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The impact of service failure on brand credibility

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  • Bougoure, Ursula Sigrid
  • Russell-Bennett, Rebekah
  • Fazal-E-Hasan, Syed
  • Mortimer, Gary

Abstract

Recent studies have examined the consequences of brand credibility, with the majority of works embedded in physical goods. Despite the growing attention service branding receives, little is known about how service failure and recovery efforts impact on brand credibility in service organisations. The purpose of this study is to examine how brand credibility is affected by service failure and an organisations recovery efforts. An online self-completion survey of airline consumers (n=875) was employed to test the relationships between the focal constructs. The results show that a service firm’s effective complaint handling positively impacts satisfaction with complaining, overall satisfaction and service brand credibility. The study also finds that the higher the perceived magnitude of failure, the more difficult it is to satisfy a customer. These results demonstrate that it is possible to maintain service brand credibility during a service failure, provided brand managers develop and implement effective complain handling procedures.

Suggested Citation

  • Bougoure, Ursula Sigrid & Russell-Bennett, Rebekah & Fazal-E-Hasan, Syed & Mortimer, Gary, 2016. "The impact of service failure on brand credibility," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 31(C), pages 62-71.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:joreco:v:31:y:2016:i:c:p:62-71
    DOI: 10.1016/j.jretconser.2016.03.006
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    8. Jafarzadeh, Hamed & Tafti, Mahdi & Intezari, Ali & Sohrabi, Babak, 2021. "All's well that ends well: Effective recovery from failures during the delivery phase of e-retailing process," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 62(C).
    9. Ku, Hsuan-Hsuan & Shang, Rong-An & Fu, Yi-Fan, 2021. "Social learning effects of complaint handling on social media: Self-construal as a moderator," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 59(C).
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