In Justice We Trust: Predicting User Acceptance of E-Customer Services

High-quality customer service is an integral part of any successful enterprise, but providing it can be a challenge for online merchants, especially when customers are complaining about each other. This study examines how justice and trust affect user acceptance of e-customer services by conducting an online experiment involving 380 participants. The results suggest that trust in the e-customer service fully mediates the effects of trust in the service representative and procedural justice on intentions to reuse the e-customer service. Furthermore, the effect of distributive justice on trust in the e-customer service was fully mediated by trust in the e-service representative. Finally, the effect of informational justice on user intentions to reuse the e-customer service was partially mediated by trust in the service representative and trust in the e-customer service. Theoretical and practical implications are further discussed.