HEC Research Papers Series,
HEC Paris

Abstract: Conventional wisdom holds that service failure creates customer misery and reduces firm profitability. This paper challenges this view and shows that occasional service failure can be profitable for the firm when optional protection against the resulting customer misery can be marketed. It also shows that a firm that uses such a protection strategy inflicts a calculated misery on unprotected customers and wastes resources to provide the protection. Despite these inefficiencies, using the protection strategy can lead to market expansion and social welfare gains due to lower prices.

Keywords: Service Failure; Customer Damage; Random Versioning

22 pages, December 17, 2015

Full text files

papers.cfm?abstract_id=2704861  

Download statistics

• HEC Paris
• Ordering Working Papers
• Home page for this series

Questions (including download problems) about the papers in this series should be directed to Antoine Haldemann ()
Report other problems with accessing this service to Sune Karlsson ().

This page generated on 2024-02-05 15:47:25.