The Burden of Double Deviation in Services: A Systematic Review and Research Agenda

Double deviation (failure to satisfactorily recover from a service failure) is a common phenomenon that has recently attracted significant research interest, but the academic literature lacks a study mapping and synthesizing the field. This article undertakes filling this gap by systematically reviewing the double deviation literature. The review classifies the literature into causes, consequences, moderators, and double service recovery and identifies research themes and future research directions within them. Key current research themes are ineffective recovery remedies and cognitive appraisal criteria as causes; emotivational goals, revengeful and reparative behaviours as consequences; firm–customer relationship‐based variables as moderators; and unique tactics of double service recovery. Reassessing the scope of double deviation, uncovering customers' discrete emotions during double deviation and ascertaining the commercial viability of double service recovery are some recommendations for future research.