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Article
Publication date: 11 April 2023

Sarabjit Kaur Sidhu, Fon Sim Ong and M.S. Balaji

This study aims to investigate the moderating role of low and high failure severity levels on recovery satisfaction and on behavioral intentions through recovery satisfaction…

Abstract

Purpose

This study aims to investigate the moderating role of low and high failure severity levels on recovery satisfaction and on behavioral intentions through recovery satisfaction. This research adopted justice theory and regulatory focus theory to provide further explanations on the inconsistencies in the extant literature regarding service failure and responses to service recovery.

Design/methodology/approach

This study applied a scenario-based experimental design of two (perceived justice: low vs high) by two (failure severity: low vs high) between-subjects factorial design. Data was collected from 237 mobile phone users recruited via convenience sampling. This study examined the hypothesized relations using Hayes (2018) PROCESS macro version 4.0.

Findings

Perceived justice had a higher positive effect on recovery satisfaction at a high failure severity level. The direct effect of perceived justice on behavioral intentions was significant and positive only at a high level of failure severity, whereas the indirect effect of perceived justice on consumers’ positive behavior through recovery satisfaction was more positive at a high level of failure severity.

Research limitations/implications

Justice theory and regulatory focus theory can be used to explain how a well-implemented recovery effort can offset losses that are caused by a highly severe service failure leading to satisfaction and positive responses. However, as this study was conducted within a telecommunication service context, this research needs to be replicated in other areas, including the use of other data collection methods and measurement of consumers’ regulatory focus orientation.

Practical implications

The findings of this study provide managers with valuable insights into the allocation of service providers’ resources for recovery actions according to consumers’ perceived severity levels to regain consumer satisfaction and continued positive behavioral intentions.

Originality/value

Past research on the effect of failure severity levels on recovery satisfaction and consumers’ positive behavioral intentions is scant, and those studies that examined severity levels have shown conflicting results. This study attempted to advance the research by examining the relationship between perceived justice, recovery satisfaction and behavioral intentions at low and high failure severity levels using justice theory and regulatory focus theory. None of the theories have been examined concurrently in the service failure and recovery framework.

Details

Journal of Consumer Marketing, vol. 40 no. 4
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0736-3761

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 1 March 2004

Seungoog Weun, Sharon E. Beatty and Michael A. Jones

Previous research has found that interactional justice and distributive justice are critical factors influencing customer satisfaction after a service recovery. In addition…

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Abstract

Previous research has found that interactional justice and distributive justice are critical factors influencing customer satisfaction after a service recovery. In addition, previous service recovery research has found that satisfaction is an important determinant of key outcome variables such as trust, commitment, and negative word‐of‐mouth. The current study extends previous research by investigating the role of service failure severity within the existing framework of service recovery research. The results indicate that service failure severity has a significant influence on satisfaction, trust, commitment, and negative word‐of‐mouth. The results also provide partial support for a moderating influence of service failure severity. Implications and areas for future research are discussed.

Details

Journal of Services Marketing, vol. 18 no. 2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0887-6045

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 17 October 2022

Ibrahim Alnawas, Amr Al Khateeb, Allam Abu Farha and Nelson Oly Ndubisi

The purpose of this study is to examine the effect of service failure severity on brand forgiveness and to investigate the moderating effects of interpersonal attachment styles…

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Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this study is to examine the effect of service failure severity on brand forgiveness and to investigate the moderating effects of interpersonal attachment styles and thinking styles on the service failure severity–brand forgiveness relationship.

Design/methodology/approach

The authors used retrospective experience sampling to collect the data and structural equation modeling (AMOS 24) to analyze 570 responses collected via an online survey.

Findings

This study shows that the service failure severity–brand forgiveness relationship is not always negative, as different conditions may amplify or weaken it. Specifically, a secure attachment style and holistic thinking weaken the negative impact of service failure severity on brand forgiveness, whereas an anxious attachment style and analytic thinking negatively amplify the relationship. An avoidance attachment style did not appear to play a role.

Practical implications

This study should help hotels fine-tune their segmentation, targeting and positioning efforts and may also help in implementing more focused recovery strategies.

Originality/value

This study provides insights into the role of psychological traits in amplifying/reducing the negative impact of service failure severity on brand forgiveness, thus showing the importance of developing the psychological profiles of customers beyond demographic profiling. The emotional and cognitive typologies of consumers are key to understanding the dependence of forgiveness on service failure severity.

Details

International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management, vol. 35 no. 5
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0959-6119

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 17 November 2014

Haithem Zourrig, Kamel Hedhli and Jean Charles Chebat

– This paper aims to investigate the cultural variability in assessing the severity of a service failure.

Abstract

Purpose

This paper aims to investigate the cultural variability in assessing the severity of a service failure.

Design/methodology/approach

Two separate studies were conducted. The first investigates differences in the perception of service failures across two cultural pools of subjects (allocentrics versus idiocentrics) and within a same country. The second contrasts two levels of comparisons: a cross-cultural values’ level and a cross-country level, to assess differences in the perception service failuresseverity.

Findings

Results showed that cultural values differences, when investigated at the individual level (i.e. idiocentrism versus allocentrism) are more significant to understand the influence of culture on the perception of severity, that is, allocentrics perceive more severity in the service failure than idiocentrics. However, a cross-country comparison (i.e. USA versus Puerto Rico) does not show significant differences.

Research limitations/implications

Customers may assess, with different sensitivities, the severity of a service failure. These differences are mainly explained by differences in cultural values’ orientations but not differences across countries. Even originating from a same country, customers could perceive with different degrees the seriousness of a same service failure as they may cling to different cultural values. Hence, it is increasingly important to examine the cultural differences at the individual-level rather than a country level.

Practical implications

Firms serving international markets as well as multiethnic ones would have advantage to understand cultural differences in the perception of the severity at the individual level rather than at the societal or country level. This is more helpful to direct appropriate service recovery strategies to customers who may have higher sensitivity to the service failure.

Originality/value

Little is known about the effect of culture on the severity evaluation, although investigating cross-cultural differences in the assessment of severity is relevant to understand whether offenses are perceived more seriously in one culture than another and then if these offenses will potentially arise confrontational behaviors or not.

Details

International Journal of Quality and Service Sciences, vol. 6 no. 4
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1756-669X

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 5 September 2016

Ying Fan and Run Hong Niu

The purpose of this paper is to explore influencing factors that affect the effectiveness of service recovery strategies using social network from operations management…

4239

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to explore influencing factors that affect the effectiveness of service recovery strategies using social network from operations management perspective. Specifically, the authors study the relationships between social media agent responses to customer complaints, customer emotion changes and customer satisfaction. Furthermore, the authors investigate the roles of recovery speed and failure severity in the service recovery process using social network platform.

Design/methodology/approach

The results are based on 347 mini cases drawn from the Twitter accounts of a sample of airlines. Grounded theory approach is used to conduct qualitative analysis using NVivo 9, a qualitative data analysis program. A conceptual framework was developed, then tested using χ2 analysis.

Findings

Agent responses that do not require customers to take further initiatives for problem solving have positive effects on customer emotion alleviation and satisfaction. In contrast, responses that provide further directions poses negative effect on service recovery outcomes. There is a strong positive linkage between customer emotion change and customer satisfaction. Surprisingly, the direct effect of recovery speed on customer emotion and satisfaction is not supported by the data. Rather, it plays a moderating role in affecting the relationship between agent responses and customer satisfaction. The qualitative data further reveals the pivotal role of failure severity, one of key service failure attributes.

Research limitations/implications

The authors study service businesses’ recovery strategies using social media. A conceptual framework is developed to link agent responses, customer emotion changes and customer satisfaction from the lens of service providers, using an operations-oriented approach. Finding on recovery speed and failure severity reveal that these variables play different roles when service recovery is operated on social media platform as compared to traditional channels. Additionally, relying on tweets as data sources has constrained us from assessing other long-term service recovery outcomes such as loyalty, repurchase intent and word of mouth. The drawback is resulted from the limited information conveyed through tweets, which tends to be short and brief. The study focusses on the airline industry, which limits the generalizability of the findings to other service industries.

Practical implications

The authors highlight the value and potential of service recovery strategies using social network and provide insights for recovery operations where agent responses should be focussing on real time problem solving. The findings support the benefits of empowering social network agents for service recovery operations. Improving recovery speed should be less of a priority as it serves as a qualifier when service recovery is operated via social network. Given the pivotal role of failure severity, it is critical for social network agents to stand in the shoes of the complaining customers, making imminent assessment of the actual failure severity and taking action accordingly in real time. In the meantime, effective communication through social network may help to lower perceived magnitude of failure by customers, which in turn enhance the effectiveness of other service recovery efforts.

Originality/value

This study is the first attempt to investigate the service recovery process using social media from an operations-oriented perspective. The results supports the potentials of employing service recovery strategies using social media.

Details

International Journal of Operations & Production Management, vol. 36 no. 9
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0144-3577

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 28 June 2023

Ali Raza, Rodoula Tsiotsou, Muhammad Sarfraz and Muhammad Ishtiaq Ishaq

Given the fierce competition in financial services, service failure management and trust restoration tactics are becoming strategic priorities. Studies investigating trust…

Abstract

Purpose

Given the fierce competition in financial services, service failure management and trust restoration tactics are becoming strategic priorities. Studies investigating trust restoration have increased over the years due to the significance of trust in services and the frequency of trust violations. Drawing on the sense-making and defensive approaches of attribution theory, this study aims to explore the effectiveness of various trust recovery tactics (e.g. apology, explanation, and investigation) in financial services considering the prevalence of service failure severity.

Design/methodology/approach

Based on a scenario-based survey, this study gathered data from 402 consumers of different banks in Pakistan. The study analyzed the data using ordinary least square regressions and structural equation modeling.

Findings

The study indicated that explanation is more effective in repairing character-competence and commitment-based trust, while investigation remained highly effective for inducing congruence-based trust. Interestingly, an apology was more effective for communication-based trust repairing, while context-based trust recovery was unaffected against all recovery tactics. Despite the prevalence of severe service failure, recovery actions proved fully effective for character-competence and commitment-based trust while partially effective for congruence-based trust recovery. This study also found that severe service failure undermines the effectiveness of recovery actions in repairing communication and context-based trust.

Originality/value

The study extends the literature on trust recovery by integrating sense-making and defensive attribution theory. The sense-making approach contributes to the existing knowledge on trust recovery by elucidating how consumers and service providers develop a shared understanding to facilitate the recovery mechanism of multidimensional trust in financial services.

Details

International Journal of Bank Marketing, vol. 41 no. 7
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0265-2323

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 16 December 2021

Ramakrishna Salagrama, Sanjeev Prashar and Sai Vijay Tata

This study aims to investigate antecedents of forgiveness from the non-complainers point of view after a service failure in India.

Abstract

Purpose

This study aims to investigate antecedents of forgiveness from the non-complainers point of view after a service failure in India.

Design/methodology/approach

This study bases itself on the theoretical foundations of the Cognitive Emotive Coping model. In the first study, a survey-based design was used for soliciting responses from 291 respondents. An experimental research design was undertaken in the second study, and data were recorded from 120 respondents. Data were analysed using both SPSS and AMOS.

Findings

All the antecedent variables, except, affective commitment was found to influence forgiveness significantly. Further, forgiveness also positively influenced repurchase intentions and had a negative influence on negative word-of-mouth. The findings also suggest that the service failure severity effectively moderates the relationship between empathy and forgiveness.

Originality/value

This paper extends the cognitive emotive coping model from the non-complainers point of view by adding relational constructs to it. This study observes that affective commitment is not necessarily related to forgiveness in contrast to existing literature. The relationship between empathy and forgiveness is stronger when failure severity is low.

Details

International Journal of Emerging Markets, vol. 18 no. 10
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1746-8809

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 20 June 2016

Sreejesh S. and Anusree M.R.

The purpose of the paper is to examine the conditional role of webcare as a service failure recovery strategy on customers’ hotel booking intentions in presence of different…

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Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of the paper is to examine the conditional role of webcare as a service failure recovery strategy on customers’ hotel booking intentions in presence of different levels of observed severity and review agreement. Furthermore, the study also examines the mechanism through which webcare can shape the adverse effect of observed severity and review agreement on hotel booking intentions.

Design/methodology/approach

A 2 (severity: high or low) × 2 (agreement: high or low) × 2 (webcare: webcare or no webcare) between-subject experimental design was conducted to collect responses. Analyses of variance and moderated mediation analysis were performed to analyze the study data.

Findings

Prospective customers who observed high severe service failure from a review reported less booking intention. Further, customers’ observed agreement strengthened these behaviors, i.e. customers who are exposed to high severe service failure in high-agreement condition reported low booking intention, as compared to those who exposed to low review agreement condition. Furthermore, results supported the fact that use of appropriate webcare plays a significant role to shape or mitigate the negative effect of severity and agreement on hotel booking intentions via perceived trust.

Originality/value

This is the first in its stream of studies that examined how webcare can be used to tackle the adverse effects of observed severity and agreement, so that perceived trust would be formed to create hotel booking intention.

Details

Tourism Review, vol. 71 no. 2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1660-5373

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 29 January 2018

Alexa K. Fox, George D. Deitz, Marla B. Royne and Joseph D. Fox

Online consumer reviews (OCRs) have emerged as a particularly important type of user-generated information about a brand because of their widespread adoption and influence on…

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Abstract

Purpose

Online consumer reviews (OCRs) have emerged as a particularly important type of user-generated information about a brand because of their widespread adoption and influence on consumer decision-making. Much of the existing OCR research focuses on quantifiable OCR features such as star ratings and volume. More research that examines the influence of review elements, aside from numeric ratings, such as the verbatim text, particularly in services contexts is needed. The purpose of this research is to investigate the impact of service failures on consumer arousal and emotions.

Design/methodology/approach

The authors present three behavioral experiments that manipulate service failure and linguistic elements of OCRs by using galvanic skin response, survey measures and automated facial expression analysis.

Findings

Negative OCRs lead to the greatest levels of arousal when consumers read OCRs. Service failure severity impacts anger, and referential cohesion, an observable property of text that helps a reader better understand ideas in the text, negatively moderates the relationship between service failure severity and anger.

Originality/value

The authors are among the first to empirically test the effect of emotional contagion in a user-generated content context, demonstrating that it can occur when consumers read such content, even if they did not experience the events being described. The research uses a self-report and physiological measures to assess consumer perceptions, arousal and emotions related to service failures, increasing the robustness of the literature. These findings contribute to the marketing literature on OCRs in service failures, physiological measures of consumers’ emotions, the negativity bias and emotional contagion in a user-generated content context.

Details

European Journal of Marketing, vol. 52 no. 1/2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0309-0566

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 22 September 2023

Mengmeng Song, Xinyu Xing, Yucong Duan and Jian Mou

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

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Abstract

Purpose

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.

Design/methodology/approach

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.

Findings

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.

Originality/value

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.

Details

Industrial Management & Data Systems, vol. 123 no. 12
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0263-5577

Keywords

1 – 10 of over 7000