While the debate on online service failure and recovery strategies has been given considerable attention in the marketing and information systems literature, the evolving Covid‐19 pandemic has brought about new challenges both theoretically and empirically in the consumption landscape. To fully understand customers' responses to service failure during a crisis we asked 70 millennials from three European Countries—Italy, France, and the UK—to describe their responses to service failure during the Covid‐19 pandemic (30 completed a 4‐week diary and 40 completed a 4‐week qualitative survey). Drawing on phenomenological, constructivist, and hermeneutical approaches, and utilizing an actor–network theory perspective, the current study proposes a new framework for understanding customers' responses to online service failure and recovery strategies during the Covid‐19 pandemic. Conclusions highlight implications for theory, policy, and management practice through extending comprehensions of service failure recovery processes by examining how marketing policies generate different social impacts during a crisis situation which facilitate the achievement of customer satisfaction and positive outcomes.

Social media have opened up a whole new era for fashion companies and brands, encouraging them to identify innovative relationship with consumer. In order to face these new challenges, understanding the combinatory mechanism of brand credibility and brand image in the formation of brand purchase intention is strategic for fashion brands practitioners. The main purpose of this study is to examine the moderating effect of social media on the relationship between brand credibility, brand image and purchase intention of fashion brands. A conditional process analysis methodology is employed to describe the mediation and moderation effects of the variables analyzed. The findings show that brand credibility has a positive influence on brand image and purchase intention. In addition, social media activity is positively influential on the direct relationship between brand image and purchase intention. However, the results show that, over social media activity, the direct influence of brand credibility on purchase intention decreases. From a managerial point of view, the study helps fashion brand managers in executing marketing decisions through the evaluation of brand credibility and the understanding of the impact of social media activity to increase the brand image and consumer purchase.

An increasing number of companies are introducing chatbot‐led contexts in service failure recovery. Existing studies are inconclusive on whether humanlike chatbot‐driven service failure recovery enhances customer loyalty. Grounding our work in phenomenological hermeneutics and utilizing frustration–aggression theory, we concentrate on the historical circumstance and the participatory nature of understanding customers' chatbot‐driven interactions and loyalty. We conducted 47 in‐depth interviews with millennials from four countries (United States, France, Italy, and the United Kingdom). By analyzing interview data through thematic analysis, our study offers two significant contributions. First, through thematic analysis, we define the dynamics occurring between customers and chatbots in a service recovery journey, such as customers' priorities and expectations. Second, we present a chatbot‐led service failure recovery typology framework that identifies four types of customers based on their interactions with a chatbot and their emotions, specifically frustration and aggression, and the effects of the interactions on their brand loyalty and intention to use chatbots. The identification of four customer types can help managers shape strategies to effectively turn negative customer experiences into opportunities to strengthen their loyalty, such as making more than one touchpoint available (human and chatbot). Our study shows that customers' emotions, specifically frustration and aggression, affect not only customer loyalty but also technology adoption. The concluding section suggests future avenues for research in the service recovery literature.

Purpose: User-generated content (UGC) and service failure have attracted considerable marketing inquiry over the last two decades. Previous studies primarily focused on the outcome of service failure and the impact of UGC on perceived failure severity. This article departs from previous studies as it examines the moderating role of UGC on the relationship between service failure recovery (SFR) and customer–brand relationship.Design/methodology/approach: Building on commitment-trust theory and from a phenomenological hermeneutical perspective, this article explores this phenomenon through the interpretation of 60 in-depth interviews with millennials from three European countries: Italy, France and the UK. An analysis of the data was conducted using a qualitative approach to understand the main constructs and relationships derived from the data.Findings: This study conceptualises four distinct moderating characteristics of UGC in the SFR process: satisfaction with experience and brand, dissatisfaction with experience and brand, satisfaction with brand and dissatisfaction with brand. The insights from the responsiveness, empathetic response, counterfactual thinking and brand salience (RECB) framework contribute to research on UGC and shed light on the relationship between SFR and consumer–brand relationships in the fashion industry.Originality/value: Overall, this study demonstrates that customer interactions with UGC significantly affect their responses to, and relationships with, a brand. The proposed framework opens up interesting avenues for future research on the moderating role of UGC on the relationship between SFR and customer–brand relationships.

Purpose: Prior research has advanced several explanations for social media influencers' (SMIs’) success in the burgeoning computer-mediated marketing environments but leaves one key topic unexplored: the moderating role of SMIs in service failure and recovery strategies.Design/methodology/approach: Drawing on a social constructivist perspective and an inductive approach, 59 in-depth interviews were conducted with millennials from three European countries (Italy, France and the United Kingdom). Building on social influence theory and commitment-trust theory, this study conceptualises four distinct pathways unifying SMIs' efforts in the service failure recovery process.Findings: The emergent model illustrates how source credibility and message content moderate service failure severity and speed of recovery. The insights gained from this study model contribute to research on the pivotal uniqueness of SMIs in service failure recovery processes and offer practical explanations of variations in the implementation of influencer marketing. This study examines a perspective of SMIs that considers the cycle of their influence on customers through service failure and recovery.Originality/value: The study suggests that negative reactions towards service failure and recovery are reduced if customers have a relationship with influencers prior to the service failure and recovery compared with the reactions of customers who do not have a relationship with the influencer.