Index of Paper Presentations for the Parallel Sessions - Academy of ...

Hypothesis H 2b : Severity and brand reputation has a significant interaction effect such that for less severefailure condition, seeking social support for instrumental reasons would be more pronounced for highreputation company than average reputation company.Hypothesis H 2c : Severity and brand reputation has a significant interaction effect such that for high severecondition positive thinking would be more pronounced strategy for average reputation company than highreputation company.Hypothesis H 2d : Severity and brand reputation has a significant interaction effect such that for high severecondition rational thinking would be more pronounced strategy for average reputation company than highreputation company.Hypothesis H 2e : Severity and brand reputation has a significant interaction effect such that for high severecondition emotional venting would be more pronounced strategy for average reputation company than highreputation company.Hypothesis H 2f : Severity and brand reputation has a significant interaction effect such that for high severecondition seeking social support for emotional reasons would be more pronounced strategy for averagereputation company than high reputation company.Hypothesis H 2g : Severity and brand reputation has a significant interaction effect such that for high severecondition avoidance would be more pronounced strategy for average reputation company than high reputationcompany.Hypothesis H 2h : Severity and brand reputation has a significant interaction effect such that for high severecondition denial would be more pronounced strategy for average reputation company than high reputationcompany.METHODResearch design, sample and procedureThe research design was a 2 (high vs low severity service failure) x 2 (high vs. average reputation organization)scenario-based experiment. Airline travel was chosen as the study context as it was widely used in prior studies toexamine customer response to service failure (McCollough, Berry and Yadav, 2000). A total of 193 graduate