Title: Is corporate reputation a double-edged sword? Relative effects of perceived justice in airline service recovery

Authors: May-Ching Ding; Ching-Wei Ho; Yuan-Shuh Lii

Addresses: Department of Marketing, Feng Chia University, 100 Wenhwa Road, Seatwen, Taichung, 407, Taiwan ' Department of Marketing, Feng Chia University, 100 Wenhwa Road, Seatwen, Taichung, 407, Taiwan ' Department of Marketing, Feng Chia University, 100 Wenhwa Road, Seatwen, Taichung, 407, Taiwan

Abstract: This study aims to test empirically airline passengers' perceptions of the relative importance of justice dimensions following a service failure and recovery. In addition, airline reputation is proposed to moderate the relationship between justice dimensions and attitudinal responses. A survey of 271 airline passengers who had prior experience with service failure and recovery was analysed using structural equation modelling. The results indicate that all three justice dimensions affected satisfaction and trust, with distributive justice presenting the strongest relative effect. Perceived justice also generated positive eWOM and repurchase intentions. For airlines with a better corporate reputation, the effects of perceived justice dimensions on recovery satisfaction and trust were greater. This study points to the important halo effect of corporate reputation as a means of establishing sustainable marketing strategies in service recovery.

Keywords: service recovery; perceived justice; customer satisfaction; trust; corporate reputation; repurchase intentions; airline services; airline passengers; passenger perceptions; service failure; structural equation modelling; SEM; eWOM; electronic WOM; word of mouth; halo effect.

DOI: 10.1504/IJEBR.2015.070266

International Journal of Economics and Business Research, 2015 Vol.10 No.1, pp.1 - 17

Received: 16 Jun 2014
Accepted: 28 Oct 2014
Published online: 01 Jul 2015 *

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