Effect of corporate social responsibility, customer attribution and prior expectation on post-recovery satisfaction

A conceptual model is proposed to account for how customers' attributions of the cause of a service failure, their perceptions of a firm's social responsibility and their prior expectations can influence post-recovery satisfaction through the mediating effect of customer-company (C-C) identification. It was tested in the context of hospitality services. Findings from a survey of 281 restaurant patrons show that after a service failure, favorable corporate social responsibility (CSR) perception can help mitigate the negative effects of internal cause attribution on customer identification and ultimately contribute to post-recovery satisfaction. Besides, the interaction effect of CSR perception and attribution on C-C identification is particularly salient for customers with higher prior expectation. Findings also highlight that the dynamic interaction effect among attribution, CSR perception and prior expectation on customer post-recovery satisfaction is mediated by C-C identification.