The role of contingent self-esteem and trust in consumer satisfaction: Examining perceived control and fairness as predictors

The paper proposes contingent self-esteem (CSE) as an important mediator between service encounter attributes and consumers’ satisfaction. The main thesis is that consumers’ perceptions of control and fairness in the exchange influence their CSE and trust evaluations which in turn effect their satisfaction evaluations. The study expands and clarifies our understanding of the psychological processes that guide consumers’ satisfaction evaluations. The paper employed a 2 × 2 repeated measures experiment to collect data. The experimental manipulations were induced using video clips and the data were analyzed using a repeated measures MANOVA procedure. Results indicate that consumers’ CSE and trust evaluations depend on their perceptions of fairness and control of the exchange. Furthermore, CSE and trust influence consumers’ satisfaction evaluations and behavioral intentions. The results of this research suggest that service providers should consider designing service interactions that affirm consumers’ self-image and thereby improves satisfaction evaluations.     

Role of service encounter and physical environment performances,novelty, satisfaction,and affective commitment in generating cruise passenger loyalty

This research developed a theoretical model explaining the relationship between service encounter performance, physical environment performance, novelty, overall satisfaction, and loyalty in the cruise context. The results of structural equation modeling (SEM) analysis showed that service encounter performance and physical environment performance were significant predictors of novelty, which in turn affected overall satisfaction and loyalty. The mediation test indicated that novelty significantly mediated the effect of service encounter performance and physical environment performance on satisfaction; and overall satisfaction significantly mediated the relationship between novelty and loyalty. The relationship between physical environment performance and novelty and the relationship between novelty and overall satisfaction were significant in the high affective commitment group. In addition, the relationship between novelty and loyalty was only significant in the low affective commitment group.     

Consumer Responses to Scarcity Appeals in Online Booking

Scarcity appeals, highlighting a product or a service is scarce due to “high demand” or “limited supply,” are ubiquitous in the travel industry. However, all scarcity appeals are not equally effective in persuading consumers. The current research investigates the joint effects of scarcity appeal type (demand-framed vs. supply-framed) and consumers’ sense of power on purchase intention in the online booking context. The results show that the demand-framed (vs. supply-framed) scarcity appeal leads to higher purchase intention among consumers with a high sense of power, whereas such a difference is attenuated among consumers with a low sense of power. Furthermore, mediation analysis reveals that perceived risk is the psychological mechanism underlying these effects. Managerial implications for online booking platforms are discussed.     

Are we behaviorally immune to COVID-19 through robots?

In the context of the health risks of the COVID-19 pandemic, tourists' choices have shifted to reflect a subconscious psychological mechanism – the behavioral immune system – that facilitates human organisms to better identify plausible threats to ones' health through environment cues. This research draws upon this theoretical lens to assess tourists' pre-trip hotel evaluation in two 2 × 2 between-subject experiments. Experiment 1 (robot vs. human) tested the service provider's effect on hotel selection evaluation through the mediation of sense of control and the moderation of pandemic risk. Experiment 2 examined this chain of relationship through the moderation of hotel type. This research contributes to the literature by underscoring the pathogen-avoidance mechanism in tourist evaluation and the peril of robotization.     

旅行社顾客心理授权、顾客参与及服务质量关系研究

顾客在企业授权措施影响下产生的对服务经历的控制感被称之为顾客心理授权.文章在文献研究的基础上,提出了一个包含顾客心理授权、顾客参与、员工服务质量、顾客服务质量和顾客满意感的研究模型,并通过对旅行社顾客的调查,对模型进行了实证检验.数据分析结果表明:(1)顾客心理授权与顾客参与是两个不同的概念,且前者对后者有显著的正向影响;(2)顾客参与通过顾客服务质量间接影响员工服务质量;(3)顾客服务质量和员工服务质量都会影响顾客满意感,且与员工服务质量相比,顾客服务质量对顾客满意感的影响更大.文章研究结果可以丰富学术界对顾客授权理论的研究,同时对旅行社授予顾客权力、鼓励顾客参与,提高顾客服务质量,进而提高顾客满意度有一定的实践参考价值.     

Self-regulation and “other consumers” at service encounters: A sociometer perspective

Hospitality consumption often involves sharing the physical environment with other consumers. Other consumers can be either acquaintances a focal consumer shares the consumption experience with (co-consumption others) or strangers the focal consumer encounters due to serendipity (Customer Bs). This research used sociometer as a theoretical lens to examine the social dynamics among a focal consumer, co-consumption others and Customer Bs at service encounters and the impact of such social dynamics on consumer self-regulatory behavior. The results of the experimental study showed that when co-consumption others elicit higher level of need for self-monitoring, a focal consumer is more likely to regulate his/her interpersonal goal and emotions in response to the behavior of Customer Bs at service encounters. The results further suggested that while interpersonal goals do not have a significant effect on encounter satisfaction, emotion regulation positively contributes to encounter satisfaction. Theoretical and practical implications of the findings are also discussed.     

The double-edged sword effect of service recovery awareness of frontline employees: From a job demands-resources perspective

Drawing on job demands-resources (JD-R) theory, this study examines the double-edged sword effect of service recovery awareness (SRA) on post-recovery satisfaction via frontline employees’ (FLEs) emotional responses (including emotional exhaustion and work engagement). The moderating effect of perceived psychological empowerment (PPE) was also assessed. Dyadic and matched responses from 267 five-star hotel FLEs and customers indicated that SRA is appraised as a challenging demand that is positively associated with post-recovery satisfaction through work engagement. However, SRA is also considered a hindrance demand that leads to emotional exhaustion, which is negatively related to post-recovery satisfaction. PPE amplified the impact of SRA on work engagement and buffered the impact of SRA on emotional exhaustion. The theoretical contribution, managerial implications, and suggestions for future research of this study are discussed in detail.     

Hotel Guests' Cumulative Satisfaction Updating Process in the Context of Service Failure and Service Recovery

ABSTRACT

Consumers constantly revise their satisfaction judgments as they gain new service experience. While some researchers found that consumers weigh their prior cumulative experience more heavily than their most current individual service encounters when updating their cumulative overall satisfaction, others found the opposite result. Following the development of the literature, this study investigated customers' satisfaction updating process in the context of service failure and service recovery in the hotel industry. The results of the data analysis show that when updating overall satisfaction, participants weighed their current service encounter satisfaction more heavily than prior cumulative overall satisfaction, regardless of different levels of service failure and service recovery. The findings of this research also suggest that once customers experience service problems, it is difficult to bring customers' satisfaction level back to where it was.     

Switching intention model development: Role of service performances,customer satisfaction,and switching barriers in the hotel industry

The intricate relationships among core service and service encounter performances, customer satisfaction, and switching barriers in the formation of satisfaction and switching intention were examined in this study. A field survey was conducted at upper-midscale hotels. The results of the structural analysis revealed that both core service and service encounter performances significantly affected customer satisfaction, and satisfaction completely mediated the effects of service performances on switching intention. In addition, findings from the tests for metric invariances indicated that components of switching barriers (switching costs, relational investment, and lack of alternatives’ attractiveness) moderated the relationships between satisfaction and switching intention. In particular, the role of satisfaction derived from service performances in decreasing hotel guests’ intention to switch is greater when they perceive high switching costs, relational investment, and lack of alternatives’ attractiveness. Based on study findings, theoretical and practical implications are identified and discussed.     

The impacts of student and life satisfaction on tourism students’ perceived sense of belonging

This study explores how tourism students’ satisfaction with their lives and academics affect their sense of belonging within their school communities. The primary supporting research was conducted using a questionnaire, which 285 students in Akdeniz University’s Faculty of Tourism answered. The mean scores of the two scales (life satisfaction and sense of belonging) and the dimensions of student satisfaction were used to conduct multiple regression analysis. The results suggest that two aspects of student life (teaching staff and school management vs. student support and counseling) and life satisfaction had a direct correlation with students’ sense of belonging.     

It is all about the emotional state: Managing tourists’ experiences

When consuming tourism and leisure services tourists do not only expect professional services but also desire satisfying emotional experiences. To measure satisfaction with emotional experiences traditional service quality and satisfaction research is outdated because those models are based on cognitive components and neglect emotional aspects of customer satisfaction. This research investigates factors determining the service setting that enhance customers’ emotional reactions and lead to psychological states and behaviours. Referring to existing theories and empirical evidence in environmental psychology, a research model is developed explaining the relationship between different components of service settings influencing emotional states and satisfaction. Guests’ emotions are assessed during service consumption in hotel settings in order to investigate the importance of emotional states. The paper derives three main factors (leisure experience, hardware and human ware) significantly influencing emotional states of customers in high-quality hotels.     

服务补救中自我调节导向对顾客感知公平的调节作用——基于旅行社的实证研究

文章以旅行社为研究对象,通过实证研究方法探寻服务补救中顾客自我调节导向心理特征对感知公平的影响.研究结果表明,服务失败背景下旅行社实物补救的确主要影响游客感知结果公平;自我调节导向在实物补救对游客感知结果公平的影响中有显著调节作用,趋利导向游客在遭遇服务失误后更偏好“多获利”的补救措施,而避害导向游客则更偏好“少损失”的补救措施;自我调节导向在实物补救对游客感知程序公平和互动公平的影响中并无显著调节作用.文章同时讨论了研究结论对服务营销管理的启示.     

Dealing with customer incivility: The effects of managerial support on employee psychological well-being and quality-of-life

This research examines the effects of customer incivility and manager procedural and emotional support on employee psychological well-being (PWB) and work quality-of-life (WQOL). Study 1 uses the qualitative critical incident technique to content analyze employee perceptions, finding that incivility affects employee PWB and WQOL. Based on the results of Study 1, a conceptual model examines a 2 (procedural support: high vs. low) × 2 (emotional support: high vs. low) between-subjects experimental design in both a hospitality and general service context. Results from Study 2 and 3 find that managerial procedural and emotional support significantly affect employee’s PWB and WQOL. There is also a significant interaction effect of emotional and procedural support on PWB and WQOL. The research builds upon the incivility, managerial support, psychological well-being, and quality-of-life research as well as provides important managerial implications for actions service firms can take to minimize the negative effects.     

A method for testing the effect of management interventions on the satisfaction and loyalty of national park visitors

Providing visitors with satisfying experiences is integral to park management. Research has inferred the determinants of satisfaction and loyalty through theorizing, observational studies, and statistical correlations. This article advocates randomized experiments as a complementary method for testing the causal effect of selected management interventions that change service quality on satisfaction and loyalty. An experiment using ranger presence and enhanced toilets in a West Australian national park is used to illustrate the approach. The presence of rangers caused significantly improved satisfaction with rangers, related service quality attributes, and overall satisfaction, but not loyalty. Enhancing toilets had nonsignificant impacts. These results strongly suggest the need for further visitor-focused experimental research to complement the growing body of research in national parks investigating the complex relationship among service quality, satisfaction, and loyalty.     

Service quality and its effect on customer satisfaction and customer behavioral intentions: hotel and ryokan guests in Japan

This study analyzes the effect of service quality on customer satisfaction and customer behavioral intentions at hotels and ryokan (traditional Japanese inns). In this empirical research, questionnaires were sent to guests at seven sites: three hotels and four ryokan. Service quality, as perceived by guests, affected customer satisfaction and customer behavioral intention. Results from this empirical study show strong evidence of service quality as perceived by guests being influenced by the type of accommodation. Also, among service quality factors, “physical aspect” had the most powerful impact on customer satisfaction and customer behavioral intention. “Creativeness” ranked second, followed by “unexpected service” and “encounter performance”. The prominence of physical aspects probably reflects the distinctiveness of the service of offering a one-night stay. However, as a certain level of physical facilities is taken for granted at lodging facilities above a certain price, “creativeness”, the second most powerful factor, becomes decisively important.     

Leveraging “human-likeness” of robotic service at restaurants

Despite the rise of human-robot interaction research, the mixed findings of human-likeness in consumer evaluation exist. Focusing on the restaurant sector, this research investigates how service robots’ varying levels of human-likeness of attributes (i.e., visual, vocal and verbal) influence consumption outcomes (e.g., service encounter evaluation, revisit intentions and positive word of mouth intentions) and the underlying mechanisms through cognition (i.e., perceived credibility) and positive emotion per Appraisal Theory. Drawing on a consumer experiment involving a total of 587 participants, results suggest that humanlike voice emerges as a dominant attribute affecting all three consumption outcomes. Humanlike language style positively affects service encounter evaluation but barely affects the other two outcomes. The significant effect of humanlike voice on three consumption outcomes is only explained by positive emotion whereas the effect of humanlike language style on service encounter evaluation is explained by both cognition (i.e., perceived credibility) and emotion.     

Service encounter value and online engagement behaviors

This study investigates the relationships between service encounter values and online customer engagement behaviors in the context of hospitality and tourism services. Given that interactions are contextual in nature, this study examines the service encounter values across four major service sectors, i.e., hotels, restaurants, theme parks, and airlines through 1710 responses from actual service consumers. Multiple structural equation modeling techniques are conducted to test the hypotheses. Various values (i.e., emotional value, social value, functional value, and epistemic value) are identified in different sectors of service encounters that pose significant influences on online customer engagement behaviors such as online rating, online reviewing, online blogging, and online customer-to-customer interactions. Practical and theoretical implications are provided, as well as future research directions.     

Moderating Role of Gender in the Relationship between Hotel Service Quality Dimensions and Tourist Satisfaction

Gender has frequently been identified as one of the key attributes and predictors in developing marketing strategy. This study examines the moderating role of gender in the relationship between hotel service quality dimensions and tourist satisfaction with hotel service delivery. The results derived from multi-group structural equation modeling via the AMOS 5.0 computer program revealed that gender significantly moderated the relationship between service quality dimensions and tourist satisfaction with hotel service delivery. Empathy and tangibles both contributed as the most important significant predictors of tourist satisfaction with hotel service delivery for male tourists as opposed to female tourists. It is statistically confirmed that men and women appear to respond to different aspects of a service encounter when making judgments about their satisfaction.     

Peer-to-peer interactions: Perspectives of Airbnb guests and hosts

In peer-to-peer (P2P) accommodation settings such as Airbnb, social interactions between peers are distinctively different from those between guests and employees in conventional lodging establishments. This study focuses on a reciprocal aspect of social interactions in P2P accommodations and aims to: 1) explore how guests and hosts perceive online and face-to-face interactions between them and 2) investigate the association between P2P interactions and some outcome variables (encounter satisfaction, word-of-mouth intention, and continuous intention to use) based on the roles of guest and host. A total of 503 responses from an online research panel were analyzed. The results show that guests perceive overall interaction experiences more positively than do hosts. Moreover, guests and hosts place weight on different interaction factors that contribute to their satisfaction and behavioral intentions. This study sheds light on the reciprocal interactions between guests and hosts, providing important theoretical and practical implications for the P2P lodging experience.     

Service training intervention and time-variant personal growth

Training is a vital means to continuously improve service quality. Although much literature has concentrated on the relationship between on-the-job training and job outcomes, these studies are usually static and cross-sectional in research design, which fails to capture the dynamic changes of training outcomes. This study attempted to address this issue by adopting a learning and development perspective. Drawing on psychological capital theory and self-determination theory, we examined how training progress facilitates trainees’ personal growth and psychological development. Specifically, we utilized the latent growth modeling approach to examine hotel employees’ trajectory of change regarding service knowledge, self-efficacy and job satisfaction over the pre-training, mid-training, and post-training stages. By surveying full-time trainees working in three luxury hotels, we found that the mean level of employees’ service knowledge would increase over time, while this improvisation would also result in gradual enhancement of self-efficacy and job satisfaction.