Perceived justice needs and recovery evaluation: a contingency approach

Abstract

An equity theory‐based contingency framework is presented to further our understanding of customer evaluations of the service failure/recovery process. Six contingencies are presented that are proposed to influence the relative importance of interactional and distributive justice on consumer‐based service recovery evaluations. The six contingencies include: depth of the relationship, proximity of the relationship, duration of the encounter, degree of customization, switching costs, and the criticality of consumption. Relevant research propositions are developed and discussed.