Proceedings of the 12th AIM-AMA Sheth Foundation Doctoral Consortium & International Marketing Conference 2025 (IMCDC 2025)

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Employee Engagement to Elicit Consumer Forgiveness in Service Firms

Authors
Harsh Kumar1, *, Ashish Bajpai2
1Research Scholar, Institute of Management Studies, Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi, India
2Director, Institute of Management Studies, Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi, India
*Corresponding author. Email: harshkumar@fmsbhu.ac.in Email: harshkumar511@gmail.com
Corresponding Author
Harsh Kumar
Available Online 10 March 2026.
DOI
10.2991/978-94-6239-608-1_7How to use a DOI?
Keywords
Consumer Forgiveness; Frontline Employees; Service Firm
Abstract

This study explores how frontline employee engagement helps consumers forgive after service failures in service firms. A systematic literature review was conducted using the PRISMA framework, covering 52 peer-reviewed articles published between 2020 and 2025 from the Scopus and Web of Science databases. The findings show that most earlier studies focused on the causes of service failures and customer reactions. At the same time, little attention was given to the actions employees take to rebuild trust and encourage forgiveness. The study introduces a triadic framework of employee actions that includes emotional, cognitive, and justice restoration factors. These three areas explain how employees can use empathy, clear communication, and fairness to rebuild trust, reduce negative feelings, and improve long-term customer relationships. This research provides practical guidance for service firms. Training employees to be empathetic, communicate openly, and act fairly can strengthen service recovery and build customer loyalty. Overall, the study offers a simple and useful model showing how engaged employees can turn service failures into opportunities to restore trust and maintain lasting customer relationships.

Copyright
© 2026 The Author(s)
Open Access
Open Access This chapter is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/), which permits any noncommercial use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license and indicate if changes were made.

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Volume Title
Proceedings of the 12th AIM-AMA Sheth Foundation Doctoral Consortium & International Marketing Conference 2025 (IMCDC 2025)
Series
Advances in Economics, Business and Management Research
Publication Date
10 March 2026
ISBN
978-94-6239-608-1
ISSN
2352-5428
DOI
10.2991/978-94-6239-608-1_7How to use a DOI?
Copyright
© 2026 The Author(s)
Open Access
Open Access This chapter is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/), which permits any noncommercial use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license and indicate if changes were made.

Cite this article

risenwbib
TY  - CONF
AU  - Harsh Kumar
AU  - Ashish Bajpai
PY  - 2026
DA  - 2026/03/10
TI  - Employee Engagement to Elicit Consumer Forgiveness in Service Firms
BT  - Proceedings of the 12th AIM-AMA Sheth Foundation Doctoral Consortium & International Marketing Conference 2025 (IMCDC 2025)
PB  - Atlantis Press
SP  - 114
EP  - 134
SN  - 2352-5428
UR  - https://doi.org/10.2991/978-94-6239-608-1_7
DO  - 10.2991/978-94-6239-608-1_7
ID  - Kumar2026
ER  -