Do customers exhibit gratitude after service recovery? understanding the moderating role of relationship type

Abstract

The study investigates how customers in exchange and communal relationships differ in evaluating the recovery efforts of service providers after a service failure. This research addresses the literature gap by examining specific antecedents, leading to the discrete emotion—gratitude and word of mouth. A 2 (relationship norm types: exchange vs communal) × 2 (perceived effort: low vs high) × 2 (outcome desirability: low vs high) between-subjects factorial design experiment was developed for data collection. The results suggest that perceived effort and outcome desirability significantly influence gratitude. However, exchange and communal customers’ perceived effort differs in low and high desirability situations.