Consumer Forgiveness Research Articles

Consumer forgiveness: A literature review and research agenda

Consumer forgiveness: A literature review and research agenda

The Effect of Service Recovery and Situational Factors on Consumer Forgiveness

The purpose of this study is to (1) determine the effect of service recovery on consumer forgiveness, (2) determine the effect of situational factors on consumer forgiveness. The respondents of this research were 100 consumers of the Tirta Dharma Regional Drinking Water Company, Bengkulu City. The collected data was analyzed using multiple linear regression analysis. The results showed that service recovery has a positive effect on consumer forgiveness. That is, the better service recovery, the higher consumer forgiveness will be. Situational factors have a positive effect on consumer forgiveness. That is, the higher the situational factor of consumers the higher the consumer forgiveness. Implementing service recovery management is considered to have a significant impact on customer evaluation because customers tend to be more emotional when involved in service restoration than during the interactional time of service. When this is done well, a dissatisfied customer can become one of the most loyal customers who acts as public relations for the organization through word of mouth. Improve service quality so that the possibility of service failure can be avoided. With good service quality there will be a positive social environment talk of company services.

Managing Consumer Anger And Consumer Forgiveness Through Service Recovery Strategies In Transportation Sector

The purpose of this study was to examine the effect of service failure severity and consumer anger towards consumer forgiveness and empirically examine the relationship of the effective recovery strategies, consumer forgiveness, and their outcome. Total data was collected from 250 commuters of organized bus services. The survey technique was used for data collection from the commuters of organized bus services. This study was analyzed the data with the help of the data statistical package for social science (SPSS) AMOS version 21 will be used for analyzing the data. The findings reveal that service failure severity and consumer anger have significantly negative related to consumer forgiveness and apology as effective recovery strategy was led more to consumer forgiveness. This research only focuses on one company as one of the limitations of this research that may influence the results presented in this study. The current study is limited to empirically test the direct relationship with consumer forgiveness. This research used non-probability sampling techniques, which cannot describe all the population in Lahore. Service failure severity reduces the willingness of forgiveness and service providers should check all factors that lead to the severity of services. Most importantly, the current study demonstrated that an effective recovery strategy requires the right recovery strategy which leads to consumer forgiveness.

Corporate good deed and service failure: does being good lead to forgiveness?

ABSTRACT While Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) has a positive influence on transactional outcomes following a service failure in the hospitality industry, little is known about its influence on consumer forgiveness, particularly relating to individual differences in subjective interpretations and perceptions. We investigate how different subjective interpretations (abstract and concrete mind-sets, i.e. construal level) and perceptions (i.e. warmth and competence) shape the effects of CSR on consumer forgiveness. Through three studies involving different service scenarios, we find that CSR effectively induces consumer forgiveness, with a stronger effect observed among those with an abstract mind-set (i.e. high-level construal) due to their warmth judgment. These findings underscore the importance of CSR in influencing consumer forgiveness and mitigating the negative outcomes of service failure, especially in situations where recovery with compensation is not feasible.

Handwritten or machine-written? How typeface affects consumer forgiveness for brand failures

The prevalence of brand failures being exposed has risen in the digital era. Issuing apology statements on social media platforms is the most effective strategy for gaining consumer forgiveness nowadays, yet the strategies for leveraging typeface design in apology statements to yield consumer forgiveness remain poorly understood. Drawing on the resource compensation theory, this study aims to investigate how typeface design in apologies influences consumer forgiveness following brand failure. Findings from four studies demonstrated that brand failures and apology typefaces have an interactive effect on consumer forgiveness. Specifically, handwritten apology statements are effective in securing forgiveness from consumers when a brand involved in moral failures through perceived moral control. Conversely, machine-written apology statements are more likely to elicit forgiveness from consumers when a brand commits competence failures through perceived competence control. Furthermore, the brand image (cute vs. cool) moderates this interaction effect. These findings contribute to the literature on brand failure and typeface design, providing valuable managerial insights for brands and retail marketers to leverage typeface design to win consumers’ forgiveness towards brand failures.

Brand avatar present or absent? Investigate brand avatar and consumer forgiveness in public apology

PurposeThe rising occurrence of digitally driven public consumer complaints has made it necessary for enterprises to obtain consumer forgiveness. However, existing research has provided little understanding regarding how to obtain consumer forgiveness effectively. Thus, the present study examined how brand avatars can improve consumer forgiveness in the context of public apology.Design/methodology/approachThis study tested the mechanism of a brand avatar on consumer forgiveness using three studies. Specifically, we explored the direct and mediating effect of empathy toward a brand (Study 1); we identified the moderating mediating effect of humorous responses (Study 2) and product type (Study 3). Data for these studies were collected on Credamo. We analyzed the data using SPSS (26.0) for the primary analysis and PROCESS (3.5) for the mediating and moderating mediating analysis.FindingsThe results indicate that brand avatars enhance consumer forgiveness. Moreover, empathy toward a brand plays a mediating role in the effect of brand avatars on consumer forgiveness. Additionally, when a humorous response is present, a brand avatar can enhance customer forgiveness through empathy toward that brand. Compared to utilitarian products, hedonic products can also increase the impact of a brand avatar on empathy toward the brand, thus enhancing consumers' forgiveness.Originality/valueFrom the perspective of emotion, this study explored the impact of brand avatars on consumer forgiveness via empathy toward a brand. It augments the research on brand avatars and consumer forgiveness. The study also verified the moderating mediating effect of humor response and product type while expanding the brand avatar research boundary.

‘From fail to prevail’ : How a salesperson’s communication sentiment influences consumer forgiveness in service failures focusing on the role of consumer self-construal

ABSTRACT Service Failure and Recovery (SFR) is a crucial area of service industry due to the inevitability of service failures, yet firms often struggle with executing appropriate strategies. This research aims to identify the pinpoint optimal “moment of truth” adopting consumer forgiveness serves as a mediator of service recovery and customers’ overall satisfaction. The study focused on the importance of service providers’ communication sentiment during the apology delivery process in order to elicit authenticity from consumers during the recovery process. Data was collected through a survey from 350 individuals of different nationalities, including Chinese and Korean. A scenario-based experiment using self-administered questionnaires was also conducted. The findings indicate that communication sentiment that oriented in warmth have a positive impact on consumers’ willingness to forgive, while task-oriented and coldness-oriented styles have a negative effect. Additionally, consumers who are interdependent tend to be more influenced by communication sentiment when it comes to forgiveness. These results can be valuable for service firms to train their personnel and develop effective service recovery strategies that enhance consumer empathy and forgiveness.

The effect of service recovery on socially distant third-party customers: an experimental research on emotions, forgiveness, repatronage intention and WoM

PurposeService failures usually occur in front of third-party customers. Third-party customers react emotionally and behaviorally to service failure and recovery efforts aimed at focal customers. However, there is a gap in the literature on how third-party customers react to a service failures incident and a recovery over another customer, depending on how socially close or distant they are from. This study investigates the effect of third-party customers' emotions on consumer forgiveness, negative word-of-mouth (WoM) and repatronage intentions in the service recovery process by comparing close and distant third-party customers.Design/methodology/approachThis study utilizes a 2 (social distance to the focal customer: close, distant) × 2 (service recovery: yes, no) between-subjects design. The authors used a scenario-based experiment to test the proposed hypotheses. A total of 576 respondents were involved in the study.FindingsThe results from the authors' scenario-based experimental study show that positive and negative emotions felt by distant third-party customers are higher than those of close third-party customers. In addition, the effect of positive emotions on customer forgiveness is more substantial for distant third-party customers. Third, moderated-mediation analysis indicates that social distance has a moderator effect only on the relationship between positive emotions and customer forgiveness.Originality/valueThis study contributes to the service literature by comparing socially close and socially distant third-party customers' reactions to service failure and recovery attempts.

The effect of controllable and uncontrollable brand crises and product involvement on consumers’ repurchase intention

In this study we examined the impact of a controllable brand crisis vs. an uncontrollable brand crisis on consumers’ repurchase intention depending on degree of product involvement. The results revealed the mediating role of consumer forgiveness and the moderating role of Zhongyong thinking. In Experiment 1, we recruited 406 participants; the results showed that product involvement strengthened the negative impact of brand crisis type on consumer forgiveness, leading to less willingness to repurchase. In Experiment 2, we recruited 829 participants; the results revealed that priming Zhongyong thinking weakened the negative impact of brand crisis type on consumer forgiveness that led to less willingness to repurchase. Theoretically, the findings in this research distinguish the interaction effects between product characteristics and brand crisis according to type, and our research provides in- depth discussion of the role of brand crisis in marketing. Practically, we provide beneficial suggestions for taking advantage of East Asian culture and applying Zhongyong thinking to attenuate the negative impact of a brand crisis on consumers’ repurchase intention.

Love thinketh no evil: mediation role of brand love on consumer religiosity and consumer forgiveness in Tanzanian Islamic banking

PurposeThis study aims to develop and test a research model that explores the empirical relationship between consumer religiosity, brand love and consumer forgiveness. Its objective was to enhance our understanding of the mechanisms that can influence consumers to extend forgiveness to brands in the context of Islamic banking in Tanzania.Design/methodology/approachThe study used a quantitative cross-sectional survey design to gather data from 399 respondents in the Dodoma and Dar-es-salaam regions of Tanzania. A structured questionnaire was used to collect the data, which were subsequently analyzed using structural equation modeling (SEM) with AMOS 21.FindingsThe study’s findings revealed that consumer forgiveness is influenced by the level of brand love at an individual level. Additionally, the findings indicate that in the context of Islamic banking, brand love is an emotional behavior that is influenced by the strength of religious beliefs, that is, consumer religiosity. Consequently, the findings highlighted the mediating role of brand love in the proposed relationship between consumer religiosity and consumer forgiveness.Practical implicationsThe fact that Islamic banking is guided by Islamic laws (Sharia) and Islamic values means that competitiveness in this sector can be established by serving consumers who are well-versed in Islamic teachings and doctrines. Furthermore, customers who possess a strong understanding of Islamic teachings and doctrines can be an asset to Islamic banks, as they are less likely to switch banks due to service delivery issues.Originality/valueThis empirical study is one of the few attempts to explore the relationship between consumer religiosity, consumer forgiveness and brand love. It expands our understanding of consumer forgiveness by examining the influence of deontological norms (applying norms to assess Islamic banking practices) and teleological evaluation (evaluating Islamic banking practices based on the overall balance of right and wrong expected to occur).

Systematic review on consumer forgiveness: Clarifying the domain and future research agenda

Consumer forgiveness has gained prominence in marketing literature, particularly in investigating service failure and recovery. In this vein, this study aims to systematically review the consumer forgiveness literature and provide valuable suggestions for future research endeavours based on the discovered gaps in the existing literature. The present study thoroughly examined 77 peer-reviewed journal articles on consumer forgiveness from the Scopus database. The findings are discussed under the headings of descriptive overview (year and journal) and content analysis that consists of theoretical background, methodological trends (research design, data collection method, sample size, industry, analysis techniques, measurement) and thematic issues (antecedents, consequences, mediators and moderators) subtitles. This study contributes to the body of knowledge by clarifying the literature on consumer forgiveness, identifying gaps, and making suggestions for future research. This study also contributes to the literature by proposing a comprehensive framework that aligns with the variables investigated in previous research on consumer forgiveness.

When and why signaling frontline employee inexperience can prove to be an asset: Effects on consumer forgiveness for service failure

AbstractThe extant literature on service failure focuses mainly on how to recover from such incidents. However, companies can act before a service failure occurs to mitigate its negative effects. Building on signaling theory, we adopt a mixed‐method approach based on five studies using different types of analyses (textual and content analysis, and multivariate analysis) to investigate the effect of signaling frontline employee inexperience on customer responses to service failure due to an error committed by an employee. Five studies provide evidence that highlighting inexperience—either informally (through a conversation) or formally (through an in‐training badge)—can act as a signal that prompts customers to be more forgiving toward frontline employees, and such consumer forgiveness then serves as an underlying mechanism to explain repatronage intention. This research also tests and explores the boundary conditions for the effectiveness of the inexperience signal. Our findings have various implications for professionals showing how useful it can be to signal the inexperience of a frontline employee who makes an error that leads to a service failure to be given a second chance, and how certain precautions should be taken to avoid the pitfalls of such a signaling strategy.

Factors influencing consumer forgiveness: a systematic literature review and directions for future research

PurposeConsumer forgiveness is an important concept in service failure and recovery research. To advance knowledge and develop future research agenda in this domain, this paper provides a systematic review of the literature on factors influencing consumer forgiveness while adopting the customer journey perspective.Design/methodology/approachUsing the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) protocol, a systematic literature review (SLR) was conducted of 102 peer-reviewed journal articles, on factors influencing consumer forgiveness, published between January 2000 and December 2020.FindingsThe authors' analysis offers a detailed account of the factors influencing consumer forgiveness across the three stages of the service journey: pre-transgression, transgression and recovery. From the review, the authors identified significant gaps relating to the interactions between the relevant factors influencing forgiveness throughout the various stages of the consumer service journey. Based on the findings, the authors offer several research questions to help managers optimize customer forgiveness following a service failure throughout each stage of consumer service journey.Originality/valueThe authors' review synthesizes the literature on factors contributing to consumer forgiveness and integrates these factors into the customer service journey. The authors' findings inform directions for future research and provide insights regarding the measures that service providers should take to understand and encourage consumer forgiveness.

Online Communities, Brand Recovery, Consumer Relationships, and Repurchase Intention

This study examines the influence and linkages between Online Communities, Brand Recovery, Consumer Relationships, and Repurchase Intentions. The case discussed is Tokopedia as one of the big market places in Indonesia. The research uses a quantitative approach with instruments in the form of questionnaires distributed to Tokopedia users. Questionnaire distributed online. The respondent's response is a scale from 1(strongly disagree) to 5 (strongly agree). The data is processed using the Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) model. Brand recovery efforts have a significant positive effect on consumer forgiveness. If users experience high brand recovery efforts, they will also have high consumer forgiveness. Brand restoration efforts have a significant positive impact on repurchase intentions. Online brand community involvement has a significant positive effect on consumer forgiveness. Users were involved in an increased online brand community and will also have high consumer forgiveness. Online brand community involvement has a positive but insignificant effect on repurchase intention.

The impact of negative emotions and relationship quality on consumers’ repurchase intention: An empirical study based on service recovery in China’s online travel agencies

Service failures of online travel agencies (OTAs) occur frequently, which makes the OTA business operation model face huge risks. However, the current academic circles still pay insufficient attention to OTA service recovery. This study obtained research data through scenario experiment method, and analyzed data through SPSS25.0, HLM6.08 and other statistical software to explore the impact mechanism of consumers’ repurchase intention in OTA service recovery. The empirical results of this study are as follows: Consumers’ negative emotions weaken their relationship with tourism suppliers and OTAs. If the relationship quality between consumers and tourism suppliers is improved, the relationship quality between consumers and OTAs will also be improved. The relationship quality between consumers and OTAs has a positive impact on consumers’ repurchase intention, and consumer forgiveness has a positive moderating effect between them. This study provides a consumer psychology perspective for discussing OTA’s service recovery, which is conducive to promoting the healthy development of OTA’s business operation model and benefiting consumers.

May robots be held responsible for service failure and recovery? The role of robot service provider agents’ human-likeness

This research investigates how consumers attribute service failure and recovery responsibilities and respond to them differently based on the service provider agent type (human, humanoid, and non-humanoid robot). Two experiments show that, first, consumers attribute more service failure responsibility to the firm when the agent is less human-like. Second, they attribute more recovery responsibility to the agent and less to the firm when those agents are human, rather than robots. Third, failure (recovery) attribution to the firm reduces (enhances) consumer forgiveness and satisfaction. This study identifies the impact of human-likeness and humanness on responsibility attribution processes in interaction with robotic and human agents.

Employee emotional competence and service recovery satisfaction: the mediating role of consumer forgiveness

PurposeEmployees' emotional competence (EEC) is gaining increasing attention in service failure and recovery research. This study investigates the mediating role of consumer forgiveness between perceived EEC and recovery satisfaction among casual dining consumers. Additionally, this study examines the effect of perceived EEC on recovery satisfaction across process failure vs outcome failure.Design/methodology/approachA critical incident technique (CIT) in conjunction with a self-administered online survey was carried out. Using the snowball sampling technique, a total of 204 useable responses were collected. To test the hypotheses, this study used partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM).FindingsThe study finds that perceived EEC influences service recovery satisfaction. Additionally, the study identifies the mediating role of consumer forgiveness in the relationship between perceived EEC and recovery satisfaction. Multi-group moderation analysis shows that the relationship between perceived EEC and recovery satisfaction is weaker in process failures as compared to outcome failures.Practical implicationsBased on obtained results, this study recommends that after service failure consumer forgiveness and subsequent recovery satisfaction can be obtained with perceived EEC. To do so, managers need to incorporate emotional competence while recruiting and training the employees. Moreover, managers need to train employees on failure types and respective recovery strategies. Lastly, the study suggests that in emerging markets managers should pay greater emphasis on process failure, because such failure decreases customer satisfaction greatly than outcome failure.Originality/valueTo the authors' knowledge, this is the first study that investigates the impact of perceived EEC on consumer forgiveness which subsequently determines the recovery satisfaction in the emerging markets. It extends the application of the emotional contagion and affect infusion theories by exposing the effect of perceived EEC on recovery satisfaction through consumer forgiveness. In addition, the study provides insights that the influence of perceived ECC on recovery satisfaction significantly varies across service failure types.

Investigating the effects of service recovery strategies on consumer forgiveness and post-trust in the food delivery sector

Underpinned by coping theory, this study investigates the extent to which service recovery strategies (e.g., firm-level apologies; compensation; feedback loops) stimulate customer forgiveness and post-trust following service failure. Adopting a two-stage explanatory sequential mixed-method, it investigates the interplay between prior knowledge of service providers, service failure incident familiarity, recovery strategies, forgiveness, and consumer evaluations within an Iranian food delivery platform. Survey responses (n = 925) reveal the role of recovery strategies in stimulating forgiveness and post-trust following service failure. Multi-group analyses reveal gender differences therein. Quantitative findings are extended narratively by customer interviews (n = 45), which suggest proactive, open, and immediate recovery protocol enactment holds greatest value in avoiding negative consumer responses to service failure, mitigating negative outcomes (e.g., anger, frustration). This study thus expands extant understanding of foodservice platform consumption behaviors, providing valuable practical insight for industry stakeholders with regards to the nuances of service failure and recovery in the digital age.

Differentiated consumer forgiveness for different corporate social irresponsibility domains: The moderating role of corporate reputation and patriotism

The extant literature has generally overlooked the differentiated consumer forgiveness regarding corporate social irresponsibility (CSI). Motivated by this, we introduce the construct of patriotism and propose a model (applicable to domestic enterprises in China) to investigate the moderating effect of patriotism and corporate reputation on the relationship between CSI domains (must-be and attractive) and consumer forgiveness; and such effect is mediated by moral judgment. An experiment that uses 483 actual consumers in China as participants was conducted. We find that the must-be CSI has a greater negative impact on consumers than the attractive CSI, and consumers are less likely to forgive the must-be CSI. Meanwhile, moral judgment plays a mediating role in the differential effects of different CSI domains on consumer forgiveness. In addition, high corporate reputation has a buffer effect on both CSI domains for consumers with high patriotism, and has a boomerang effect on the must-be CSI and a buffer effect on the attractive CSI for consumers with low patriotism.

Rise from the ashes or repeat the past? The effects of fresh start mindset and brand crisis type on consumer forgiveness

PurposeMany managers and scholars focus on how to repair brand image after a corporate crisis. This research paper aims to propose that a fresh start mindset (FSM) and brand crisis type can jointly influence consumer forgiveness.Design/methodology/approachThree studies were conducted to examine the authors’ hypotheses. Study 1 is a 3 (FSM: high vs low vs control) × 2 (brand crisis: controllable vs uncontrollable) between-subjects factorial design to test the interaction effect of FSM and brand crisis type on consumer forgiveness. Study 2 is a 2 (FSM: high vs low) × 2 (brand crisis: controllable vs uncontrollable) between-subjects factorial design to identify the affective and cognitive mechanisms in the influence of FSM and brand crisis type on consumer forgiveness. Study 3 is a 2 (FSM: high vs low) × 2 (brand crisis: controllable vs uncontrollable) × 3 (strategy: defensive strategy vs accommodative strategy vs reticence) between-subjects factorial design, aimed to identify the possible boundary conditions of this effect and tested the moderating role of brand crisis response strategies.FindingsStudy 1 finds that the FSM interacts with brand crisis type to affect consumer forgiveness. Specifically, consumers faced with uncontrollable (vs controllable) brand crises tend to increase (vs decrease) consumer forgiveness after a corporate crisis. Study 2 identifies the underlying mechanism, such that two distinct mechanisms drive the interaction effect. Affective empathy and perceived responsibility mediate the interaction effect of FSM and brand crisis type on forgiveness. Study 3 replicates the findings of studies 1 and 2 and confirms the boundary condition of the effect, showing that crisis response strategy moderates the interaction between FSM and brand crisis type.Originality/valueTheoretically, to the best of the authors’ knowledge, this research observes the interactive effect of FSM and brand crisis for the first time, thus extending the existing research on both FSM and brand crisis. This study also enriches existing empathy and responsibility literature by examining the mediating role of empathy and perceived responsibility. Practical implications for marketers are apparent, especially after a brand crisis occurs. Corporates can deal with different types of the brand crisis based on consumers’ FSM. Finally, future research with regards to the findings is discussed.