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This paper draws on ideas in economics and game theory to develop a new theory of marketing in the emerging network economy. The paper argues that in a network economy, firms and consumers will confront “coordination problems”. With the emerging network economy all this becomes urgent because the availability and cost of information decreases. Also, timing issues become urgent as millions of people get access to the same information simultaneously. That explains why events where masses of viewers simultaneously participate in the same events become so important. The paper introduces a simple game theoretic model and discusses marketing applications and possible strategies. These strategies imply considerable use of communication resources in order to fulfil the common knowledge requirements.

The purpose of this paper is threefold: to examine complaint management among retailers in order to develop a typology of their strategic complaint management system; to develop a profile of each retailer group included in the typology using a set of key relevant variables (e.g. company size, perceived customer dissatisfaction); and to investigate the state of complaint management across different types of retailers.

Data are collected from an online survey of Danish and Swedish grocery retailers, electronic stores, car‐dealers, and furniture stores (n=260) using self‐administered questionnaires.

Cluster analysis identifies two clusters of retailers: non‐active complaint handlers and medium‐active complaint handlers. Medium‐active complaint handlers regard complaint handling as having higher strategic relevance than non‐active complaint handlers and also, medium‐active complaint handlers were more inclined to compensate the complaining customers for the loss they might have experienced. The developed cluster profiles revealed that medium‐active complaint handlers perceive a higher degree of customer dissatisfaction than do non‐active complaint handlers and also that a larger proportion of their customers have complained. Within retailers, grocery stores had the best compensation policies and the most positive attitude toward retailer‐customer interaction, while car dealers are the most likely to have a strategic plan to deal with complaints.

The results obtained in this paper indicate that retailers hesitate from inciting customers to complain. This is unfortunate, as dissatisfied customers should be regarded as a strategic asset, which potentially could provide retailers with important knowledge concerning their products and services and thereby helping retailers in improving their market place behaviour.

No other research has looked across different types of retailers to determine if there are differences in the integration of complaints to the strategic management process.