The evolution of service failure and recovery research in hospitality and tourism: An integrative review and future research directions

Abstract

Given the hospitality and tourism industry’s vulnerability to service failure, extensive research has been conducted to examine the impacts of service failures and effective recovery initiatives. This study provides an integrative review of the evolution of the service failure and recovery (SFR) literature based on 263 articles published across 28 hospitality and tourism journals from 2001 to 2021. We performed a bibliometric analysis to evaluate outlets of publication trajectories as well as to identify the most influential authors and articles in SFR research. We further constructed a typology of inter-related concepts in SFR and uncovered the thematic development of related research, delivering a longitudinal assessment of this domain. A framework-based systematic review technique was subsequently adopted to offer an innovative integration of the SFR literature. Findings were illustrated based on the theories, contexts, and methods framework and synthesized to provide an organized view of theoretical associations through the antecedents, decisions, and outcomes framework. Additionally, fruitful avenues for future research are suggested.