From escalation to dissipation: the temporal dynamics of brand hate following service failure and recovery

초록

Purpose-This study aims to examine how brand hate evolves during service recovery in the online travel agency (OTA) context and investigates how perceived fairness, customer forgiveness and brand betrayal shape brand hate at different recovery stages. In doing so, this study challenges the common assumption that firms' recovery efforts uniformly diminish brand-related negative responses. Design/methodology/approach-This study adopts a longitudinal design and collects three-wave time-lagged data from repeat OTA customers who experienced service failures and subsequent recovery efforts. This study uses partial least squares structural equation modeling to examine stage-specific relationships among the key constructs across recovery stages. Findings-The results reveal that brand hate follows an inverted U-shaped trajectory over time, intensifying during the early and intermediate recovery stages before declining in the later stage. Perceived fairness influences brand hate differently across recovery stages rather than remaining constant. Reductions in brand betrayal weaken brand hate in later stages, whereas customer forgiveness exerts its strongest influence in the early stage of recovery. Overall, brand hate does not dissipate immediately; instead, it gradually attenuates through stage-specific psychological mechanisms. Originality/value-This study advances service recovery research by conceptualizing brand hate as a dynamic, stage-dependent affective state. By adopting a process-oriented perspective, it explains when and how brand hate weakens over time and offers theoretical and managerial contributions to the service recovery literature.

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