Perceived justice in service recovery and behavioral intentions: The role of relationship quality

This study examined restaurant customers’ perceptions of justice according to service recovery effort levels and whether perceived justice influences customers’ future behavioral intentions. This study also investigated whether the effects of perceived justice on future behavioral intentions vary across customers’ relationship quality levels. The results showed that high recovery efforts were consistently evaluated highly in terms of perceived justice when compared to low recovery efforts, regardless of the level of relationship quality. Additionally, perceived justice brought about by service recovery efforts has a positive effect on customers’ future behavioral intentions. Hierarchical regression analyses suggested that relationship quality plays a moderating role between perceived justice and behavioral intentions in the distributive and procedural justice dimensions. Implications for the restaurant industry are also discussed.     

The impact of information technology on hotel operations,service management and transaction costs: A conceptual framework for full-service hotel firms

This paper develops a conceptual framework that describes the impact of information technology (IT) on service management and transaction costs in full service hotel firms. It details how IT would help such firms to lower operations-related transaction costs. Further, the underpinnings of how IT would impact service management in full service hotel firms is discussed more specifically from a customer satisfaction point of view while focusing on two aspects, i.e. managing customer delight and the customer's role as a co-producer. Propositions are developed and a discussion on the impact of IT on firm profitability from a transaction cost perspective ensues while concluding with managerial implications.     

A scenario-based experiment and a field study: A comparative examination for service failure and recovery

Scenario-based experiments are an important method in service marketing, especially in the field of service failures and service recoveries. Field studies on these topical areas are rare because of the expense and ethical issues in a real setting. However, this raises a question: Can the results obtained from experiments accurately predict real-world field behavior? In order to obtain more accurate information regarding service failures and recoveries, this study compares the results from a scenario-based experiment with those from a field study. The findings provided mixed support for the concordance between the scenario-based experimental results and those obtained in a field setting. Negative emotions, such as anger and discontent toward service failures, were consistent in both cases. However, positive emotions (i.e., contentment with recovery efforts and overall satisfaction) and switching behavioral intentions significantly differed depending on the data source (i.e., scenario or field). Specifically, the scenario experiments tended to overstate positive feelings and understate negative behavioral intentions resulting from service failures. An analysis of these differences suggests practical implications to enhance the design of future scenario-based experiments.     

Factorial validation of hospitality service attitude

Numerous studies have shown that service attitude is a cornerstone of the client's perception of service quality. However, little research has explored the construct of service attitude from the customers’ perspective. This study collected data from two sets of samples consisting of 448 customers from international hotels in Taiwan. Through a rigorous process, the results testify service attitude, the most frequently mentioned sub-dimension of interaction quality, and conclude its four dimensions: Problem-solving, empathy, enthusiasm, and friendliness. Implications for practical applications and research limitations are also provided.     

Understanding service experience and its impact on brand image in hospitality sector

This paper provides an understanding of customers’ common expectations and other important factors that enhance service experience during guest stay in the three selected four star rated hotels in Jammu, Chandigarh and Delhi, India. A structured questionnaire was used to collect data from hotel managers and individual customers. Guest's attitudes, their expected and unexpected feedback in addition to analyzing the important information that helps in finding out particular areas critical to customer service quality are explored. Overall the results indicate that expectations of the guests and actual experiences are at disparity. Viable recommendations to the hotel owners in particular and the hospitality industry overall are made which are likely to improve customer's memorable experience.     

The impact of personal and functional aspects of restaurant employee service behaviour on customer satisfaction

Employee behaviour plays a significant role in satisfying restaurant customers, however, there is a paucity of research highlighted personal and functional aspects of employee behaviour and their influence on customer satisfaction. Accordingly, this study aims to bring a deeper insight of the impact of restaurant employee service behaviour on customer satisfaction. Using survey approach, the current study collected data from 212 tourists who had a dining experience in Jordan. The results of data analysis showed that both functional and personal aspects of service behaviour where able to explain customer satisfaction, with higher contribution of personal aspects over the functional ones. Depending on study’s findings, some implications were suggested including a recommendation to foodservice managers to adopt reinforcement programs that improve functional and personal aspects of their employees. A further recommendation was proposed to marketers, to give a higher attention to personal aspects of foodservices in their marketing activities.     

Anxiety and gratitude toward the organization: Relationships with error management culture and service recovery performance

According to affective events theory (AET), organizational contexts can produce “affective events” that shape individuals’ emotional experiences, subsequently influencing those individuals’ work behaviors. This study hypothesized that every time an error occurs in an error management culture, it is an affective event that can stimulate employees’ gratitude and reduce their anxiety toward their respective organizations. Gratitude and anxiety are positively and negatively associated with employees’ service recovery performance, respectively. Drawing on three waves of data collected from 218 hotel employees, this study found that error management culture was positively associated with gratitude and negatively associated with anxiety. Consequently, gratitude and anxiety influenced employees’ service recovery performance, as rated by the employees’ supervisors. These findings suggest that error management culture can influence employees’ service recovery performance through the culture’s impact on gratitude and anxiety.     

Exploring guest response towards service failure in home-sharing: service presence and consumption motivation

The present study leverages the tenets of social presence theory (SPT) and attribution theory to demonstrate a service presence effect on guests’ behavioral responses toward home-sharing platforms following a service failure. Results indicate that in the case of a typical, controllable service failure, guests with a hedonic motivation have a higher tendency to complain and switch out of the home-sharing platform when the service contact is a hotel representative (vs. a private host), and this effect is mediated by levels of fault attributed to the home-sharing platform. However, guests with a utilitarian motivation respond to service failure equally across types of service contacts. For uncontrollable service failures, the service presence effect holds true across consumption motivations and is explained by fault attribution. The study is the first comprehensive inquiry into service failure in the home-sharing context and has important implications for theory and businesses competing in this space.     

The fading affect bias: Examining changes in affect and behavioral intentions in restaurant service failures and recoveries

The fading affect bias (FAB) refers to the way in which affect associated with a negative event fades more quickly than affect associated with a positive event. The FAB is a healthy coping behavior developed by humans to deal with negative emotions. Drawing on the FAB hypothesis, this study investigated whether customers’ negative experiences of service failures faded more quickly from their memories than positive experiences did, such as contentedness with recovery efforts and overall satisfaction. This study also examined the moderating role of the type of service failure and service recovery on changes in the intensity of the FAB. The results suggest that individuals dissipate their anger about negative service experiences and their discontent by reappraising the event in a more positive light and by boosting implicit positive experiences (i.e., the experiences provided in service recovery). However, the amount of affect that faded significantly differed among failure types. The results also demonstrated that service recovery can help individuals evaluate a service more positively and reduce their intentions to engage in negative behaviors over time. The theoretical and managerial implications of this study are discussed in detail.     

Transformational leadership and service recovery performance: The mediating effect of emotional labor and the influence of culture

The current study examined the relationship between transformational leadership and service recovery performance and the mediating effect of emotional labor. To uncover potential cross-cultural differences, a sample of 217 front-line hospitality employees from the United States (Study 1) and 219 front-line hospitality employees from China (Study 2) were used. The results demonstrate transformational leadership was positively related to deep acting and negatively related to surface acting emotional labor strategies. Additionally, deep acting was positively related to service recovery performance, while surface acting was negatively related to service recovery performance. These findings were consistent between the U.S. and Chinese sample; however, the mechanisms and paths between transformational leadership and service recovery performance differed between the two samples suggesting culture influenced how transformational leadership is related to service recovery performance through deep acting (Study 1) or surface acting (Study 2) emotional labor strategies.     

The effects of perceived service quality on repurchase intentions and subjective well-being of Chinese tourists: The mediating role of relationship quality

The current study provides and tests an integrated model that examines two relationship quality constructs (overall customer satisfaction, customer-company identification) as mediating variables between Chinese tourists' lodging service quality perceptions and two outcomes (repurchase intentions, subjective well-being). The results of a study with domestic Chinese hotel guests (n = 451) provide support for the proposed model. Specifically, the results indicate that overall customer satisfaction fully mediates the relationship between perceived service quality and repurchase intentions and subjective well-being, respectively. Customer-company identification partially mediates the relationship between perceived service quality and repurchase intentions and subjective wellbeing, respectively. We provide empirical validation that customers do, indeed, identify with hospitality providers, and this, in-turn, provides positive consequences for both the service provider (i.e., repurchase intentions) and the customer (i.e., subjective well-being). Managerial implications are provided, limitations noted, and future research directions suggested.     

Quality function deployment: An extended framework for service quality and customer satisfaction in the hospitality industry

Research on service quality and customer satisfaction has become significant in the hospitality industry. Nonetheless, most previously proposed or introduced research paradigms have focused exclusively on customers without equally emphasizing the intra-organizational service generation and delivery processes. In contrast, this study considers both external and internal service management issues and subsequent service innovations based on the framework of Quality Function Deployment (QFD). QFD and its relationship to similar concepts are explained. Next, this study provides an overview of the QFD process and develops a hypothetical application in the lodging industry in order to illustrate future application and analysis strategies. Some benefits and disadvantages of the QFD process are discussed as compared to extant service quality and customer satisfaction paradigms. Finally, suggestions and directions are offered for future applications, with particular interest in hospitality-specific service management issues.     

When more pain is better: Role of need for uniqueness in service evaluations of observable service recovery

Service encounters may occur at public settings, providing an opportunity for other customers to observe a target customer’s experience, which, per se, may exert some social pressure on the target customer. However, this research argues that for some customers the observability of their encounters is an opportunity to satisfy their social needs. In particular, this research investigates the impact of consumer need for uniqueness on service evaluations of observable versus unobservable recovery encounters. Across three experimental studies, this research finds that following observable recovery encounters, consumer need for uniqueness enhances service evaluations. Findings also indicate that customers who appreciate uniqueness have similar reactions to an elaborate apology and high compensation. The results indicate that the observability of recovery efforts leads to lower perceived severity among customers high in need for uniqueness and thereby enhances their service evaluations. This research concludes with contributions, implications, limitations, and future research.     

Impact of hotel-restaurant image and quality of physical-environment,service, and food on satisfaction and intention

This study developed a theoretical framework in which overall image, image congruence, and quality of physical environment, service, and food affect guests’ satisfaction and intentions to revisit a luxury hotel restaurant and visit other restaurants of the same hotel by considering the influence of conspicuousness as a moderator. The measurement model assessment revealed that all items included an acceptable level of measurement quality. Results of the structural analysis indicated that the research variables were in general significantly associated; quality dimensions and satisfaction had a mediating role; and the impact of satisfaction and overall image on decision formation was greater than that of other variables. Moreover, the structural invariance model assessment indicated that conspicuousness acted as a significant moderator. Overall, our proposed theoretical framework was found to include a sufficient power in predicting patrons’ intentions for luxury hotel restaurant products. Using this quantitative approach, our research objectives were wholly achieved.     

The influence of guarantees,active requests to voice and failure severity on customer complaint behavior

Anecdotal evidence suggests that service guarantees and requests by service workers to complain encourage customers to voice following failure, while holding negative word of mouth and exit at bay. However, empirical support for these tactics is limited. To address this deficiency, we conducted an experiment examining the influence of these devices on customer complaint behavior (CCB) across restaurant failures of varying severity. Findings suggest that offering a guarantee, regardless of it being unconditional or combined, encourages voice. Failure severity had the strongest influence on CCB, and it interacted with both active request and guarantee type in influencing exit. Theoretical and managerial implications of the findings are discussed.     

Procedural justice,ethical climate and service outcomes in restaurants

The literature suggests that ethical climate may actually contribute to organizational success by enhancing employee performance. Ethical climate is considered to be highly relevant to the hospitality industry, since it enhances service-providers’ contact with customers. This study reinforces previous researches by exploring the relationships between ethical climate, service, and customer satisfaction in restaurants. We have also examined the relationship between ethical climate and the fair treatment of employees by an organization. The study was conducted in 20 restaurants, with 171 employees and 103 customers. Data were obtained from employees, customers, and “mystery shoppers”. As expected, ethical climate was found to be related to service performance which, in turn, was found to fully mediate the relationship of ethical climate with customer satisfaction. Ethical climate was also found to correlate positively with procedural justice. Our results indicate the benefits of the ethical message conveyed through consistent managerial practices in service organizations.     

Antecedents of mandatory customer participation in service encounters: An empirical study

The literature on service quality and customer loyalty has long focused on enhancing the work of service providers. This study examined “the other side of the coin” in service co-production or value co-creation in service encounters by investigating how service providers might take a proactive approach to building relationships based on mandatory customer participation (MCP). The research evaluated how such antecedents as role clarity, self-efficacy, purchase importance, and servicescape could influence MCP. Path analysis revealed that these four factors significantly influenced different dimensions of MCP; which in turn had a significant impact on customer loyalty. Using these insights, managers could develop a strategic approach to managing customer roles in the service delivery process. This study adds to the body of knowledge on service quality by demonstrating empirically the determinants and structure of MCP and their relationships with customer loyalty in service co-production processes in a hospitality setting.     

A holistic view of the service experience at coffee franchises: A cross-cultural study

Service quality alone is no longer a sustainable advantage in today's competitive hospitality industry, and marketers are paying more attention to strategically managing the customer's experience. The purpose of this study is to examine the customer service experience from a holistic standpoint, and further consider how different components of the customer service experience influence perceived value, attitudes, and loyalty at coffee franchises. Further, this study conducts a comparative analysis to find the similarities and differences that exist cross-culturally between Americans and Koreans. This study develops a self-administered questionnaire for data collection: we adopt a convenience sampling method and collected data at two Starbucks franchises and two Coffee Bean franchises in both Seoul, South Korea, and Miami, US. Further, the study implements structural equational modeling to analyze the data. Overall, the results support the study hypotheses, and indicate that nationality has a moderating effect on the relation between the latent variables.     

Negative affect,deep acting,and customer compensation as responses to customer mistreatment: The effect of customer-based perspective-taking

Customer service employees often deal with customer mistreatment, eliciting negative affect, which subsequently influences service performance. Using affective events theory (Weiss & Cropanzano, 1996) as the theoretical framework, perspective taking was examined as an intervention to influence negative affect elicited from customer mistreatment in two experiments. Study 1 examined and found that customer perspective taking led to less negative affect, and subsequently more customer compensation and more deep acting through serial mediation effects. Study 2 tested the moderating effect of the service failure locus of causality (i.e., hotel or customer). The most important theoretical contribution is understanding how having employees shift the focus away from their own emotions, towards why a customer is being rude or difficult, influences deep acting and customer compensation via reduced negative affect. This paper provides a promising intervention and training tool that hospitality organizations can use to influence employee service recovery strategies and customer service.     

The effects of brand relationship quality on responses to service failure of hotel consumers

This article examines the applicability of Fournier's (1998) Brand Relationship Quality (BRQ) framework in the hotel industry, and also investigates the effects of BRQ on hotel consumers’ behavioral intentions, after service failures in high-class hotels. The empirical results show that BRQ is applicable to the hotel industry and has a moderating effect on consumers’ post-failure emotions, particularly in terms of influencing future behavioral intentions. However, this finding is not applicable when the service failures are severe.