Customer's Evaluation Process of Service Recovery in Online Retailing

On-line retailing in China has developed rapidly in recent years, but related researches lag far behind. Based on the integration of justice theory and expectancy-disconfirmation theory, this study gets a thorough understanding of service recovery management in on-line retailing by using scenarios and factorial design methods. Results show that the three justice dimensions and disconfirmation explain a large percentage of variation in customer's satisfaction of service recovery in online retailing. Furthermore, the effectiveness of specific recovery tactics on customer's satisfaction, post-purchase attitude and behavior in Internet environment were also tested in this study. It is found that when service failure happens, compensation and quick response significantly influence customer's satisfaction, trust and repurchase intention, whereas apology alone is ineffective to regain satisfaction in cyberspace. However, apology used as recovery tactic can intensify the effect of compensation or quick response on customer's overall evaluation toward online retailers.