Abstract
Purpose: This research aims to examine the buffering effect of a firm's religious association on customer reactions to a service failure.
Design/methodology/approach: Two scenario-driven studies containing religious and non-religious reasons for a store closing were conducted.
Findings: The results from Study 1 suggest that a religious affiliation safeguards against negative reactions to failures related to store policies (see Hoffman et al. , 2003). Customers are more likely to forgive transgressing firms when service failures are associated with religion, regardless of attitudes toward the religious group. A follow up study supports the first, even when no specific religion was identified in the scenario, the service failure involved a firm that closed weekly, and a non-student sample was used.
Research limitations/implications: While the results provide support for the buffering effects of a religious affiliation against a particular type of service failure – temporary service interruptions due to the observance of religious holidays and celebrations, future research should test the robustness of this effect on technology failures and rude treatment by employees.
Originality/value: This paper is the first, to the authors' knowledge, to test the effect of a firm's religious affiliation on customer perceptions of frontline service encounters in general and service failures in particular.
Original language | American English |
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Journal | Journal of Services Marketing |
Volume | 28 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - Jan 1 2022 |
Externally published | Yes |
Keywords
- Religion
- Customer satisfaction
- Service failure
Disciplines
- Business
- Marketing