2022 Volume 5 Issue 2 Pages 37-55
Despite the growing academic attention to consumer affinity, the study of its antecedents had been relatively ignored. The current study focuses on the effect of service recovery on consumer affinity in intercultural service encounters (ICSEs) involving customers and employees from different cultures. The current study has three purposes: (1) determine whether good service recovery improves consumer affinity and, in turn, revisit intention in ICSEs; (2) examine whether this effect is also confirmed in a relative high animosity country; and (3) examine the psychological process by which service recovery enhances consumer affinity. We conducted a series of scenario-based experiments to examine our hypotheses. The results revealed that good service recovery led to greater intention to revisit the country via consumer affinity as opposed to bad service recovery. However, the effect of service recovery disappeared or attenuated in a high animosity country. Further, two types of service recovery (i.e. process and outcome) influenced consumer affinity via both warmth and competence. We discussed theoretical implications, practical contributions, and future research directions based on the empirical results.
