Fair or Unfair: The Moderating Effect of Sustainable CSR Practices on Anticipatory Justice Following Service Failure Recovery

This paper investigates the relative effect of anticipatory justice on organizational legitimacy and consumer trust that further leads to consumer citizenship behavior following service failure recovery in Taiwan. Further, the moderating role of sustainable corporate social responsibility (CSR) practices is explored. A causal relationship and survey design with a valid sample of 269 respondents was applied. Findings indicated that organizational legitimacy and consumer trust can be restored through anticipatory justice, in particular interpersonal justice and then further mediated consumer citizenship behavior. As a moderator, a high level of sustainable CSR practices had a significantly stronger effect on anticipatory justice and organizational legitimacy than the low level one but only had an effect on interpersonal justice and consumer trust after service recovery. Practical implications are provided for service providers. The value of this research proposes an integrated model with organizational legitimacy and sustainable CSR practice that has not yet been tested in the model of service recovery. In addition, sustainable CSR practice is proposed as a moderator (high and low) that is compared in the level of strength of the relationships. This moderation effect has not been found previously in the process of service recovery.