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Article
Not All That Glitters is Golden: The Impact of Procedural Fairness Perceptions on Firm Evaluations and Customer Satisfaction with Favorable Outcomes
Journal of Business Research
  • Shalini Jain, University of Washington Tacoma
  • Pragya Mathur
Publication Date
6-17-2020
Abstract

Firms often strive to delight their customers and build strong customer-firm relationships by providing favored benefits to their customers. Drawing from the organizational justice literature, we show that even when customers receive favorable outcomes from distributively fair firm actions, considerations of procedural unfairness may adversely affect their firm evaluations. Procedural fairness salience and customers’ perceived relationship with the firm determine the extent to which procedural fairness affects firm-evaluations. Customers in communal relationships, focused on social/relational factors, are more sensitive to procedural fairness, leading to improved (diminished) firm evaluations when the procedure is perceived as fair (unfair). Those in exchange relationships are unaffected by procedural fairness and evaluate the firm based largely on outcome favorability. Firm trustworthiness mediates the impact of procedural fairness on evaluations. Implications of procedural fairness being driven by relational and non-instrumental considerations are discussed.

DOI
10.1016/j.jbusres.2020.06.006
Publisher Policy
Pre-print, post-print
Citation Information
Mathur, P., & Sarin Jain, S. (2020). Not All That Glitters is Golden: The Impact of Procedural Fairness Perceptions on Firm Evaluations and Customer Satisfaction with Favorable Outcomes. Journal of Business Research, 117, 357–367. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbusres.2020.06.006