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.