Airline Travelers' Causal Attribution of Service Failure and Its Impact on Trust and Loyalty Formation: The Moderating Role of Corporate Social Responsibility

Abstract

This study examines airline travelers' causal attribution (stability and controllability) and its impact on trust and loyalty formation and investigates the moderating role of corporate social responsibility (CSR) in this process. Based on a literature review, theoretical relationships between stability, controllability, CSR, trust, and loyalty were derived, and the moderating effects of CSR on relationships between stability/controllability and trust/loyalty were examined. To empirically test these theoretical relationships, quantitative data were collected from 271 airline passengers who experienced a service failure in the past year. The results provide support for effects of stability and controllability on trust as well as the effect of stability on loyalty. In addition, the perception of CSR had positive effects on trust and loyalty. Finally, a favorable CSR perception weakened the negative effects of a service failure on trust and loyalty, particularly when the failure was attributed to a stable cause. The results highlight the important role of CSR in service failure situations and have important implications for airline managers.

Passenger recovery after an airport closure at tourist destinations: A case study of Palma de Mallorca airport

“…In that regard, shortening passengers' waiting time at the airport and achieving a more consistent quality of recovery across geographical markets can improve the perception of "fairness" associated to the recovery process (Akamavi et al, 2016). Any additional effort towards collaboration between airlines at the disrupted airport, as well as with further agents in onward destinations, will be evident to the disrupted passengers and, via the moderation effect of "controllability" (Nibkin et al, 2015), also help make the recovery process more satisfying. These results also contribute to the literature in regards to the positive impact of multi-party collaboration within a context of tourism crisis management (Xu and Grunewald, 2009).…”

“…The connection to air transport is supported by the airline service recovery literature, which has established the link between the "controllability" of a disruption event and passenger trust and loyalty towards an airline. Controllability refers to customers' evaluation of whether the cause of the failure was uncontrollable or controllable by the service provider (Nibkin et al, 2015). Again, we submit that this effect is present in air transport disruptions, particularly those associated with large-scale industrial actions, such as ATC strikes.…”

“…At the second level, we also contribute to the literature on tourism service recovery, which already includes a few papers focusing on airline passengers (see, e.g., Cheng et al, 2008;Lindenmeier and Tscheulin, 2008;Akamavi et al, 2015;and Nibkin et al, 2015). A recurring theme in these publications is the idea of "fairness", linked to both i) the perception of whether the extent of the recovery effort is sufficient to compensate passengers for their trouble and ii) the perception that the airline prioritized ethical principles, rather than profit maximization, in its recovery decision-making process.…”

“…The use of demand data also allows us to disaggregate the impact across geographical markets, which is also a novel contribution to the literature. The relevance of this disaggregation can be understood by contrasting the literature on airline service recovery -which establishes the importance of "fairness" in that process (Akamavi et al, 2015;Nibkin et al, 2015) -with the experience of UK passengers stranded at Sharm el-Sheikh Airport in November 2015. These passengers faced longer delays than holidaymakers from other countries.…”

Changing trends of corporate social responsibility reporting in the world-leading airlines

“…Apart from the extrinsic factors, corporate social responsibility is also crucial to the sustainable development of airlines given its impact on stakeholders' engagement and corporate branding [11]. Stakeholders' positive perception of the airlines' CSR practices can contribute to the increase of stakeholders' loyalty and trust [12]. Thus, many airlines have put efforts into the adoption of CSR initiatives and made "sustainable aviation" become a commonplace practice [13].…”