaint letters as the data collection method have relied primarily on convenience sampling. In the present study, judgmental sampling was used to select children participants. Three criteria were applied. Children had to be aged between 10 and 13 years. Children had to have experienced dissatisfaction with a product purchase made over the previous six months. Children could not have taken any public action to resolve their dissatisfaction. But they had to be willing to write a letter of complaint at this point. It was considered of utmost importance that the letters used in this study be authentic. They had to be composed and penned by the children themselves. This criterion, coupled with the fact that the complaints were legitimate, avoided the obvious ethical dilemma associated with the use of fabricated letters.

It seems ironic that in the present era of consumer consciousness, corporations do not place greater emphasis on truly communicating with their customers, where communication is viewed as a process of establishing shared meaning. How can there be shared meaning when the message sender fails to consider the characteristics of the receiver – characteristics such as age and cognitive development? Businesses may argue that their corporate communication policies and practices are based on a concern for cost efficiency. This argument carries little merit, unfortunately. Even the federal government, through the Plain Writing Act of 2010, acknowledges the importance of using common, everyday words and plain English in all written documents.

On the surface, American businesses state that they welcome customer feedback. The comments of children are more sought after now than ever before, particularly in the area of advertising and new product development. But the results of this study show that companies have a long way to go before they can claim to be truly receiver-oriented in their managerial communication policies. Perhaps this is why consumers – certainly child consumers – are only beginning to believe that when kids complain, companies will respond.

The vast body of complaint research focuses almost exclusively on adults. Despite their sophistication and marketing literacy, children are not miniature adults. It is not known whether the same models and findings with respect to adult complaint behavior apply to children. Unfortunately, there are very few studies of children’s complaint behavior and corporate responses.

Studies the presence of symbols in the service advertisements. Examines the denotative visual content of service advertisements from 1982‐1992 in order to better understand the role relationships between provider and consumer. The study begins with the premise that power and commitment are two dimensions of role relationships which distinguish types of services. The research then explores the various ways in which power and commitment are conveyed through manifest nonverbal symbols.

Criticizes the attitude of separatism used in evaluating management performance. Asserts that looking at narrow functional areas does not provide a holistic picture of an organization, for example, production may reduce its costs by using inferior quality materials but marketing and sales may not be able to sell the product so their performance declines. Suggests that some organizations suffer from conflict between functional areas because they are evaluated on the outcomes from activities they control, affecting overall organizational performance. Indicates that asset investment decisions should be based on the interdependent relationship between accounting, finance and marketing departments, and that this can best be achieved if a cross‐functional team makes the asset investment decisions. Points out the inherent difficulties in evaluating intangible assets. Focuses on advertising and research and development (R&D) and how investments could be evaluated using functional and cross‐functional teams, based on financial data (on 126 firms) accessed from the Compustat PC Plus database. Takes a look at economic value‐added, which questions the differences between the accounting and economic models of a firm. Uses regression analysis to examine the impact of advertising, R&D and other explanatory variables on market value, accounting profitability and sales. Finds support for using cross‐functional teams in evaluating intangible asset investments. Recommends areas for further research.