Previous studies have demonstratedt

Previous studies have demonstrated
that the stability and controllability of service
failure are related to several important affective
and behavioral outcomes (Curren &
Folkes, 1987; Hess et al., 2003; Tsiros,
Mittal, & Ross, 2004). These findings generally
highlight that when customers believe
that a failure was preventable by the service
provider (controllable) and is likely to happen
again (stable), the likelihood of customer complaints
is higher (Krishnan & Valerie, 1979).
Further evidence supporting this relationship
has been offered by service studies demonstrating
that consumers greatly value consistency
and reliability in service delivery (Brown,
Cowles & Tuten, 1996). Previous studies have
indicated a relationship between attribution
and the likelihood of a customer forgiving a
service failure (Maxham & Netemeyer, 2002)
as well as a relationship between customers’
subsequent word-of-mouth support for the
firm and repurchase intentions (Swanson &
Hsu, 2011). However, no study has empirically
tested whether stability and controllability also
affect. The above discussion suggests that customers’
trust and loyalty decrease when they attribute
the cause of a service failure to stable and
controllable factors. In this regard, the following
hypotheses are proposed: