Who is my Friend? Coalition Forming in ...

This research examines coalition forming in trilateral service failure situations, involving a complainant, a bystander and a service employee as the firm’s representative. We propose that coalitions occur in service failure contexts and provide evidence that they are formed in predictable patterns, particularly due to relationship strength and the emotional synchrony between the potential coalition partners. As theoretical contribution this study provides insights into the social dynamics of trilateral relationships in service recovery, which has so far only been investigated from a dyadic perspective, neglecting the third party-customer (i.e., the bystander). Practitioners can learn why some customers ally with the complainant, while others sympathize with the service employee.