Quality of Past Performance: Impact on Consumers' Responses to Service Failure

• Published in: Marketing letters Vol. 18; no. 4; pp. 249 - 264
• Main Authors: Vázquez-Casielles, Rodolfo, del Río-Lanza, Ana Belén, Díaz-Martín, Ana María
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: New York Springer 01.12.2007; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Airline industry; Airlines; Business management; Cognitive models; Consumer behavior; Consumer behaviour; Consumer research; Consumers; Consumption; Customer satisfaction; Emotional expression; Emotional stability; Emotional support; Emotions; Failure; Hypotheses; Investigations; Marketing; Modeling; Past; Perceptions; Product performance; Quality of service; Satisfaction; Service industry; Studies
• ISSN: 0923-0645; 1573-059X
• DOI: 10.1007/s11002-007-9018-x

The conceptual model developed in this paper for the airline industry examines the relationship between quality of past service performance and consumers' responses to service failures (causal attributions, emotions and satisfaction). The empirical results obtained indicate that for those consumers with higher perceptions of quality the causes underlying service failures are seen as less stable and less controllable by the firm than the causes identified by consumers with lower perceptions of quality. Attributions about the failure not only influence satisfaction directly but also moderate the effect of quality on satisfaction. We also analyse the mediating effect of negative emotions on the relationship between service failure attributions and consumer satisfaction.