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Owners, managers and employees may be criticized personally and professionally by consumers in online reviews, and may suffer emotional and burnout consequences. The purpose of this paper is to examine the impact of customer-generated negative online reviews on hospitality employees.

This research analyzed the effects of traditional face-to-face customer-related social stressors, as well as a newly added negative online review (NOR) stressor, on anger and burnout in a sample of 418 US hospitality workers.

Structural equation modeling revealed that, after taking into account the contribution of customer-related social stressors, receipt of NORs predicts anger and anger mediates the relationships between NOR-receipt and two indices of burnout.

This research extends our understanding of social stressors that apply to workers in the hospitality industry. It offers strategies for managing the threats and optimizing the opportunities, provided by negative online reviews.

This study is one of the first studies that provide evidence of the personal impact of NORs on hospitality industry employees, thereby extending our understanding of social stressors that apply to workers in this industry.

This study aims to analyze the joint effects of where a service failure occurs and who witnesses it, with a specific focus on Chinese consumers who have varying levels of acculturation.

A 4 × 2 × 2 between-subject factorial design was used, where social presence and the location of the service failure were manipulated and acculturation was measured. Data were collected in Australia and China to contrast perceptions and behavioral responses of Chinese – Australians and Mainland Chinese by drawing on samples of 224 and 264 respondents, respectively.

Results showed significant differences in face, satisfaction and repeat purchase intention ratings following a service failure between Chinese – Australians and Mainland Chinese, as well as among Chinese – Australians with different acculturation strategies. Contrary to expectations, results established that where and with whom a service failure is experienced prominently affect consumer behavior regardless of the acculturation level.

An understanding of the effect of acculturation on a service failure situation is crucial for businesses to successfully compete in a continuously globalized world where migration produces multicultural societies and short-term travel tends to significantly change demands on service provision.

This research presents one of the first studies that go beyond the traditional East/West consumer distinction in studying service failure. This study analyzes the effect of acculturation by itself and together with other variables of interest.

This paper aims to use a concurrent mixed method approach to explore the key variables that can influence customer experience at a food and wine event.

A concurrent mixed methods approach, using a participant-generated image (PGI) method, together with a recall survey, provided images with associated narratives, descriptive statistics, correlations and hierarchical multiple regression analysis to explore how attendees appraise their experiences based on their goals and the link between experience appraisals and overall evaluations.

Through the PGI method (N = 25), the authors determined that customer experience at the event could be viewed as a hierarchical model, comprising a fundamental sensory experience together with three higher-order customer experience components (fun, discovery and inspiration). A separate concurrent recall study (N = 598) demonstrated the relationship between the same four customer experience components and overall satisfaction as well as recommendation and repeat visitation.

The results suggest that to promote positive customer experiences, along with the product of the event itself, event managers should focus on activity programs that are fun, inspirational and novel, as well as sensory.

This study focuses on a single case study of an event to examine and extend our understanding of customer experience. The use of a concurrent mixed methods approach provides us with different types of data from two separate samples of participants. By integrating data from each study the authors are able to build a conceptual model of the salient dimensions of customer experience and then quantitatively analyze how these salient dimensions are related to outcome variables.

Guest history is a valuable service and marketing tool. In particular, it is likely to become a strategic device for the development of brand loyalty in the 1990s. Reports on a nationwide Australian study of 121 hotels′ use of guest history, and describes some of the key opportunities for optimizing the guest history function. The findings suggest that while guest history is being widely utilized by hotels, the extent of that utilization is limited. Three major areas for developing strategies to optimize the guest history function were found to include: specific guest history training modules; an internal service orientation emphasizing the organization‐wide usage of guest history to service the customer better; and further enhancement of the use of guest history for increasing brand loyalty.

The paper aims to examine the impact of customer-generated negative online reviews on hospitality employees and businesses. It introduces the concept of negative online review stress, or NOR_Stress (occupational stress due to being targeted by negative online reviews), and present strategies for researching and managing the impact of negative online reviews.

This conceptual paper sets forth a framework, based on the stress, services and hospitality literature, within which negative online reviews, NOR_Stress, and their impact on individuals and businesses can be understood. Aspects of the framework are illustrated by application of online archival material.

The paper demonstrates how negative online reviews can have adverse and diverse effects on restaurant industry employees and businesses.

The paper sets out a research agenda relating to negative online reviews and NOR_Stress causes, consequences and countermeasures. Multiple research questions are posed, to be investigated through a combination of qualitative, survey and experimental methods.

Four types of countermeasures are presented: preventative, protective, positive and palliative.

Negative online reviews can exact a hefty toll, potentially resulting not only in reduced customer patronage and company profitability but also in human and social consequences in the form of adverse stress reactions, loss of face and damaged personal and professional relationships.

Negative online reviews have proliferated over the past decade and will continue to grow. This paper is the first to critically examine the human and business impacts of this growing threat to the hospitality industry.

This study aims to investigate if, when, and how the use of four different types of explanations affect customer satisfaction after a service failure.

The study used written scenarios of a hypothetical service failure to manipulate explanation type, failure magnitude and compensation offered. Participants were randomly assigned to read and respond to one version of the scenario, whilst imagining they were the customer experiencing the service failure.

The paper finds that explanation type, explanation quality, failure magnitude and compensation each had significant effects on customer evaluations. Explanation type and explanation quality interactively affected the extent to which customers were satisfied with service recovery: Apologies and excuses yielded higher satisfaction levels than did justifications and referential accounts but only when the explanations were perceived to be of high (vs low) quality. Specific types of attributions and forms of justice were shown to mediate the effects of three of the explanation types.

The study shows that customer evaluations following service failure vary with the type of explanation provided. Service firms need to provide an explanation in such circumstances, preferably a high quality excuse or apology, and need to understand the “process variables” that determine whether the explanation will satisfy aggrieved customers.

This is one of very few studies that have compared the efficacy of different types of explanations in service situations. The research sheds light not only on what types of explanations work best, but also on how they have their effect.

Previous research has shown that restaurants are an important factor in the choice of a holiday destination for some tourists. Research has also found that the restaurants at a destination can enhance the guests’ overall satisfaction with the destination. This research was sponsored by the Co‐operative Research Centre for Sustainable Tourism in Australia and investigates the relationship between the tourist destination, restaurants and tourists. The study is based on the results of interviews with 459 tourists. The findings of the study provide support for the proposition that tourists perceive restaurants as an important attribute of a tourist destination. The study also provides insight into how tourists select restaurants. This information is useful to managers of restaurants in tourist destinations. Both destination marketers and restaurant managers will benefit from this study.

Technological advancement and growth in social media have meant that customers are increasingly using the internet to write a review or express opinions about products and services. Many of these online reviews are critical of service organizations and workers. The purpose of this paper is to document the experiences that service industry personnel have of negatively valenced, customer-authored, online reviews, the personal impact of these reviews, and the manner in which participants respond emotionally and behaviorally to these reviews.

This research drew on the stress, coping, and service literature, with particular emphasis on stress appraisal theory. The study involved the completion of an anonymous online questionnaire by 421 restaurant owners, managers, and employees.

Many respondents reported feelings of anger and use of maladaptive coping strategies in response to negative online reviews (NORs). Smaller numbers reported feelings of embarrassment and guilt, and thoughts of leaving the industry. Factors pertaining to respondents’ online review exposure, emotional responses, and coping strategies predicted the effects of negative reviews on thoughts of exiting current employment.

The findings have implications for protecting worker well-being and job tenure in an industry deeply affected by electronic word-of-mouth. Replication is recommended using a longitudinal design and more objective data obtained from validated instruments and independent sources.

This survey provides the first known evidence of the personal impact of NORs on business owners, managers, and employees.

The consumption of wine has over recent years increased in many countries with wine now often being a preferred social beverage. As consumption has increased consumers have become more familiar with the range of wines available and are now more sophisticated in their selection of wines. The wine selection process is likely to be highly complex and may involve trading off a range of product attributes when making a purchase. This article presents the results of a research project investigating consumer decision making when selecting wines. It focuses on five key wine attributes (grape variety, price brand recognition the region of production and whether it has won any awards), and situates the decision process within possible buying contexts. Price, type of wine, the presence of a national award and the purchase context were significant predictors of the decision to purchase a wine. This study is an example of an analytical approach applied to an issue that has largely defied the use of quantitative tools.

Argues that the aim of marketers should be to build positive relationships with customers. However, the nature of such relationships is unclear. Examines the one‐to‐one relationship between customers and individual employees and highlights key implications for managers.