Service failure research in the hospitality and tourism industry: a synopsis of past, present and future dynamics from 2001 to 2020

Abstract

Purpose When service failure occurs, it leads to dissatisfaction, lack of trust and avoidance behaviour among customers, and it can also be seen as a threat to the survival of the business. This paper aims to investigate the current and potential dynamics of service failure research within the tourism and hospitality area. Design/methodology/approach By adopting qualitative, quantitative (citation and text mining) and science-mapping tools (descriptive, conceptual and intellectual), this study analyses 99 key papers on service failure in 18 major hospitality and tourism journals over a 20-year span. Findings The research on service recovery strategies, recovery efforts, pre- and post-failure and post-recovery in the service encounter and the impacts of justice on post-recovery and post-complaint behaviour are identified as the major streams of service failure research. While emotional labour, rumination and satisfaction recovery were identified as emerging themes, service failure perceptions and social media were found as the developed and substantial trends. Practical implications This study presents a comprehensive understanding of service failure research development in the hospitality and tourism industry. This study propose three areas – circumstantial cues, interactional cues and crisis management – that practitioners need to understand to minimise service failure during the service interaction. Originality/value To the best of the authors’ knowledge, no prior bibliometric study has investigated the current and future dynamics of service failure in the hospitality and tourism industry and offered a research agenda based on this gap in the literature.

The effect of service failure severity on brand forgiveness: the moderating role of interpersonal attachment styles and thinking styles

“…Nonetheless, service delivery in the hotel industry frequently fails due to coproduction (Wang et al, 2021) and human involvement issues (Kim & Jang, 2022). Such issues not only lead to increased customer mistreatment (i.e., low-quality treatment of customers; Huang & Kwok, 2021), but can also have a severe effect on customer experiences and eventually damage brand reputations (Akarsu et al, 2022). Thus, to reduce the negative consequences of service failures for both hotels and customers, it is necessary for the former to understand customers' emotional and cognitive characteristics since such understanding would facilitate and accelerate the brand forgiveness process.…”

“…brand forgiveness The highly intangible nature of hotel services makes it hard to "try before you buy," as many elements of the service cannot be evaluated before check-in Sparks and Browning (2010, p. 802). Additionally, intense human involvement in service processes and delivery leads to variations in performance (Guchait et al, 2019), which customers view as inequity (Hwang and Mattila, 2020), creating negative experiences that prompt negative customer emotions (Akarsu et al, 2022). From an appraisal theory perspective, the cognitive assessment of service failure severity may activate various negative emotions, such as rage (Wang and Zhang, 2018), annoyance, irritation (Baker and Kim, 2018) and feelings of betrayal (Tsai et al, 2014).…”

“…Service failures have always been endemic to the hotel industry (Akarsu et al, 2022), partly due to the frequent customer-employee interaction hospitality involves (Koc, 2019), which makes service failures inevitable and unavoidable (Wang et al, 2021), leading to tangible losses (e.g., declining revenues) and severe damage to hotels' intangible assets (e.g., reputation; Akarsu et al, 2022). Prior research has shown that service failure severity, which reflects the perceived significance of the failure and its triggered aggravation, is a critical factor in customers' perceptions of service failure (El-Manstrly et al, 2021).…”

“…Service failures have always been endemic to the hotel industry (Akarsu et al , 2022), partly because of the frequent customer–employee interaction hospitality involves (Koc, 2019), which makes service failures inevitable and unavoidable (Wang et al , 2021), leading to tangible losses (e.g. declining revenues) and severe damage to hotels’ intangible assets (e.g.…”

“…declining revenues) and severe damage to hotels' intangible assets (e.g. Effect of service failure severity 1691 reputation; Akarsu et al, 2022). Prior research has shown that service failure severity, which reflects the perceived significance of the failure and its triggered aggravation, is a critical factor in customers' perceptions of service failure (El-Manstrly et al, 2021).…”