Tran, Hai‐Anh, Strizhakova, Yuliya, Usrey, Bryan and Johnson, Samuel (2022) Consumer cynicism in service failures. Psychology & Marketing, 39 (2). pp. 346-359. doi:10.1002/mar.21599 ISSN 0742-6046.

PDF WRAP-Consumer-cynicism-service-failures-2021.pdf - Accepted Version Embargoed item. Restricted access to Repository staff only until 6 October 2023. Contact author directly, specifying your specific needs. - Requires a PDF viewer. Download (1406Kb)

Request Changes to record.

Abstract

Despite growing corporate commitments to being customer-centric, many customers perceive firms as self-driven and caring only about their own business interests. This sentiment is projected in consumer cynicism, or negative consumer attitudes based on the disbelief in the sincerity of firms' motives and actions. We argue that consumer cynicism emerges in response to negative marketplace situations, such as service and product failures. Across four scenario-based experiments and one video-based experiment, our research examines cynicism as a key mediator, transmitting the effect of double deviation (i.e., a failure in delivery and in subsequent recovery) on negative electronic word-of-mouth and repurchase intention. We further demonstrate that consumer cynicism can be minimized when the provider uses cocreated recovery (i.e., engages consumers in recovery) even if the recovery fails and when the provider offers a strong empathetic apology (either before or after recovery failure). Our research contributes to consumer and service recovery research by highlighting an important but overlooked role of consumer cynicism in the context of double deviation. We also offer managerial insights into cocreation and empathetic apologies as cost-effective recovery strategies to minimize cynicism.

Item Type:	Journal Article
Subjects:	B Philosophy. Psychology. Religion > B Philosophy (General) H Social Sciences > HC Economic History and Conditions H Social Sciences > HD Industries. Land use. Labor H Social Sciences > HF Commerce
Divisions:	Faculty of Science, Engineering and Medicine > Science > Psychology
SWORD Depositor:	Library Publications Router
Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH):	Consumer behavior, Consumer behavior -- Psychological aspects, Consumers -- Attitudes -- Psychological aspects, Cynicism, Service industries
Journal or Publication Title:	Psychology & Marketing
Publisher:	British Psychological Society
ISSN:	0742-6046
Official Date:	February 2022
Dates:	Date Event February 2022 Published 6 October 2021 Available 17 September 2021 Accepted
Volume:	39
Number:	2
Page Range:	pp. 346-359
DOI:	10.1002/mar.21599
Status:	Peer Reviewed
Publication Status:	Published
Reuse Statement (publisher, data, author rights):	"This is the peer reviewed version of the following article: Tran, H.-A., Strizhakova, Y., Usrey, B., & Johnson, S. (2021). Consumer cynicism in service failures. Psychology & Marketing, 1– 14., which has been published in final form at https://doi.org/10.1002/mar.21599. This article may be used for non-commercial purposes in accordance with Wiley Terms and Conditions for Use of Self-Archived Versions. This article may not be enhanced, enriched or otherwise transformed into a derivative work, without express permission from Wiley or by statutory rights under applicable legislation. Copyright notices must not be removed, obscured or modified. The article must be linked to Wiley’s version of record on Wiley Online Library and any embedding, framing or otherwise making available the article or pages thereof by third parties from platforms, services and websites other than Wiley Online Library must be prohibited."
Access rights to Published version:	Restricted or Subscription Access
Date of first compliant deposit:	10 November 2021
Related URLs:	http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/termsAndC...

Request changes or add full text files to a record

Repository staff actions (login required)

View Item