Mediating Role of Customer Affection
The purpose of this study was to examine the mediation mechanism of customer affection to account for the
influence of perceived justice dimensions (distributive justice, procedural justice and interactional justice) on
word of mouth and customer loyalty.
This study has theoretical foundation on emotional appraisal theory, theory of love and theory of justice. This
cross-sectional study was conducted on car insurance sector of Faisalabad region. Self-administrated
questionnaire was distributed to respondents (using convenient sampling technique). 210 properly filled
questionnaires were used for analysis in SPSS. Cronbach alpha and Principal Component Analysis (PCA) had
been used for assessing validity and reliability of the instrument. Pearson correlation, Regression analysis and
Preacher and Hayes (2008) were the statistical techniques used for data analysis. Regression results depict
significant direct relationships between all variables under study, further interactional justice accounts for
highest variance in word of mouth and loyalty as compared to other dimensions of perceived justice and
affection has strongest effect on WOM.
Mediation analysis depicts that customer affection fully mediates the relationship between procedural justice
and customer loyalty. While customer affection partially mediate the relationships between "distributive
justice and loyalty" and "interactional justice and loyalty". Similarly, customer affection also plays its role as
partial mediator on the relationships between "distributive justice and WOM," "procedural justice and WOM"
and "Interactional Justice and WOM".
This research extended previous studies by adding affection as an affective mediator. Further this research also
contributed to practitioners by providing strategies for effective service recovery that would positively affect
customer justice perception, strengthen customer affection and ultimately generate loyal customer that will
prove positive advocator of company.