Emotional antecedents and outcomes of service recovery

Abstract

Purpose– The purpose of this study was to investigate the service recovery experience in the luxury hotel industry by introducing emotions as a predictor of future behavioural intention and to compare traditional cognitive measures of satisfaction following a recovery process with measures based on affect.Design/methodology/approach– A mixed-methods approach was adopted comprising a main quantitative study, preceded by an exploratory qualitative study.Findings– The study provides further support for the use of emotions in understanding consumer behaviour following a service failure.Research limitations/implications– As an abstract concept, we have only limited physical, measurable manifestation of emotions, and the construct is difficult to operationalise in social sciences research. Furthermore, this research has required retrospective self-reporting of emotions.Practical implications– The use of emotions can provide a better diagnostic tool for understanding attitudes that customers go away with following a service failure, rather than concentrating on cognitive measures of performance.Originality/value– The study has provided further support for the use of emotions in understanding consumer behaviour following a service failure.