Investigating customers’ system justifying responses: application of system justification theory

Tiffany S. Legendre and Seonjeong (Ally) Lee

The Service Industries Journal, 2021, vol. 41, issue 11-12, 832-851

Abstract: Brand failures are detrimental for the business success. However, the extant literature has not yet investigated in what situation a brand failure can be perceived more negatively than has been previously thought. Grounded in system justification theory, this study investigates the influence of system threat on customers’ system justifying behaviors (willingness to forgive and purchase intention). Using different service contexts, this study executes three 2 × 2 between-subjects experiments to investigate the moderating roles of brand failure domain (Study 1 and Study 2 (replication)) and brand loyalty (Study 3). The results show that when a system threat occurs due to brand failure, customers perceive the failure worse than predicted, triggering system justifying behavior, especially when a brand failure occurs in brand essence, and when customers are not part of a loyal customer group. Our results suggest brand management strategies that can better manage system threatening brand failures and customers’ system justifying behaviors.

Date: 2021
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DOI: 10.1080/02642069.2019.1579800

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The Service Industries Journal is currently edited by Eileen Bridges, Professor Domingo Ribeiro, Ronald Goldsmith, Barry Howcroft and Youjae Yi

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