How frontline employees' communication styles affect consumers' willingness to interact: The boundary condition of emotional ability similarity

This research explored the impacts of frontline employees' communication styles (task-oriented vs. social-oriented) on consumers' willingness to interact. The hypothesized relationship between communication style and willingness to interact was tested based on two experiments and analyzed by ANOVA and PROCESS program. The results revealed that consumers' willingness to interact was higher when frontline employees adopted a social-oriented style, while social distance mediated this influence. We identified emotional ability similarity as a boundary condition, indicating that social-oriented communication is more effective than task-oriented when there is low emotional ability similarity. However, when the emotional ability similarity is high, both communication styles positively influence consumers' willingness to interact. Theoretical contributions, managerial applications, and future research directions are discussed.