Would you forgive me? From perceived justice and complaint handling to customer forgiveness and brand credibility-symmetrical and asymmetrical perspectives

This empirical study uses signaling theory to develop a model to investigate the interrelationships between complaint handling, perceived Justice, customer forgiveness, and brand credibility. Data from airlines (Nsample1 = 262) and hotels (N sample2 = 248) were collected. Partial Least Squares based structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) and fuzzy set Qualitative Comparative Analysis (fsQCA) were used to test the research model. Findings (PLS-SEM) indicate that perceived justice significantly impacts customer forgiveness and brand credibility for airline and hotel customers in both the magnitudes of service failure. Findings (fsQCA) revealed multiple causal configurations for both samples. This study is exceptional as it provides symmetrical and asymmetrical associations to understand better how brand credibility develops following pandemic-related service failures and recovery across hotel and airline services.