IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/spr/joamsc/v53y2025i2d10.1007_s11747-023-00993-9.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

How an ethos of repair shapes material sustainability in services

Author

Listed:
  • D. Matthew Godfrey

    (University of Massachusetts Amherst)

  • Linda L. Price

    (University of Wyoming)

Abstract

Environmental sustainability requires market services to care for and respect physical materials, moving beyond a conventional customer-centric focus. This research examines how service providers can incorporate tangible objects and material processes into reparative services, which span many industries and enable material sustainability in market systems. The paper also analyzes how materiality shapes customer perceptions of reparative service processes and outcomes. An interpretive analysis of ethnographic and online review data identifies an ethos of repair shaping service processes, outcomes, and evaluations. Service providers demonstrate an ethos of repair through a sense of material empathy and through a networked understanding of how materials interact before, during, and after service processes. Tensions between the ethos of repair and a pervasive ethos of consumption shape customer evaluations of reparative services. Results have important implications for environmental sustainability. A discussion presents strategic recommendations for making, delivering, and enabling reparative service promises.

Suggested Citation

  • D. Matthew Godfrey & Linda L. Price, 2025. "How an ethos of repair shapes material sustainability in services," Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, Springer, vol. 53(2), pages 439-462, March.
  • Handle: RePEc:spr:joamsc:v:53:y:2025:i:2:d:10.1007_s11747-023-00993-9
    DOI: 10.1007/s11747-023-00993-9
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s11747-023-00993-9
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1007/s11747-023-00993-9?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 search for a different version of it.

    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:spr:joamsc:v:53:y:2025:i:2:d:10.1007_s11747-023-00993-9. 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.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using 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: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.com .

    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.