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 (N_sample1 = 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.