Developers and terminators in hypermarkets' relationships with Chinese customers

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to identify distinguishing attributes of (dis)satisfying service contacts in a Chinese cultural context. Design/methodology/approach – The data were collected in the form of critical incidents from a purposive snowball sample of hypermarket customers. Analysis of the responses revealed 277 critical judgements related (dis)satisfying determinants. Findings – Findings reveal 17 determinants with 37 sub‐determinants for all the experiences: five determinants relate to satisfactory evaluations, seven to dissatisfactory, and a further five to both. The determinants represent a marked departure from existing determinants of service quality described in the Western oriented literature. Originality/value – The findings are related to Chinese (Confucian) culture to suggest determinants that can both develop and lead to termination of hypermarkets' relationships with their customers. A focus on the developers and terminators provides practical insights to foreign and indigenous managers of hypermarkets in the Far East for focus in service delivery.