The Impact of Brand Relationship and Attributions on Passenger Response to Service Failure

It is important for service companies to develop and maintain consistent and stable consumer loyalty. Although consumer brand relationship and attributions have been applied to various service industries, they have not been investigated in the airline industry where passenger emotions are considered critical. This study addresses the consequences of brand relationship quality, the mediating influence of emotions, and the moderating role of switching costs through structural equation modeling of data collected from passengers who had experienced flight delay. The results suggest that (1) airline relationship with passengers is an important and valuable asset, especially in the case of stability attributions, (2) negative emotions play a partial or full mediator role in the causal relationship between attributions and behavioral intentions, and (3) minimizing negative emotions is more effective than relying on switching costs for behavioral intentions. It can be concluded that the airline industry should try to manage passenger emotions more appropriately since passengers have an emotional attachment to their brands and passengers' negative emotions can be influential to repurchase intentions when service failures occur.