Customer attributions of service failure and its impact on commitment in the airline industry: an emerging market perspective

ABSTRACT

The purpose of this study was to establish the impact of customer service failure attributions on customer commitment and the influence of service failure severity on recovery satisfaction. Data were collected through structured questionnaires and the hypotheses were tested using Structural Equation Modelling (SEM). The study revealed that service failure severity and attribution dimensions of stability and controllability influence recovery satisfaction. No relationship was established between locus of causality and recovery satisfaction. It was revealed that recovery satisfaction influences customer commitment and knowledge of alternatives moderates the relationship between the two. Service providers are recommedend to avoid preventable service failures.

KEYWORDS:

• Service failure attributions
• recovery satisfaction
• customer commitment
• airline industry
• failure severity
• emerging market
• knowledge of alternatives
• stability
• controllability
• locus of causality

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.