Why Platforms Become Scapegoats: Extending Attribution Theory in Multi-Actor Service Contexts.

This article investigates the phenomenon of the "locus-responsibility shift" (L-R shift) in multi-actor service failures, where consumers attribute responsibility for service failures to a platform rather than the individual service provider who caused the failure. Drawing on attribution theory, the study analyzes 24,183 consumer complaints using a BERT machine learning model and conducts four experimental studies to examine how platform presence, platform intermediation level, failure severity, and failure type influence this shift. Findings indicate that consumers are more likely to hold platforms responsible—and thus lodge complaints against them—when platforms have high intermediation, failures are severe, or failures involve service encounters rather than core service issues. The research highlights managerial implications for platforms to mitigate undue scapegoating by clarifying responsibilities, managing consumer expectations, and improving service quality in multi-actor ecosystems.