| Customer reactions to service were investigated to develop and validate the Service Fairness Scale, a theoretically grounded measure of customers' justice perceptions. Rationales are presented for why justice is an appropriate lens for viewing customer service reactions. Building on Clemmer's (1989; 1993) work, a set of three, interrelated studies was conducted in order to better bridge services marketing and organizational justice realms. In Study 1, justice subject matter experts (SMEs) used a sorting procedure to provide early evidence of the new measure's construct validity. Study 2 employed students as customers of university services to evaluate the scale's measurement model and to provide preliminary evidence of hypothesized structural relationships among service fairness and other customer service constructs. A hierarchical measurement model for the scale was supported across samples. It entailed a second-order Broad Justice factor with three first-order factors, Distributive Justice, Procedural Justice, and Interactional Justice.; Study 3 used students as Wal-mart customers to provide evidence pertaining to the scale's construct validity. Within an overall structural model, Studies 2 and 3 found support for predicted structural relationships involving service fairness and overall service quality, customer satisfaction, willingness to recommend, and affective commitment. Relationships between justice and each of these variables were indirect, through a second-order Broad Service Quality factor. A direct Distributive Justice Satisfaction path was found in both studies. No support was found for hypotheses regarding relative magnitudes of relationships among Service Fairness and Service Quality variables (SERVQUAL's Tangibles and Intangibles subscales). |
