A meta-analytic assessment of the effects of perceived justice and emotional response in service recovery situations

In complaint handling research, the justice framework has gained widespread acceptance among scholars interested in studying customers' perception of the fairness of the recovery system. Recently, researchers have devoted increasing attention to the role of emotions, but the findings of the studies provide mixed results. To assess the role of emotions within the justice framework, we performed a meta-analysis of 81 independent studies of complaint handling situations in services. Results indicate that the relationship between justice dimensions and satisfaction with complaint handling are either not mediated by emotions (for distributive justice), partially mediated (for interactional justice), or fully mediated (for procedural justice). We draw on these results to formulate managerial implications for service firms.