Justice Based Recovery Expectations of Airline Passengers After Service Failure - A Conceptual Study - A Case Study of Goa - India

Abstract

Purpose: This study researched the perceived severity and controllability of various service failure scenarios and the divergent expectations of justice from the viewpoints of the customers. Theoretical Framework: Understanding customers’ expectations from service recovery after service failure is essential to the service providers, as services are highly prone to failures. The mismatch between customers’ expectations of service recovery and service recovery action of the service provider will cause dissatisfaction to customer. Hence, this study considered the varying perceptions of severity and controllability of service failure scenarios leading to dissimilar expectations of customers in terms of justice. Design/Methodology/Approach: This study has adopted three stage methodologies. In stage I, exploratory interviews with the officials of eight airlines and eight passengers were conducted, along with perusal of airline websites, for obtaining failure situations. In stage II, these situations were used in questionnaire 1, and responses of 313 airline passengers were used to determine the seriousness and manageability of failure scenarios. In stage III, 459 responses to questionnaires 2 and 2 A helped to unearth their expectations of justice, using failure scenarios collected in stage II. Findings: The study demonstrates that the three types of justice, namely, procedural, interactional, and distributive justice are preferred in different order, depending on whether perceived severity and controllability of failure circumstances are present or absent. The findings of this study may not be generalizable across different industries due to varied servicescapes and dissimilar failure situations across industries. Research, Practical/ & Social Implications: Depending on the various failure scenarios, the firm's resources can be properly directed towards delivering the desired justice. This can stall client flight by preventing secondary discontent with service recovery, which is explained as double deviation, and open the door for relationship marketing. Originality/Value: Even though studies on service failure and recovery have garnered a lot of attention, the combined effect perceived severity and controllability of failure circumstances on customers' expectations of justice was not apparent. This study enhances the body of knowledge on service recovery by presenting how these two variables, when taken together, would affect the order of preference of recovery expectations of justice.