Well-known or well-liked? The effects of brand reputation on customers’ responses to service failure

ABSTRACT This study aims to investigate the effect of brand reputation (both holistic and dimensional) on customer reactions to service failure. Employing two experiments and a survey, we find that a good reputation suffers less from service failure (the holistic buffering effect) and service quality mediates the process. The two dimensions of reputation, generalized favorability and familiarity, have different effects during service failure. Favorability serves as a buffer whose impact is mediated by service quality, while familiarity has inconsistent effects on customer post-failure evaluations which implies the existence of the potential situational factor. Generalized favorability dominates the process.