Societal Norms, Need for Closure, and Service Recovery

There is an increasing need for an understanding of how culture shapes consumers' service encounter evaluations. This study introduces a new aspect of culture (societal tightness or looseness) to the global marketing literature. In addition, the authors examine the role of a novel individual-level factor (Need for Closure) in influencing fairness judgments. Findings of this quasi-experimental study suggest that consumers faced with strict societal norms have more negative reactions to socially deviant employee behaviors than their counterparts in looser societies. Moreover, high Need-for-Closure individuals perceived equal compensation as more fair than either under- or overcompensation vis-à-vis other customers. The article concludes with a discussion of managerial implications for global service providers.