Turning bad into good: the role of service recovery journey in healing the pain of psychological contract violation

Drawing on the concept of the service recovery journey (SRJ), we empirically test how different service recovery strategies (within each of the three stages of the SRJ; pre-recovery, recovery, and post-recovery) moderate the negative effect of psychological contract violation (PCV) on perceived justice, namely distributive, procedural, and interactional justice, following a service failure. Data from 437 complaining customers were analyzed using structural equation modeling with AMOS 24.0 software. Findings not only support the negative effect of PCV on the three dimensions of perceived justice, but also partially support the moderating role of service recovery strategies within the SRJ in the negative relationship between PCV and perceived justice, and the paths within the SRJ. This paper provides novel insights to managers allowing them to prioritize service recovery strategies that ultimately buffer the negative effect of PCV on perceived justice when PCV occurs