Understanding Online Service Recovery from a Prospective Consumer Perspective: An Abstract

Despite the popularity of online service recovery, little is known about the ways in which a retailer’s management responses to negative reviews shape prospective consumers’ perceptions of retailer complaint-handling. This study investigates the impacts of recovery management response strategies from a perspective of prospective consumers. Specifically, we investigate how two types of recovery messages, namely, warmth- and competence-oriented responses influence prospective consumers’ service recovery perceptions (i.e., perceived diagnosticity, perceived sincerity, and perceived fairness) and attitudes toward retailer. Warm-oriented responses emphasize retailers’ friendliness and kindness in service interactions, and competence-oriented responses emphasize retailers’ efficiency, and knowledgeability of their service/products (Kirmani et al. 2017).