Impact of virtual presence of others on social media service recovery evaluations: A cross-cultural perspective

Abstract

With the growing prevalence of social media as a platform for customer complaints, understanding cross-cultural differences in service recovery becomes crucial. This research investigates how the presence of social media observers influences service recovery satisfaction across different cultures. We examine how cultural orientation shapes responses to service recovery efforts through three experiments that compare collectivistic and individualistic consumers. Our findings reveal that collectivists report lower satisfaction and brand loyalty intentions during partial social media recovery attempts compared to email-based recovery. However, when managers provide customized apologies on social media, collectivist consumers show significantly improved service recovery evaluations, particularly due to the role of face concern. We demonstrate the critical interaction between virtual presence, cultural orientation, and face concern in determining behavioral engagement with brands during recovery. Our research contributes to service recovery theory by integrating social impact theory with cross-cultural consumer behavior and offers practical guidelines for managing service failures.