Philippe Aurier and Béatrice Siadou-Martin (2006)
Perceived Justice and Service Evaluations: a Qualitative and Experimental Investigation
9th International Research Seminar in Service Management.
This paper investigates the role of perceived justice in service consumption/purchase experiences. In a first study, using the critical incident method, we show that customers are strongly concerned by perceived injustice. We observe the role played by three components of justice well developed in organizational and service marketing literature (distributive, procedural, interactional justice). We also identify a macro-level justice, relative to the collective practices, at the whole industry level. In an experiment applied to a dinner experience, we manipulate perceived justice to study its impacts on service evaluation (quality, value), satisfaction and relationship quality (trust, commitment). Contrary to the literature, we observe no direct effect of justice on satisfaction, but indirect impacts through quality (outcome and interaction) and value. Moreover, we observe substantial effects on trust (credibility and benevolence), but not on commitment.