Purpose
This study aims to explore the service recovery paradox (SRP) in business to business (B2B) relationships. Previously, this phenomenon has been identified in consumer-facing industries. The research advances the marketing literature by highlighting the ways in which the antecedents of the service recovery paradox differ between B2B and consumer markets.
Design/methodology/approach
This research draws upon findings on the SRP in the consumer setting and service failure literature in business to consumer and B2B contexts. For the analysis, interview data were collected from 43 informants among clients and service providers in the aftermath of a service failure.
Findings
The authors propose an exploratory model of the SRP for B2B relationships. In the B2B setting the propensity of eliciting the SRP depends on (1) the characteristics of the service failure, (2) the attributes of the service recovery and (3) the shared subjective perceptions among boundary spanners.
Practical implications
Empowered operating-level employees, straightforward communication, immediate responses and action plans that ensure future conformance are the key factors to turn service failures into increased customer satisfaction.
Originality/value
This study is the first to transfer the SRP from consumer marketing into the B2B domain. Moreover, it derives an exploratory model of the SRP, which can be refined by future research.
The early anticipation and proactive management of financially distressed suppliers have become crucial for buying firms to protect themselves against supplier default risk. To this end, firms need to be able to read the early warning signals from suppliers that are running into financial distress, to take appropriate remedial actions, and to gather such experiences in repositories of organizational knowledge for future actions. The objective of this study is to explore how and why firms differ in these behaviors and capabilities. We use the organizational information‐processing perspective as a guiding theoretical framework and analyze qualitative data obtained from interviews conducted with 14 global case study manufacturing firms. By comparing these firms', behaviors in terms of scanning and interpreting warning signals, reacting to distressed or defaulting suppliers, and learning from such experiences, we are able to isolate several risk management archetypes and develop four sets of propositions that describe the occurrence of these archetypes.
Kurzfassung
Um ihr Unternehmen gegen unerwartete Lieferantenausfälle zu schützen, ist das frühe Erkennen finanziell angeschlagener Zulieferer zu einem wichtigen Bestandteil der Arbeit von Einkäufern geworden. Aus einer aktuellen empirischen Studie werden in diesem Beitrag angepasste Strategien abgeleitet, mit denen Einkäufer diesem Risiko begegnen und den resultierenden Schaden begrenzten können.
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