The influence of “buffering” variables on clients’ willingness to engage in dysfunctional behavior after a service failure
South African Journal of Economic and Management Sciences
| Field | Value | |
| Title | The influence of “buffering” variables on clients’ willingness to engage in dysfunctional behavior after a service failure | |
| Creator | Boshoff, Christo | |
| Description | Much of the current service failure and recovery literature centres on reactive, post hoc measures thatmanagers can take to address service failure. More importantly, much of the reported research has focusedon managerial mechanisms under the direct control of service managers. This study shows that by viewingtheir responsibilities more broadly than only their narrow service-related goals, service managers can domuch to prevent disgruntled clients from switching to competing service providers.A thousand clients of a commercial bank who complained about a service failure completed an onlinequestionnaire. Following a thorough assessment of the construct validity of the measurement model, themediating role of brand superiority and corporate reputation was assessed by means of structural equationmodeling. The results reveal that both brand superiority and reputation mediate the relationship betweennegative word-of-mouth and intentions to switch to a competing service provider, following a service failure.The results show that by enhancing the firms brand superiority and corporate reputation, service firms canbuild a buffer that can deter clients who have suffered a service failure from switching to a competingservice provider. In other words, service managers should broaden their organisational involvement byparticipating in activities such as strategic planning, corporate reputation management, and the planning ofbrand strategies and positioning strategies, as these variables can prevent complaining clients from endingtheir relationship with the offending service provider. The results, by implication, caution service managersagainst a myopic view of their role in the service organisation. | |
| Publisher | AOSIS Publishing | |
| Date | 2014-05-29 | |
| Identifier | 10.4102/sajems.v17i3.689 | |
| Source | South African Journal of Economic and Management Sciences; Vol 17, No 3 (2014); 297-309 2222-3436 1015-8812 | |
| Language | eng | |
| Relation |
The following web links (URLs) may trigger a file download or direct you to an alternative webpage to gain access to a publication file format of the published article:
https://sajems.org/index.php/sajems/article/view/689/374
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