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This study aims to investigate the moderating role of low and high failure severity levels on recovery satisfaction and on behavioral intentions through recovery satisfaction. This research adopted justice theory and regulatory focus theory to provide further explanations on the inconsistencies in the extant literature regarding service failure and responses to service recovery.

This study applied a scenario-based experimental design of two (perceived justice: low vs high) by two (failure severity: low vs high) between-subjects factorial design. Data was collected from 237 mobile phone users recruited via convenience sampling. This study examined the hypothesized relations using Hayes (2018) PROCESS macro version 4.0.

Perceived justice had a higher positive effect on recovery satisfaction at a high failure severity level. The direct effect of perceived justice on behavioral intentions was significant and positive only at a high level of failure severity, whereas the indirect effect of perceived justice on consumers’ positive behavior through recovery satisfaction was more positive at a high level of failure severity.

Justice theory and regulatory focus theory can be used to explain how a well-implemented recovery effort can offset losses that are caused by a highly severe service failure leading to satisfaction and positive responses. However, as this study was conducted within a telecommunication service context, this research needs to be replicated in other areas, including the use of other data collection methods and measurement of consumers’ regulatory focus orientation.

The findings of this study provide managers with valuable insights into the allocation of service providers’ resources for recovery actions according to consumers’ perceived severity levels to regain consumer satisfaction and continued positive behavioral intentions.

Past research on the effect of failure severity levels on recovery satisfaction and consumers’ positive behavioral intentions is scant, and those studies that examined severity levels have shown conflicting results. This study attempted to advance the research by examining the relationship between perceived justice, recovery satisfaction and behavioral intentions at low and high failure severity levels using justice theory and regulatory focus theory. None of the theories have been examined concurrently in the service failure and recovery framework.

Using observational and experimental designs, the purpose of this study was to explore if the power relation between the offender and the victim of incivility and the level of perceived severity of the incivility were associated with bystanders’ intentions to help when witnessing workplace incivility.

In Study 1, 160 participants completed a questionnaire where they described a recent uncivil incident they had witnessed, and completed measures of perceived severity and measures of their behavioural response as bystanders. In Study 2, 183 participants were randomised to read one of two vignettes (a manager being uncivil towards a subordinate or vice versa), and completed measures of perceived severity and of their motivation to intervene. The authors investigated whether the power relation between perpetrator and victim, and the perceived severity of the uncivil exchange, were associated with prosocial bystander behaviours in Study 1 and with motivation to defend the victim of incivility in Study 2.

Higher perpetrator power was significantly associated with the incident being perceived as more severe, and higher perpetrator power was directly related to greater tendency to confront, and lower tendency to avoid, the perpetrator. Perpetrator power was indirectly associated with social support according to the perceived severity. A supervisor acting in an uncivil manner was rated as more severe than a subordinate acting in such a way. Perceived severity mediated the relationship between perpetrator power and the witness’s introjected, identified and intrinsic motivation to intervene.

This study extends previous work by investigating how the perpetrator’s power influences both the bystander’s prosocial behaviour and their motivation to defend the victim. Furthermore, previous research has not considered how perceptions of severity might mediate the relationship between power, behaviour and motivation.

Based on appraisal theory and social response theory, this study aims to explore the mechanism of AI failure types on consumer recovery expectation from the perspective of service failure assessment and validate the moderate role of anthropomorphism level.

Three scenario-based experiments were conducted to validate the research model. First, to test the effect of robot service failure types on customer recovery expectation; second, to further test the mediating role of perceived controllability, perceived stability and perceived severity; finally, to verify the moderating effect of anthropomorphic level.

Non-functional failures reduce consumer recovery expectation compared to functional failures; perceived controllability and perceived severity play a mediating role in the impact of service failure types on recovery expectation; the influence of service failure types on perceived controllability and perceived severity is moderated by the anthropomorphism level.

The findings enrich the influence mechanism and boundary conditions of service failure types, and have implications for online enterprise follow-up service recovery and improvement of anthropomorphic design.

This paper aims to examine consumer reactions during product-harm crises by measuring the impact of perceived risk, blame and trust on consumer purchase intentions. Moreover, the role of perceived crisis severity is examined as affecting the three main endogenous variables of the conceptual framework.

The study uses the real-scenario approach for empirically testing the proposed conceptual framework. Participants were called to assess the story of a defective product (i.e. a soother that was recently recalled).

Results of the equation modeling demonstrate that perceived severity significantly influence trust and blame while it does not affect perceived risk. In addition, trust, blame and perceived risk notably affect purchase intentions.

Based on the study’s results, companies could implement appropriate strategies for reducing the negative consequences of a product-harm crisis.

The paper presents four key originality traits: Crisis management from the consumer perspective has received little attention. The relationship between trust, perceived risk and purchase intentions has not been explored in the crisis management field. Attribution of blame is a new variable added to the perceived risk-trust-purchase intention model. Perceived severity is examined as a moderator affecting the main endogenous variables of the conceptual framework.

The COVID-19 outbreak has been rapidly spreading around the world for more than a year. However, few studies have explored the connection between the perceived severity of COVID-19 and purchase intention of the health-related products, for example, organic food. Based on the stimulus–organism–response (S-O-R) framework, this study examines the influencing mechanism of perceived severity of COVID-19 on purchase intention of organic food.

To evaluate the proposed model, an online survey was utilized to collect 1,104 valid questionnaires from China.

The findings suggest that (1) the perceived severity of COVID-19 has a significant positive impact on purchasing intention; (2) health consciousness acts as a mediating role between perceived severity of COVID-19 and purchasing intention and (3) perceived inconvenience negatively moderates the connection between perceived severity and purchase intention.

The findings of this paper provide new insights into the positive effects of COVID-19 and pave the way for governments and enterprises to promote the purchase behaviour of organic food.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the effect of level of graphic threat (weak and strong) and the amount of information (low and high) on message effectiveness for an unfamiliar (a muscle disorder due to lack of physical exercise) vs a familiar (injuries as a result of traffic accidents due to drunk driving) issue.

The method employed was experimental 2 (issue familiarity: unfamiliar, familiar issue)×2 (amount of information: low, high)×2 (graphic threat level: weak, strong) full factorial between‐subjects design. Data are collected from a sample of 206 Belgians.

It was found that a strong graphic threat message has a greater effect for an unfamiliar than for a familiar issue. For a familiar issue, adding information to a weak threat appeal increases perceived severity. For an unfamiliar issue, adding information to a strong graphic threat appeal has a similar effect. Perceived severity of threat, perceived probability of occurrence, evoked fear and perceived coping efficacy have a significant effect on the intention to adopt the recommended behavior. For an unfamiliar issue, perceived efficacy and perceived probability of occurrence primarily have the greatest impact on coping intention. For a familiar issue, perceived severity, evoked fear and perceived efficacy determine coping intention.

The results substantially support the use of different message tactics for health threats that are either new or familiar for the target group.

Most studies have limited themselves to studying the impact of threat strength on perceived threat and response efficacy, on evoked fear and on message acceptance. The present study adds the contextual and message elements, namely issue familiarity and amount of information provided, the link of which with threat appeal has – as far to the authors' knowledge never been studied before in one integrated analysis.

The health belief model (HBM) is the behavioral change theory most widely used in health behavior studies. Several studies have identified the limitations of this model, one of which concerns the validity in predicting behavioral changes. The purpose of this paper, scoping review, is to map the validity of HBM variables in predicting behavioral changes based on available synthesized evidences.

A scoping review was conducted using the Arksey and O’Malley’s framework. PubMed, Health Evidence, Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews, ScienceDirect and Google Scholar were searched using a combination of keywords: health belief model, review, systematic review and meta-analysis between February 15 and March 18, 2016.

Of the 1,457 articles, 4 met the inclusion criteria. All results showed that HBM variables were consistently related to behaviors and the strength of the correlation were varied. Perceived barriers and perceived benefits were the strongest predictor, while perceived severity was the weakest. The association between HBM variables and behaviors was moderated by some aspects of behavioral outcomes, the study design and the time interval between measurement of the HBM variables and behavior.

Although the four main variables of HBM have been shown to be related to behavior, the overall outcomes are varied and have not demonstrated conclusive evidence during the last ten years. The results of this scoping review imply the need for a systematic review and meta-analysis of the results of recent studies. In addition, more longitudinal studies are needed to ensure the validity of HBM variables by considering any possible moderators.

Organizational identification could play an important role during crises if it contributes to individuals' perceptions of control. This study examines this relationship and unpacks some of its complexities by investigating the mediating role of job satisfaction and citizenship behaviors that have previously been examined as outcomes of organizational identification in noncrisis contexts. The authors also investigate the moderating role of the perceived severity of the crisis on the relationships between organizational identification and job satisfaction and citizenship behaviors. There is limited empirical research on these relationships in a crisis context, and studying them is important for understanding the role of identification in diverse contexts and for crisis management research and practice.

Using the survey method, quantitative data were collected from 354 individuals from a nonprofit organization that filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. This was supplemented with qualitative data from respondents' comments in the survey.

Using process analysis, the authors find the following: (1) job satisfaction fully mediates the relationship between organizational identification and perceived control; (2) the perceived severity of the crisis moderates the relationship between organizational identification and job satisfaction; (3) citizenship behavior is associated with organizational identification but is not a significant mediator in the relationship between organizational identification and perceived control and (4) the perceived severity of the crisis is not a significant moderator of the relationship between organizational identification and citizenship behaviors.

This study’s model can be further tested in public and private organizations that are experiencing bankruptcies to examine the robustness of our findings. Also, due to the cross-sectional design of this study, the findings need to be tested in a longitudinal study to examine if they persist over time during the recovery and growth phases of a crisis.

Leaders can rely on individuals who identify with their organizations during a crisis, such as bankruptcies because they experience job satisfaction and a sense of control. Additionally, these individuals also demonstrate citizenship behaviors in these challenging situations.

This study is one of the first to empirically examine the association between organizational identification and perceived control, the mediating role of job satisfaction and citizenship behaviors and the moderating role of perceived severity in the context of an organizational crisis. An additional strength of this study is that it provides empirical evidence from individuals in an actual crisis rather than from laboratory studies.

This paper empirically examines the direct and indirect effects of perceived termination severity on customers' behavioral reactions via betrayal and justice. It also examines the moderating effects of attitude toward complaining (ATC).

This paper employs a quantitative method approach using a scenario-based experiment in a banking setting.

The results show that a more severe termination approach results in higher customer negative reactions. Betrayal is shown to be a key driver of customers' behavioral reactions, and ATC moderates these effects.

Future studies should examine the effects of different termination strategies in markedly different cultures and should also examine other boundary conditions such as prior warning, relationship quality and service importance in influencing customers' negative behavioral responses.

This paper contributes to the service termination literature by shedding light on the impact of termination severity on customers' reactions. It also unveils the mechanism that explains customers' reactions to service termination. Further, it reveals that ATC moderates customers' public (but not private) complaining behaviors.

This paper aims to investigate the cultural variability in assessing the severity of a service failure.

Two separate studies were conducted. The first investigates differences in the perception of service failures across two cultural pools of subjects (allocentrics versus idiocentrics) and within a same country. The second contrasts two levels of comparisons: a cross-cultural values’ level and a cross-country level, to assess differences in the perception service failures’ severity.

Results showed that cultural values differences, when investigated at the individual level (i.e. idiocentrism versus allocentrism) are more significant to understand the influence of culture on the perception of severity, that is, allocentrics perceive more severity in the service failure than idiocentrics. However, a cross-country comparison (i.e. USA versus Puerto Rico) does not show significant differences.

Customers may assess, with different sensitivities, the severity of a service failure. These differences are mainly explained by differences in cultural values’ orientations but not differences across countries. Even originating from a same country, customers could perceive with different degrees the seriousness of a same service failure as they may cling to different cultural values. Hence, it is increasingly important to examine the cultural differences at the individual-level rather than a country level.

Firms serving international markets as well as multiethnic ones would have advantage to understand cultural differences in the perception of the severity at the individual level rather than at the societal or country level. This is more helpful to direct appropriate service recovery strategies to customers who may have higher sensitivity to the service failure.

Little is known about the effect of culture on the severity evaluation, although investigating cross-cultural differences in the assessment of severity is relevant to understand whether offenses are perceived more seriously in one culture than another and then if these offenses will potentially arise confrontational behaviors or not.