Moderating effect of discriminatory attributions on repatronage intentions

This research investigates the role of social context at the time of a service failure. The negativity of the service failure has the potential to escalate when consumers who are part of a traditionally stigmatized group believe the service failure to be a purposeful event brought on by physically observable differences in appearance. A small exploratory study and two large scale data collections are conducted to validate a measure of transaction specific attributions of discrimination (TSAD) to enhance our understanding of the issue. The moderating effect of TSAD is demonstrated on repatronage intentions to the service firm.