The University of Southampton
University of Southampton Institutional Repository

“If Only…”: Customer Counterfactual Thinking in Failed Recovery

“If Only…”: Customer Counterfactual Thinking in Failed Recovery
“If Only…”: Customer Counterfactual Thinking in Failed Recovery
Purpose - Our goal is to examine counterfactual thinking as a key mediator of effects of failed recovery (vs. failed delivery) on negative electronic word-of-mouth (eWOM). We further investigate the effectiveness of using recovery co-creation in minimizing customers’ counterfactual thinking.

Design/methodology/approach - This research includes textual analysis of online reviews (Study 1) and three scenario-based experiments (Studies 2, 3a, and 3b). In addition to using item-response scales, we analyze negative online reviews and participants’ open-ended responses to capture their counterfactual thinking.

Findings - Failed recovery (vs. failed delivery) increases counterfactual thinking, which in turn increases negative eWOM. These mediating effects of counterfactual thinking are consistent across textual analyses and experimental studies, as well as across different measures of counterfactual thinking. Counterfactual thinking also impacts customer anger in experiments; however, anger alone does not explain the effects of failed recovery on negative eWOM. Counterfactual thinking can be minimized by co-created recovery, especially when it is used proactively.

Practical implications - Our findings demonstrate the detrimental effects of counterfactual thinking and offer managerial insights into co-creation as a strategy to minimize customers’ counterfactual thinking. We also highlight the importance and ways of tracking counterfactual thinking in digital outlets.

Originality/value - We contribute to counterfactual thinking and service recovery research by demonstrating the effects of failed recovery on counterfactual thinking that in turn impacts negative eWOM and offering a novel way to measure its expression in online narratives. We provide guidance on how to utilize co-creation in the service recovery process to minimize counterfactual thinking.
Counterfactual thinking, Double deviation, Service recovery, Co-creation, Word-of-mouth (WOM), Compensation
0309-0566
Tran, Hai-Anh
122eeb23-a7ff-4405-8777-270b9c7c5d04
Strizhakova, Yuliya
e1596a4e-e253-421a-9cde-adc13c4476a6
Liu, Hongfei
7d65edcf-20c9-452a-83c2-8b545b12f68c
Golgeci, Ismail
6d1c2cb0-bca5-48b0-b851-4b3e680c5d08
Tran, Hai-Anh
122eeb23-a7ff-4405-8777-270b9c7c5d04
Strizhakova, Yuliya
e1596a4e-e253-421a-9cde-adc13c4476a6
Liu, Hongfei
7d65edcf-20c9-452a-83c2-8b545b12f68c
Golgeci, Ismail
6d1c2cb0-bca5-48b0-b851-4b3e680c5d08

Tran, Hai-Anh, Strizhakova, Yuliya, Liu, Hongfei and Golgeci, Ismail (2021) “If Only…”: Customer Counterfactual Thinking in Failed Recovery. European Journal of Marketing. (In Press)

Record type: Article

Abstract

Purpose - Our goal is to examine counterfactual thinking as a key mediator of effects of failed recovery (vs. failed delivery) on negative electronic word-of-mouth (eWOM). We further investigate the effectiveness of using recovery co-creation in minimizing customers’ counterfactual thinking.

Design/methodology/approach - This research includes textual analysis of online reviews (Study 1) and three scenario-based experiments (Studies 2, 3a, and 3b). In addition to using item-response scales, we analyze negative online reviews and participants’ open-ended responses to capture their counterfactual thinking.

Findings - Failed recovery (vs. failed delivery) increases counterfactual thinking, which in turn increases negative eWOM. These mediating effects of counterfactual thinking are consistent across textual analyses and experimental studies, as well as across different measures of counterfactual thinking. Counterfactual thinking also impacts customer anger in experiments; however, anger alone does not explain the effects of failed recovery on negative eWOM. Counterfactual thinking can be minimized by co-created recovery, especially when it is used proactively.

Practical implications - Our findings demonstrate the detrimental effects of counterfactual thinking and offer managerial insights into co-creation as a strategy to minimize customers’ counterfactual thinking. We also highlight the importance and ways of tracking counterfactual thinking in digital outlets.

Originality/value - We contribute to counterfactual thinking and service recovery research by demonstrating the effects of failed recovery on counterfactual thinking that in turn impacts negative eWOM and offering a novel way to measure its expression in online narratives. We provide guidance on how to utilize co-creation in the service recovery process to minimize counterfactual thinking.

Text
EJM_R3_Manuscript_Final - Accepted Manuscript
Download (216kB)

More information

Accepted/In Press date: 31 August 2021
Keywords: Counterfactual thinking, Double deviation, Service recovery, Co-creation, Word-of-mouth (WOM), Compensation

Identifiers

Local EPrints ID: 451402
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/451402
ISSN: 0309-0566
PURE UUID: 8587270c-5174-4c13-b31a-759d1d7687dc
ORCID for Hongfei Liu: ORCID iD orcid.org/0000-0001-8539-9054

Catalogue record

Date deposited: 23 Sep 2021 16:40
Last modified: 17 Mar 2024 04:01

Export record

Contributors

Author: Hai-Anh Tran
Author: Yuliya Strizhakova
Author: Hongfei Liu ORCID iD
Author: Ismail Golgeci

Download statistics

Downloads from ePrints over the past year. Other digital versions may also be available to download e.g. from the publisher's website.

View more statistics

Atom RSS 1.0 RSS 2.0

Contact ePrints Soton: eprints@soton.ac.uk

ePrints Soton supports OAI 2.0 with a base URL of http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/cgi/oai2

This repository has been built using EPrints software, developed at the University of Southampton, but available to everyone to use.

We use cookies to ensure that we give you the best experience on our website. If you continue without changing your settings, we will assume that you are happy to receive cookies on the University of Southampton website.

×