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Contractual services are characterized by features such as termination fees, long-term commitment, and complex terms. When customers find better deals from other providers, they may want to switch, but contractual obligations prevent them from doing so. Thus, this study aims to draw upon the stimulus-organism-response paradigm and theories of emotion regulation to examine how punitive switching costs (PSCs) can evoke negative emotions (NEs) from customers and, consequently, lead to negative behavioral responses in contractual service settings.

This study collected data from 395 customers of telecommunications companies, fitness centers, tutoring firms/centers, and house leasing companies in Taiwan. We tested the hypotheses using partial least squares structural equation modeling via SmartPLS 3.0.

The results show that NEs partially mediate the relationship between PSC and customers’ switching intention and negative word-of-mouth. This study also finds alternative attractiveness (AA) and service recovery (SR) do not moderate the PSCs–NEs relationship, but AA does directly influence NEs.

First, this study contributes to the literature on switching costs by exploring how PSC exerts a detrimental impact on behavioral responses. Second, this study adds to the literature on service failures by identifying the mediating role of NEs in such a relationship.

Service failure and recovery encounters are often witnessed by other customers, but little is known about how these encounters impacts other customers. With an aim to bridge this gap, the purpose of the paper is to explore why and how service recovery directed at a focal customer impacts other customers who are present in the same service environment.

The paper follows a qualitative research methodology. Purposive sampling was used to collect data from 30 customers through semi-structured face-to-face interviews. The data was analysed using thematic analysis.

Findings of the study show that service recovery directed at a focal customer has an impact on other customers' fairness judgments, emotions, service quality perceptions and behaviour. Other customers' behavioural reactions in response to observed service recovery are driven by two different motives: self-interest and moral obligation. Observing customers' cautious behaviour and (re)purchase behaviour are found to be primarily driven by self-interest, whereas their helping behaviour, punishment behaviour and word-of-mouth behaviour are found to be driven by moral obligation.

This study findings contribute to theory development on “other-oriented” effects of service recovery and provides valuable insights for effective management of service failures in the shared service environment.

This is the first study, which qualitatively explores the “other customers” perspective of service recovery in the context of shared servicescape.

The service environment of urban polyethylene (PE) pipes has a crucial influence on their long-term safety and performance. Based on the application and structural performance analysis of PE pipe failure cases, this study aims to investigate the impact of organic substances in the soil on the aging behavior of PE pipes by designing organic solutions with different concentrations, which are based on the composition of organic substances in the soil environment, and periodic immersion tests.

Soil samples in the vicinity of the failed pipes were analyzed by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry, sensitive organic substances were screened and soaking solutions of different concentrations were designed. After the soaking test, the PE pipe samples were analyzed using differential scanning calorimetry, Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy and other testing methods.

The performance difference between the outer surface and the middle of the cross section of PE pipes highlights the influence of the soil service environment on their aging. Different organic solutions can have varying impacts on the aging behavior of PE pipes when immersed. For instance, when exposed to amine organic solutions, PE pipes may have an increased weight and decreased material yield strength, although there is no reduction in their thermal or oxygen stability. On the contrary, when subjected to ether organic solutions, the surface of PE pipe specimens may be affected, leading to a reduction in material fracture elongation and a decrease in their thermal and oxygen stability. Furthermore, immersion in either amine or ether organic solutions may result in the production of hydroxyl and other aging groups on the surface of the material.

Understanding the potential impact of organic substances in the soil environment on the aging of PE pipe ensures the long-term performance and safety of urban PE pipe. This research approach will provide valuable insights into improving the durability and reliability of urban PE pipes in soil environments.

Drawing on justice theory, this study aims to investigate the determinants and consequences of post-recovery satisfaction in a business-to-business (B2B) sales environment. In addition, customer demandingness is used as a moderator in this study to assess the relationship between distributive justice (DJ), procedural justice (PJ) and interactional justice (IJ) and post-recovery satisfaction.

A conceptual framework was developed by testing five hypotheses based on data collected from 337 salesperson–customer dyads.

The findings of this study reveal that DJ, PJ and IJ are positively linked with post-recovery satisfaction. In addition, post-recovery satisfaction negatively impacts customer distrust. On the contrary, customer distrust positively influences value co-creation behavior and has a negative impact on trusting intention. Finally, the customer’s level of demandingness significantly and positively moderates the linkage between the dimensions of justice perception and post-recovery satisfaction.

Despite extensive literature on distrust, a research model that examines customers’ distrust attitudes toward service failure and B2B recovery satisfaction needs to be developed and validated. In this regard, the authors developed a framework to measure post-recovery satisfaction and its association with customers’ distrust in B2B a context.

Based on appraisal theory and social response theory, this study aims to explore the mechanism of AI failure types on consumer recovery expectation from the perspective of service failure assessment and validate the moderate role of anthropomorphism level.

Three scenario-based experiments were conducted to validate the research model. First, to test the effect of robot service failure types on customer recovery expectation; second, to further test the mediating role of perceived controllability, perceived stability and perceived severity; finally, to verify the moderating effect of anthropomorphic level.

Non-functional failures reduce consumer recovery expectation compared to functional failures; perceived controllability and perceived severity play a mediating role in the impact of service failure types on recovery expectation; the influence of service failure types on perceived controllability and perceived severity is moderated by the anthropomorphism level.

The findings enrich the influence mechanism and boundary conditions of service failure types, and have implications for online enterprise follow-up service recovery and improvement of anthropomorphic design.

The authors' research examines how negative electronic word-of-mouth (e-WOM) alters focal customers' post-recovery justice perceptions and attitudes to determine their future behavior with the service provider. Specifically, this paper develops and tests a conceptual model to investigate how negative e-WOM alters focal customers' perceptual and attitudinal outcomes after the service recovery experience. It also examines the post-recovery effect of negative e-WOM on focal customers’ willingness to patronize the service after their recovery experience.

To test the hypotheses, two pretests and two experimental studies with created scenarios in the retail context were conducted.

The authors' findings reveal that services are judged during and well beyond failure and recovery occurrences. To maintain a loyal customer base, service managers should develop processes that address service complaints both within and beyond the service consumption stage. The authors also find that despite a favorable recovery, focal customers gravitate toward the failure experience and develop unfavorable attitudes toward the service provider, leading to likely defections.

The authors' research demonstrates the persuasive power of negative e-WOM at the post-service recovery stage, making a unique contribution to the service recovery literature. This research also contributes to the persuasive effect of negative e-WOM, demonstrating message context as a boundary condition of negative e-WOM effects. In general, the authors' work highlights the importance of understanding the psychological processes involved in eliciting the persuasive influence of negative e-WOM in the post-service recovery stage that may lead to the defection of “so-called” successfully recovered customers.

This research investigates the role of customer forgiveness as the result of online service recovery transparency in predicting customer engagement. It also examines the moderating roles of timeliness and personalization in this proposed model.

An online survey study using retrospective experience sampling and a scenario-based experimental study were conducted to test the proposed hypotheses.

Customer forgiveness positively influences customer engagement and plays a mediating role in the relationship between service recovery transparency and customer engagement. Additionally, timeliness and personalization moderate the positive influence of service recovery transparency on customer forgiveness. The positive influence of service recovery transparency on customer forgiveness is more apparent when levels of timeliness and personalization decrease.

To retain focal customers' engagement after a service failure, firms must obtain their forgiveness. One of the firm's online complaint handling strategies to increase the forgiveness level of focal customers is to provide a high level of service recovery transparency (i.e. responding to their complaints in a public channel), especially when the firm is unable to respond to online complaints quickly or provide highly personalized responses.

This research provides new insights into the underlying mechanism of customer engagement by applying the concept of customer forgiveness. It also contributes to the social influence theory by applying the essence of the theory to explain how other customers' virtual presence during the online complaint handling influences the forgiveness of focal customers in order to gain their engagement. Additionally, it provides insight into the conditions under which the role of service recovery transparency can be very effective in dealing with online complaints.

In the present study, we examined how effectively online travel agencies (OTAs) handle negative e-word-of-mouth on social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. We collected data from 497 participants using survey method. To test the hypotheses formulated from the existing literature, structural equation modeling was adopted in this study. The results from structural equation modeling indicate effective handling of the negative e-word of mouth (e-WOM) on social media websites significantly affects customer satisfaction and repurchase intention. The current research work provides insight into social media recovery efforts and service fairness when handling negative e-WOM. The study recommends that customers can distinguish the differences between general efforts and adaptive complaint-handling efforts, and dissimilarities may influence satisfaction, repurchase intentions, etc. Although empathy, apology, responsiveness, and paraphrasing are considered pioneer strategies in complaint handling, customers' negative e-WOM, and firms' recovery management, but the current study is among a few to categorize OTAs' handling of negative e-WOM and complaint handling efforts in the social media environment.

This paper aims to identify human rights violations of patients during the early periods of the COVID-19 pandemic in Ghana by investigating the experiences of people on how health-care professionals discharged their responsibilities during the time in question.

Explanatory design of the mixed methods approach was adopted, with the intention of collecting both quantitative and qualitative data sequentially, and then integrating the results at the interpretation stage. The approach enriched the quality of data collected as it offered the advantage of shedding light on the primary motivations and reasons for attitudes and behaviours and helped to provide an in-depth understanding of how individuals interpret the happenings around them and their experiences. Thus, although some amount of quantitative method was used in the data collection, the core of this paper is based on the qualitative interpretations.

The study reveals that health-care professionals, especially those in the Tema Metropolis, undermined certain fundamental human rights of patients during the early period of the COVID-19 pandemic. This includes failure to provide information to patients about treatment options and potential risks of medications; failure to seek the informed consent of patients before performing medical procedures; denial of access to medical files of patients for transfer; and inability or failure to provide medical ambulances services to patients on time.

Although many publications on human rights dimensions and health protective issues on COVID-19 pandemic are available on a global scale, still little information pertaining to experiences of individuals with health-care professionals during the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, especially in Ghana through the lens of patient’s rights exists. This paper, therefore, fills an important gap in health-care management information, critical for policy decision-making processes regarding patient’s rights in times of pandemic control.

Using a mixed methodology comprising interviews, case file analysis and descriptive statistics, this study aims to examine the experiences of all 43 young people in Wales subject to secure accommodation orders between 1st April 2016 and 31st March 2018.

Children in the UK aged 10–17 years who are deemed to be at a significant level of risk to themselves or others may be subject to a secure accommodation order, leading to time spent in a secure children’s home (SCH) on welfare grounds. Following a rise in the number of children in Wales referred to SCHs for welfare reasons, this paper describes these young people’s journeys into, through and out of SCHs, giving insight into their experiences and highlighting areas for policy and practice improvements.

Findings indicate that improvements in mental health support and placement availability are key in improving the experiences of this particularly vulnerable group of young people throughout their childhood.

Other practical implications of the study’s findings, such as improvements in secure transport arrangements, are also discussed.

While the findings are limited by the reliance on self-report methods and the size of the study, namely, the small number of young people with experience of SCHs who were able to participate, the findings build on the existing knowledge base around children’s residential accommodation and provide new insights into how best to support these children.