Abstract
At present, online travel agency (OTA) service failure events emerge continually, which makes the OTA service operation mode face new challenges. This study uses the situational experiment method to explore the effects of OTA employees’ emotional intelligence and emotional labor (surface behavior and deep behavior) on the effect of service recovery. The results show that the emotional intelligence of OTA employees has a positive impact on the surface behavior and deep behavior; the emotional intelligence and deep behavior of employees have a significant positive impact on service recovery satisfaction, but the positive impact of employees’ surface behavior on service recovery satisfaction is not statistically significant; finally, service recovery satisfaction has a positive impact on customer loyalty. This study helps to better explain the mechanism of OTA service recovery effect and provides a theoretical reference for improving the service recovery effect of OTA.
Highlights
The operation mode of tourism service under the network environment is undergoing profound changes
Under the online travel agency (OTA) service recovery scenario, the emotional intelligence of employees has a significant positive impact on their surface behavior and deep behavior, and the influence on the latter is stronger and more significant. This shows that OTA employees with higher emotional intelligence are better at emotional labor, and emotional intelligence has a greater impact on deep behavior than on surface behavior
This finding is consistent with that of Totterdell and Holman (2003); Chen et al (2010) found that emotional intelligence has a positive impact on emotional labor and further verified the direct impact of employees’ emotional intelligence on emotional labor under the OTA service recovery scenario, deepening and expanding the connotation and applicability of the influence relationship between emotional intelligence and emotional labor
Summary
The operation mode of tourism service under the network environment is undergoing profound changes. With the development of the Internet, great changes have taken place in the display, distribution, and promotion of tourism products, as well as the behavior of consumers (No and Kim, 2015). OTA have established a successful economic model and are the online sales channel with the highest reservation rate. Hotels, vacation products and other related tourism products and services from tourism service providers through OTA, and pay online or offline (Xiao, 2021). OTA are intermediaries that rely on Internet platforms to provide online consulting, commenting, and booking services. OTA cater to the needs and preferences of consumers’ diversification, and they have developed rapidly as a result, with the emergence of famous brands such as Priceline, Expedia, and Ctrip
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