How an ethos of repair shapes material sustainability in services

Abstract

Environmental sustainability requires market services to care for and respect physical materials, moving beyond a conventional customer-centric focus. This research examines how service providers can incorporate tangible objects and material processes into reparative services, which span many industries and enable material sustainability in market systems. The paper also analyzes how materiality shapes customer perceptions of reparative service processes and outcomes. An interpretive analysis of ethnographic and online review data identifies an ethos of repair shaping service processes, outcomes, and evaluations. Service providers demonstrate an ethos of repair through a sense of material empathy and through a networked understanding of how materials interact before, during, and after service processes. Tensions between the ethos of repair and a pervasive ethos of consumption shape customer evaluations of reparative services. Results have important implications for environmental sustainability. A discussion presents strategic recommendations for making, delivering, and enabling reparative service promises.