How customer participation influences service failure attribution

Purpose Previous studies offer two contradictory propositions for the influence of customer participation on service failure attribution. The purpose of this paper is to solve this theoretical inconsistency by incorporating the concept of self-efficacy into its theoretical framework. Design/methodology/approach Two 2 (customer participation: high vs low) by 2 (self-efficacy: high vs low) experimental designs were employed under scenarios relating to education and haircut services. Findings The results show that customers with high self-efficacy attribute more responsibility to the firms for a service failure as their participation in service increases. In contrast, customers with low self-efficacy are less likely to blame firms for service failures in the high-participation condition than in the low-participation condition. Practical implications This study suggests that understanding customers’ self-efficacy could help firms improve recovery performance according to customers’ individual differences if service failure occurs. Originality/value The findings help resolve conflicting results reported in the literature and show that the impact of customer participation on service failure attribution differs according to customers’ self-efficacy. Therefore, this study provides a theoretical contribution by enhancing the knowledge of how customer participation influences causal attribution and satisfaction after a service failure.