Cultural Moderation in the Formation of Recovery Satisfaction Judgments: A Cognitive-Affective Perspective

Abstract

The present study places the formation of recovery satisfaction judgments in a cultural context and empirically assesses their susceptibility to cultural moderation. Specifically, the study investigates whether an individual consumer’s cultural value orientation along the Hofstede dimensions of individualism/collectivism, masculinity/femininity, uncertainty avoidance, and long-term/short-term orientation moderates the cognitive-affective relationships that underlie the formation of recovery satisfaction judgments. Using a cross-sectional survey design, the study’s findings indicate that these cognitive-affective relationships are indeed subject to cultural moderation. Specifically, the findings document that individuals’ cultural value orientations significantly influence the impact of the cognitive (i.e., perceived justice-based) and affective (i.e., emotion-based) antecedents to recovery satisfaction. This supports the notion that conceptually accurate models of recovery satisfaction formation should incorporate culture as a moderating influence. Importantly, however, cultural moderation explains only an additional 2% to 4% of the variance in recovery satisfaction in the present study and none of the variance in positive/negative emotions. Accordingly, the managerial significance of variations in individuals’ cultural value orientations appears to be only minor, and firms may not necessarily stand a much better chance of implementing more appropriate recovery actions if they are sensitive to cultural differences in their customer base.