The value of claims and economic response. Sociology and history of a management phenomenon.

Summary Why and how do large companies deal with customer complaints? What effects does this treatment have on the internal regulations of the firms? What can the claimant expect? This thesis proposes to address this set of questions through an ethnographic survey conducted in two large French companies. Based on the analytical tools developed by Albert O. Hirschman, it proposes a historical and sociological description of complaint handling practices. In this way, she wishes to contribute to the problematic of the influence of the final recipient of a product on the companies that produce and sell it.