Religious Affiliation: Buffering Negative Reactions to Service Failures

Kelly Cowart, Edward Ramirez, Michael K. Brady

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

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 languageAmerican English
JournalJournal of Services Marketing
Volume28
DOIs
StatePublished - Jan 1 2022
Externally publishedYes

Keywords

  • Religion
  • Customer satisfaction
  • Service failure

Disciplines

  • Business
  • Marketing

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