IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/jbrese/v95y2019icp455-463.html

How can ethical brands respond to service failures? Understanding how moral identity motivates compensation preferences through self-consistency and social approval

Author

Listed:
  • van Gils, Suzanne
  • Horton, Kate E.

Abstract

We examine how the two dimensions of moral identity - internalization and symbolization - impact on customers' relationships with ethical brands, as well as their satisfaction with different types of (private versus public) compensation and apologies following service failures. We propose and find in a field study of customers of a green social enterprise (N = 159) and in an online scenario study (N = 214) that high moral identity internalization is associated with higher satisfaction with private apologies, but not with public apologies and compensation, while high moral identity symbolization is associated with higher satisfaction with public compensation and apologies, but not with private apologies and compensation. Study 2 extends these findings by confirming that self-consistency mediates the relationships between moral identity internalization and private apologies and compensation, while social approval mediates the relationships between moral identity symbolization and public apologies and compensation. Unexpectedly self-consistency also mediated the effect of symbolization on public compensation. Implications of these findings are discussed.

Suggested Citation

  • van Gils, Suzanne & Horton, Kate E., 2019. "How can ethical brands respond to service failures? Understanding how moral identity motivates compensation preferences through self-consistency and social approval," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 95(C), pages 455-463.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:jbrese:v:95:y:2019:i:c:p:455-463
    DOI: 10.1016/j.jbusres.2018.07.042
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S014829631830362X
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.jbusres.2018.07.042?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to

    for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Husted, Bryan W. & Russo, Michael V. & Meza, Carlos E. Basurto & Tilleman, Suzanne G., 2014. "An exploratory study of environmental attitudes and the willingness to pay for environmental certification in Mexico," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 67(5), pages 891-899.
    2. Paolo Antonetti & Stan Maklan, 2016. "An Extended Model of Moral Outrage at Corporate Social Irresponsibility," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 135(3), pages 429-444, May.
    3. Kauppinen-Räisänen, Hannele & Björk, Peter & Lönnström, Alexandra & Jauffret, Marie-Nathalie, 2018. "How consumers' need for uniqueness, self-monitoring, and social identity affect their choices when luxury brands visually shout versus whisper," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 84(C), pages 72-81.
    4. Desmet, Pieter T.M. & Cremer, David De & Dijk, Eric van, 2011. "In money we trust? The use of financial compensations to repair trust in the aftermath of distributive harm," Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, Elsevier, vol. 114(2), pages 75-86, March.
    5. Fehr, Ryan & Gelfand, Michele J., 2010. "When apologies work: How matching apology components to victims' self-construals facilitates forgiveness," Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, Elsevier, vol. 113(1), pages 37-50, September.
    6. Yang, Defeng & Lu, Yue & Zhu, Wenting & Su, Chenting, 2015. "Going green: How different advertising appeals impact green consumption behavior," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 68(12), pages 2663-2675.
    7. Gonçalves, Helena Martins & Lourenço, Tiago Ferreira & Silva, Graça Miranda, 2016. "Green buying behavior and the theory of consumption values: A fuzzy-set approach," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 69(4), pages 1484-1491.
    8. Hazée, Simon & Van Vaerenbergh, Yves & Armirotto, Vincent, 2017. "Co-creating service recovery after service failure: The role of brand equity," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 74(C), pages 101-109.
    9. Alyson Byrne & Julian Barling & Kathryne Dupré, 2014. "Leader Apologies and Employee and Leader Well-Being," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 121(1), pages 91-106, April.
    10. De Cremer, David, 2010. "To pay or to apologize? On the psychology of dealing with unfair offers in a dictator game," Journal of Economic Psychology, Elsevier, vol. 31(6), pages 843-848, December.
    11. Wang, Xia & Tong, Luqiong, 2015. "Hide the light or let it shine? Examining the factors influencing the effect of publicizing donations on donors’ happiness," International Journal of Research in Marketing, Elsevier, vol. 32(4), pages 418-424.
    12. Cambra-Fierro, Jesus & Melero, Iguacel & Sese, F. Javier, 2015. "Managing Complaints to Improve Customer Profitability," Journal of Retailing, Elsevier, vol. 91(1), pages 109-124.
    13. Kristopher J. Preacher & Patrick J. Curran & Daniel J. Bauer, 2006. "Computational Tools for Probing Interactions in Multiple Linear Regression, Multilevel Modeling, and Latent Curve Analysis," Journal of Educational and Behavioral Statistics, , vol. 31(4), pages 437-448, December.
    14. Maxham, James III, 2001. "Service recovery's influence on consumer satisfaction, positive word-of-mouth, and purchase intentions," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 54(1), pages 11-24, October.
    15. Erifili Papista & Athanasios Krystallis, 2013. "Investigating the Types of Value and Cost of Green Brands: Proposition of a Conceptual Framework," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 115(1), pages 75-92, June.
    16. del Río-Lanza, Ana Belén & Vázquez-Casielles, Rodolfo & Díaz-Martín, Ana M, 2009. "Satisfaction with service recovery: Perceived justice and emotional responses," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 62(8), pages 775-781, August.
    17. Jatinder Singh & Oriol Iglesias & Joan Batista-Foguet, 2012. "Does Having an Ethical Brand Matter? The Influence of Consumer Perceived Ethicality on Trust, Affect and Loyalty," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 111(4), pages 541-549, December.
    18. Sudbury-Riley, Lynn & Kohlbacher, Florian, 2016. "Ethically minded consumer behavior: Scale review, development, and validation," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 69(8), pages 2697-2710.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Omar S. Itani & Nawar N. Chaker, 2022. "Harnessing the Power Within: The Consequences of Salesperson Moral Identity and the Moderating Role of Internal Competitive Climate," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 181(4), pages 847-871, December.
    2. Kulow, Katina & Kwon, Mina & Barone, Michael J., 2021. "Does seeing bad make you do good? How witnessing retail transgressions influence responses to cause marketing offers," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 132(C), pages 680-692.
    3. Sharma, Isha & Jain, Kokil & Behl, Abhishek, 2020. "Effect of service transgressions on distant third-party customers: The role of moral identity and moral judgment," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 121(C), pages 696-712.
    4. Vilasanti da Luz, Victoria & Mantovani, Danielle & Nepomuceno, Marcelo Vinhal, 2020. "Matching green messages with brand positioning to improve brand evaluation," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 119(C), pages 25-40.
    5. Hu, Xin & He, Liuyi & Liu, Junjun, 2022. "The power of beauty: Be your ideal self in online reviews—an empirical study based on face detection," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 67(C).
    6. Lihong Chen & Habiba Halepoto & Chunhong Liu & Naveeta Kumari & Xinfeng Yan & Qinying Du & Hafeezullah Memon, 2021. "Relationship Analysis among Apparel Brand Image, Self-Congruity, and Consumers’ Purchase Intention," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(22), pages 1-15, November.
    7. van Gils, Suzanne & Seljeseth, Ingvild Müller, 2025. "Ally or antagonist? Moral identity determines the curvilinear effect of ethical leadership on employee stress," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 199(C).
    8. Confente, Ilenia & Scarpi, Daniele & Russo, Ivan, 2020. "Marketing a new generation of bio-plastics products for a circular economy: The role of green self-identity, self-congruity, and perceived value," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 112(C), pages 431-439.
    9. Munazza Saeed & Arhum Ahmed & Erhan Boğan & Osman Abul & Ahmad Qammar, 2025. "‘Buying green’: the role of green customer-based brand equity in shaping customers’ green buying behavior," Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development, Springer, vol. 27(3), pages 5981-5997, March.
    10. Sreen, Naman & Mehrotra, Ankit & Alghafes, Rsha & Agarwal, Vaishali, 2025. "Interplay between minimalism, moral identity, and ethically minded consumer behavior in retail context: Cross-cultural investigation of Indian and American consumers," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 84(C).
    11. Angela Madan & Mihai-Ioan Roșca & Adrian Apostol, 2022. "A Holistic Concept based on Modern Influential Techniques of Integrated Marketing Communication: A Country Image Model," Journal of Emerging Trends in Marketing and Management, The Bucharest University of Economic Studies, vol. 1(1), pages 71-90, November.
    12. Aboelenien, Aya & Arsel, Zeynep, 2024. "The shaping of marketplace moral sentiments," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 182(C).
    13. Ramona Demasi & Christian Voegtlin, 2023. "When the Private and the Public Self Don’t Align: The Role of Discrepant Moral Identity Dimensions in Processing Inconsistent CSR Information," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 187(1), pages 73-96, September.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Jeanpert, Sophie & Jacquemier-Paquin, Laure & Claye-Puaux, Sophie, 2021. "The role of human interaction in complaint handling," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 62(C).
    2. Sophie Jeanpert & Laure Jacquemier & Sophie Claye-Puaux, 2021. "The role of human interaction in complaint handling," Post-Print hal-03516556, HAL.
    3. Ramakrishna Salagrama & Sanjeev Prashar & T. Sai Vijay, 2021. "Do customers exhibit gratitude after service recovery? Understanding the moderating role of relationship type," Service Business, Springer;Pan-Pacific Business Association, vol. 15(4), pages 757-779, December.
    4. Gelbrich, Katja & Gäthke, Jana & Grégoire, Yany, 2016. "How a firm's best versus normal customers react to compensation after a service failure," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 69(10), pages 4331-4339.
    5. Tan, Teck Ming & Balaji, M.S. & Oikarinen, Eeva-Liisa & Alatalo, Sari & Salo, Jari, 2021. "Recover from a service failure: The differential effects of brand betrayal and brand disappointment on an exclusive brand offering," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 123(C), pages 126-139.
    6. Yuan-Shuh Lii & May-Ching Ding & Chih-Huang Lin, 2018. "Fair or Unfair: The Moderating Effect of Sustainable CSR Practices on Anticipatory Justice Following Service Failure Recovery," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(12), pages 1-21, December.
    7. Pantea Foroudi & S. Asieh Hosseini Tabaghdehi & Valentina Cillo & Maria Teresa Cuomo, 2025. "E-service failure and recovery strategy in times of crisis: effect on peer attitudes, expectation and future intention," Review of Managerial Science, Springer, vol. 19(2), pages 537-571, February.
    8. Weitzl, Wolfgang & Hutzinger, Clemens, 2017. "The effects of marketer- and advocate-initiated online service recovery responses on silent bystanders," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 80(C), pages 164-175.
    9. Nobuyuki Fukawa & Sunil Erevelles, 2014. "Perceived Reasonableness and Morals in Service Encounters," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 125(3), pages 381-400, December.
    10. Ben Gilbert & Alexander James & Jason F. Shogren, 2018. "Corporate apology for environmental damage," Journal of Risk and Uncertainty, Springer, vol. 56(1), pages 51-81, February.
    11. Gasparotto, Lisiane Santos & Pacheco, Natália Araujo & Basso, Kenny & Corte, Vitor Francisco Dalla & Rabello, Gisele Costa & Gallon, Shalimar, 2018. "The role of regulation and financial compensation on trust recovery," Australasian marketing journal, Elsevier, vol. 26(1), pages 10-16.
    12. Jose Ribamar Siqueira Junior & Enrique Horst & German Molina & Laura H. Gunn & Felipe Reinoso-Carvalho & Burcu Sezen & Nathalie Peña-García, 2023. "Branding in the eye of the storm: the impact of brand ethical behavior on brand commitment during the COVID-19 crisis in a South American country," Journal of Marketing Analytics, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 11(1), pages 95-115, March.
    13. Kähkönen, T. & Blomqvist, K. & Gillespie, N. & Vanhala, M., 2021. "Employee trust repair: A systematic review of 20 years of empirical research and future research directions," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 130(C), pages 98-109.
    14. R. V. ShabbirHusain, 2022. "Green offering: more the centrality, greater the scepticism," International Review on Public and Nonprofit Marketing, Springer;International Association of Public and Non-Profit Marketing, vol. 19(4), pages 819-834, December.
    15. Rodolfo Vázquez-Casielles & Víctor Iglesias & Concepción Varela-Neira, 2010. "Service recovery, satisfaction and behaviour intentions: analysis of compensation and social comparison communication strategies," The Service Industries Journal, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 32(1), pages 83-103, July.
    16. Javornik, Ana & Filieri, Raffaele & Gumann, Ralph, 2020. "“Don't Forget that Others Are Watching, Too!” The Effect of Conversational Human Voice and Reply Length on Observers' Perceptions of Complaint Handling in Social Media," Journal of Interactive Marketing, Elsevier, vol. 50(C), pages 100-119.
    17. Manu, C & Sreejesh, S, 2024. "‘Do not be Deteriorated by service failures, Learn from them and start managing it’: Conditions and mechanisms for managing online service failures," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 81(C).
    18. Kopalle, Praveen K. & Lehmann, Donald R. & Ramachandran, Divya & Wetzels, Ruud, 2025. "Journal of Business Research Publications 1973–2024: Topics, methodological approaches, data, and analyses conducted," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 194(C).
    19. Oznur Ozkan Tektas, 2017. "Perceived justice and post-recovery satisfaction in banking service failures: Do commitment types matter?," Service Business, Springer;Pan-Pacific Business Association, vol. 11(4), pages 851-870, December.
    20. Gohary, Ali & Hamzelu, Bahman & Alizadeh, Hamid, 2016. "Please explain why it happened! How perceived justice and customer involvement affect post co-recovery evaluations: A study of Iranian online shoppers," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 31(C), pages 127-142.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:jbrese:v:95:y:2019:i:c:p:455-463. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/jbusres .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.