Service failure research in the hospitality and tourism industry: a synopsis of past, present and future dynamics from 2001 to 2020
International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management
ISSN: 0959-6119
Article publication date: 19 August 2022
Issue publication date: 2 January 2023
Abstract
Purpose
When service failure occurs, it leads to dissatisfaction, lack of trust and avoidance behaviour among customers, and it can also be seen as a threat to the survival of the business. This paper aims to investigate the current and potential dynamics of service failure research within the tourism and hospitality area.
Design/methodology/approach
By adopting qualitative, quantitative (citation and text mining) and science-mapping tools (descriptive, conceptual and intellectual), this study analyses 99 key papers on service failure in 18 major hospitality and tourism journals over a 20-year span.
Findings
The research on service recovery strategies, recovery efforts, pre- and post-failure and post-recovery in the service encounter and the impacts of justice on post-recovery and post-complaint behaviour are identified as the major streams of service failure research. While emotional labour, rumination and satisfaction recovery were identified as emerging themes, service failure perceptions and social media were found as the developed and substantial trends.
Practical implications
This study presents a comprehensive understanding of service failure research development in the hospitality and tourism industry. This study propose three areas – circumstantial cues, interactional cues and crisis management – that practitioners need to understand to minimise service failure during the service interaction.
Originality/value
To the best of the authors’ knowledge, no prior bibliometric study has investigated the current and future dynamics of service failure in the hospitality and tourism industry and offered a research agenda based on this gap in the literature.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
The authors are grateful to the Editor-in-Chief for his support during the submission, review, and acceptance journey. Also, their thanks go out to Atif Iqbal for his contributions to the data collection process.
All three authors have been involved in all the research processes from the conceptual development of the paper to the writing-up stage.
Citation
Akarsu, T.N., Marvi, R. and Foroudi, P. (2023), "Service failure research in the hospitality and tourism industry: a synopsis of past, present and future dynamics from 2001 to 2020", International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management, Vol. 35 No. 1, pp. 186-217. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJCHM-11-2021-1441
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
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