Service Failure Research Articles

Urbanization, Legacies of Elite Capture, and Multi-Dimensional Exclusions in Ghana: Towards Just Housing and Neighborhood Policies in African Cities

AbstractPersisting housing challenges in Africa’s cities are often theorized as driven by rapid demographic expansion outstripping housing supply or by the urbanization of poverty which puts the cost of adequate and serviced housing beyond the reach of many urban dwellers. This theorization links the problem of inadequate supply and low quality of housing to ahistorical, apolitical factors such as the size and income/poverty characteristics of Africa’s urban population and ignores legacies of elite capture and multi-dimensional exclusions reflected in policies and practices. Yet these policies and practices shape urban governance and who gains access to land, housing finance and ultimately serviced housing and neighborhoods. Drawing on a review of policies, media sources and literature on housing in Ghana and taking a critical postcolonial institutional theoretic approach, we argue that a more complete conceptualization of Africa’s urban housing crises should involve a close look at the regressive historical patterns of urban investments and persisting elite biases in institutions managing land, finance and housing. This re-framing of housing problems creates a more holistic framework and better articulates the unjust foundations of regressive and exclusionary policies and practices. Further, it highlights elite capture and multi-dimensional exclusions that perpetuate current housing and service failure in African cities. An explicit focus on power, exclusion and injustice is necessary to formulate and advocate alternative policies that are more likely to produce inclusive livable housing and neighborhoods. These include moratoriums on evictions, expanded slum upgrading, progressive property and land taxation, more inclusive planning systems, better regulation of rental housing and improved delivery of land and finance for transit oriented affordable public and rental housing.

Dissatisfaction and service failures in luxury consumption: a systematic review

PurposeWhile service failures and recoveries (SFR) constitute a well-explored research domain, such negative consumption experiences have been understudied in the luxury context. The current study undertakes a systematic review to capture current knowledge and stimulate research in this vital domain.Design/methodology/approachThis study adopts a systematic literature review methodology and employs the Theory-Context-Characteristics-Methods (TCCM) framework.FindingsGuiding theories, industry and national contexts, relevant constructs and their relationships, and research methods employed in studying SFR in luxury consumption are identified and synthesized.Originality/valueA comparative analysis of the luxury SFR with broader extant knowledge is offered. Further, hospitality is revealed as the dominant context, meriting its emphasis.

Guarantee or inoculate? Ex ante messages against service failures

PurposeWhile many studies have focused on the effectiveness of service recovery after encountering service failure, few have considered for pre-recovery opportunities. Drawing on service guarantee research and the inoculation theory, this study examines the effect of pre-recovery strategy on customer’s satisfaction when faced with possible service failure. This study takes into consideration the uncertainty of service failure, including specific or unpredicted failures.Design/methodology/approachThree experimental studies were conducted to examine our research hypotheses, which include a total of 1203 subjects recruited from online and offline platforms.FindingsThe findings reveal that service guarantees and inoculation messages both effectively mitigate the negative consequences of a service failure. Specifically, the pre-recovery strategy is particularly effective for specific service failures. In addition, we thoroughly examined the mediating role of customer attribution.Originality/valueThis research significantly contributes to the existing literature on service research by delving into the potential positive impact of proactive measures undertaken by service enterprises. Furthermore, the findings of this research offer valuable insights for practitioners.

A cross‐cultural replication of “citizens' blame of politicians for public service failure: Experimental evidence about blame reduction through delegation and contracting”

AbstractTheories of blame suggest that the institutional design of public service delivery affects citizens' blame of politicians for service failure, and that delegation or contracting out reducing citizens' blame of politicians. We replicate experimentally James et al.'s blame study to assess whether the findings still apply in the original, Western context, and if the findings can be generalized to East Asia (Hong Kong and South Korea). Our replications (N = 3600) show support for contracting out to the private sector as an effective institutional arrangement for politicians to avoid blame—providing evidence for this hypothesized effect that was not found by the original study in England. Blame shift effects are typically weaker in East Asia as anticipated because of cultural differences. Overall, the findings show that politicians can use cues about delegation to reduce citizens' blame for service failure, but that such strategies vary in their success according to context.

The robot saw it coming: physical human interference, deservingness, and self-efficacy in service robot failures

ABSTRACT Robotic services’ popularity continues to increase due to technological advancements, labour shortages, and global crises. Yet, while providing these services, robots are subject to occasional physical interruption by humans to them, thus restricting their functioning and, at times, leading to failure. To investigate this issue, the present study examined the role of third-party human interference in service robot failures and its effects on the observers’ attitudes towards and willingness to engage with the robot. We manipulated human interference resulting in different robotic service failures in two online scenario-based experiments. The results revealed that individuals held less favourable attitudes towards a failed service robot without (vs. with) physical human interference, and they were less willing to engage with the failed service robot without (vs. with) physical human interference. The perceived deservingness of the robot accounted for this effect, moderated by the person’s self-efficacy regarding robots. The results are discussed with their implications for not only the theory of service failures and human-service robot interactions but also for robotic service providers.

Countering Virtual Brand Sabotage: The Power of Informative Responses

Many disgruntled consumers who experience service failures turn to brand sabotage, by posting vindictive posts on social media platforms. Such aggressive revenge behavior has the goal of influencing others and causing harm to a firm. Vindictive posts require a response from the firm, to limit their potential negative influence on other consumers who read the posts. Three large-scale field studies and five lab experiments, including an incentive-compatible study, demonstrate that firm responses to such sabotage should focus on information (rather than empathy) because informative responses help reduce readers’ risk perceptions, prompting them to exhibit more positive behaviors toward the firm. Service guarantees can mitigate the impact of these responses. Importantly, the type of firm response only matters if the post is vindictive. For non-vindictive posts both informative and empathic firm responses working equally well. Our findings help firms to detect vindictive posts, suggest appropriate response strategies, and reveal how the risk perceptions evoked by vindictive posts can be mitigated.

Unveiling the mediating mechanisms: service recovery and customer advocacy between app attachment and customers’ responses

PurposeThis study investigates the direct impact of app attachment on service recovery and customer advocacy and their combined impact on recommendation and purchase intention. The mediating mechanisms of service recovery and customer advocacy between app attachment and customer responses are also tested in the context of food delivery apps (FDAs).Design/methodology/approachUtilizing a quantitative approach, the authors surveyed 207 responses from users of FDAs who had experienced service failures. Structural equation modeling in Smart PLS 3.0 was used to analyze the data.FindingsThe results supported direct effects among all constructs in the model. The main contribution of the study confirms the mediating mechanisms of service recovery and customer advocacy between app attachment and customer responses.Research limitations/implicationsPrevious studies have mostly relied on the technology acceptance model (TAM). This theory posits that perceived usefulness and ease of use influence the decision of individuals to use a new technology. Although this theory is valuable in terms of accepting new technologies, it neglects psychological phenomena involving the individual and the technological entity – in this case, the FDA. Thus, our study is unique in applying attachment theory and putting emphasis on the importance of building trust in the relationship between FDAs and their customers. Social exchange theory is applied to explain the importance of overcoming the cost of experiencing a failure through service recovery. Thus, we extend the knowledge regarding psychological individual reactions to mobile technologies in the food context, an important sector within the hospitality market.Practical implicationsFDA managers should invest in developing emotional ties with customers. Specific actions include messaging customers on their birthdays or other festive dates. Short testimonial videos on TikTok or other social media with customers advocating in favor of the company could help spread recommendations and the intentions of other customers using the FDAs. To use these practical recommendations properly, we recommend that FDA managers consider the level of quality service recovery delivered and individuals’ cultures, beliefs and values regarding where the company operates to avoid misunderstandings.Originality/valueThis study is original in proposing a model to FDA operators considering app attachment, service recovery, customer advocacy, recommendation and purchase intention. It further supports the mediating effect of service recovery and customer advocacy between app attachment, recommendation and purchase intention on mobile phones.

Enhancing service recovery satisfaction with chatbots: The role of humor and informal language

Effective communication with customers is a key factor in achieving positive reactions, especially in text-based chatbots where no human interaction is involved. This study investigates how the use of humor and informal language by chatbots affects service recovery satisfaction (SRS) following service failures, with a focus on the moderating role of brand equity and service failure severity. Results from the two scenario-based experiments suggest that a match between humor and informal language can increase SRS, particularly for low-equity brands and low severity failures. The findings provide practical implications for companies using chatbots for customer service and suggest incorporating humor and informal language into their messaging when addressing service failures.

How does AI agent (vs. IVR system) service failure impact customer purchase behavior: mediating effect of customer involvement

ABSTRACT In recent years, the use of artificial intelligence (AI) agents in customer service has become a prominent area of study, focusing on their influence over consumer behavior. However, there is a noticeable gap in the current literature regarding AI agent service failures during product information consultations and their effects on customer purchase behavior. The present study, grounded in attribution theory, investigates the effects of various types of self-service failures in both Interactive Voice Response (IVR) systems and AI agents on customer involvement and subsequent purchase behavior. The findings indicate that customers experiencing service failures with AI agents during the consultation stage are more inclined to make purchase behavior after human-led recovery compared to those encountering IVR system failures. Additionally, customer involvement is found to play a pivotal role as a mediator between types of service failures and purchase behavior. The results of this work may offer valuable theoretical and practical insights.

Compensating Service Failures: The Moderating Role of Customers’ Political Ideology

When service failure occurs, the service provide often dispenses compensation to manage customer relations. However, little research has studied who accepts larger or smaller compensation amounts. Presently, we use political ideology as a basis to segment customers. Drawing on prior work on System Justification Theory, we hypothesize that politically conservative customers accept a lower amount of compensation than liberals as conservative customers more likely believe that whatever amount the service provider offers is just and fair. Importantly, we propose that the effects are specific to economic conservatives, not social conservatives. The findings are consistent with our predictions, with (economic) conservatives’ customers’ system justification beliefs serving as a mechanism. Theoretically, our work is the first to examine who accepts different levels of compensation while also broadly suggesting that political ideology is an important customer segmentation basis in the tourism and hospitality sectors. Our work also contributes to the literature on political ideology by being one of the first to empirically tease apart the distinct effects of economic and social conservatism.

Shared decision making for patients with kidney failure to improve end-of-life care: Development of the DESIRE intervention.

To describe the development of a shared decision making intervention for planning end-of-life care for patients with kidney failure, their relatives and health professionals in kidney services. End-of-life care conversations within standard disease management consultations are challenging for patients with kidney failure, their relatives and health professionals. End-of-life care planning is about making difficult decisions in advance, which is why health professionals need shared decision making skills to be able to initiate end-of-life conversations. Health professionals report needing more skills to raise the issue of end-of-life care options within consultations and patients want to be able to discuss issues important to them about future care plans. The development design was guided by the UK Medical Research Council's framework and a user-centred approach was applied. Four workshops were conducted with end users. The Template for Intervention Description and Replication for Population Health and Policy interventions was used to shape which questions needed to be answered through the workshops and to present the intervention. The International Patient Decision Aid Standards (IPDAS) criteria set the standards to be achieved. Areas considered significant to a shared decision making intervention were training of health professionals, conversations about end-of-life care, planning and evaluation of the decisions, reporting decisions in health records and repetition of consultation. The development process went through 14 iterations. An intervention named DESIRE was developed that comprises: (1) a training programme for health professionals; (2) shared decision making conversations; and (3) a patient decision aid. The intervention met 30 out of 33 IPDAS criteria. DESIRE is intended to support shared decision making about planning end-of-life care among patients with kidney failure, their relatives and health professionals. The study provides important tools for the stakeholders engaged that can be used within different models of care. What problem did the study address? International guidelines recommend health professionals involve patients with kidney failure in making decisions about end-of-life care, but there is variation in how this is implemented within and across kidney services. Furthermore, patients, relatives and health professionals find it challenging to initiate conversations about end-of-life care. What were the main findings? The study resulted in the development of a complex intervention, called DESIRE, about shared decision making and planning end-of-life care for patients with kidney failure, their relatives and health professionals in kidney services, including a training programme for health professionals, shared decision making conversations and a patient decision aid. Where and on whom will the research have an impact? The research contributes a shared decision making intervention to patients in the later stage of kidney failure, their relatives and health professionals. We believe that the DESIRE intervention could be introduced during consultations with health professionals at an earlier stage of the patient's illness trajectory, as well as being applied to other chronic diseases. This intervention development research is reported according to the GUIDance for the rEporting of intervention Development (GUIDED) checklist and the DEVELOPTOOLS Reporting Checklist. Patients, relatives and health professionals have been involved throughout the research process as part of the research team and advisory board. For this study, the advisory board has particularly contributed to the development process of the DESIRE intervention by actively participating in the four workshops, in the iterations between the workshops and in the preparation of the manuscript.

A qualitative analysis of cascading effects of critical infrastructure service failure post torrential floods in formal & informal settlement: the study-case of Medellin city, Colombia

ABSTRACT Critical infrastructure (CI) services are crucial to the functioning of modern communities, and a single CI failure can cause cascading effects through a network of services, impacting an entire city. Challenges such as climate change and rapid urbanisation are increasing the risk of cascading effects of CI failure, particularly impacting the urban poor in peri-urban and informal settlements. This study uses a systems thinking approach to validate the hypothesis if CI services are susceptible to generating severe cascading effects in informal than formal settlements. Qualitative data was collected on cascading effects via interviews and focus group discussion in a formal and an informal settlement in Medellin, Colombia. The responses were analysed and structured using a service chain framework and a Causal Loop Diagram. Our findings show that cascading effects vary between the formal and informal contexts concerning CI service availability and accessibility and may be attributed to differences in demography, geography, socio-economic development, risk regulations, community coping capacities and other factors associated with urban development.

Virtual versus human: Unraveling consumer reactions to service failures through influencer types

In an era where both human and virtual influencers play pivotal roles in shaping consumer behavior, understanding their influence on consumers' reactions to service failures has become an essential scholarly pursuit. This research stands at the forefront of this burgeoning field, dissecting the unique impact of human versus virtual influencers on consumer attitudes toward service failures, including forgiveness propensity, behavioral responses, and punishment intention. Through a series of experimental studies, the research uncovers a nuanced preference for virtual influencers, who elicit higher levels of forgiveness, more positive behavioral responses, and lower punitive intentions during service failures. These findings are mediated by mind perception and responsibility attribution, and are moderated by familiarity, thereby unveiling a complex interplay of psychological processes. The study's contributions transcend mere observations, offering a theoretical framework with empirical testing that integrates consumer psychology with the emergent phenomenon of virtual influencers. The insights gleaned from this research not only enhance academic understanding of the dynamics between influencer types and consumer reactions but also provide actionable strategies for marketers. By bridging theory and practice, this study carves a new path in influencer marketing research, particularly illuminating how to leverage influencer types to mitigate negative consumer reactions due to service failures.

Interrogating Covid-19 Protocols and Policing in Nigeria: Implications of Government Distrust and Service Failure (2019 – 2022)

The study examined covid-19 protocols and policing in Nigeria, with implications of government distrust and service failure, 2019 – 2022. Specifically, the study interrogated how government’s attitude to healthcare delivery undermined covid-19 protocols and policing in Nigeria; and how multidimensional poverty in the country undermined Nigeria’s lockdown protocols and policing in the fight against the virus. By adopting documentary method of data collection, expost facto research design and securitisation theory, the study found that government’s historical attitude towards healthcare delivery for its citizens led to the failure of its covid-19 protocols and policing, as result of the poor compliance of citizens. The study further found that multidimensional poverty among Nigerians led to the undermining of governments lockdown measures and guidelines during the pandemic. This were borne out of the citizens’ distrust of their government who have hoarded palliatives meant to cushion the effect of the pandemic. The study concluded and recommended amongst others, that the government must invest in quality healthcare by increasing its spending and budget allocations to the healthcare sector. It must also ensure that it desist from playing politics with palliatives meant to help cushion the effect of the pandemic on its citizens.

Availability Aware Online Virtual Network Function Backup in Edge Environments

With the rapid advancement of edge computing and network function virtualization, it is promising to provide flexible and low-latency network services at the edge. However, due to the vulnerability of edge services and the volatility of edge computing system states, i.e., service request rates, failure rates, and resource prices, it is challenging to minimize the online service cost while providing the availability guarantee. This paper considers the problem of online virtual network function backup under availability constraints (OVBAC) for cost minimization in edge environments. We formulate the problem based on the characteristics of the volatility system states derived from real-world data and show the hardness of the formulated problem. We use an online backup deployment scheme named Drift-Plus-Penalty (DPP) with provable near-optimal performance for the AVBAC problem. In particular, DPP needs to solve an integer programming problem at the beginning of each time slot. We propose a dynamic programming-based algorithm that can optimally solve the problem in pseudo-polynomial time. Extensive real-world data-driven simulations demonstrate that DPP significantly outperforms popular baselines used in practice.

Effects of oil palm mesocarp fibers on the physical and mechanical properties of expansive soils

Palm fiber is one of the favorable materials used in stabilization of soft soil in geotechnical engineering projects, nowadays due to its sustainability, less damage of environment, biodegradability, availability and cost-effectiveness in a context of widespread appeal to the world for return to nature by protecting the earth. On the other hand, expansive soils are renowned for their swelling-shrinkage property and these volumetric changes resultantly cause huge damage to civil infrastructures. Likewise, subgrades consisting of expansive soils instigate serviceability failures in pavements across various regions worldwide. This paper presents results of the laboratory evaluation of expansive soils stabilized with oil palm mesocarp fiber (OPMF), with a view to determine its suitability as flexible pavement construction material. The mixtures were subjected to British Standard heavy (modified Proctor) compaction energy to determine their strength characteristics. The samples were subjected to different tests to ascertain their index properties. Varying proportions of OPMF from 1% to 4% were incorporated into the soil samples and the effects were observed based on compaction and California Bearing Ratio (CBR) results. The control samples without inclusion of OPMF achieved the highest Maximum Dry Densities (MDD), the MDDs reduced linearly as the OPMF content increased. Consequently, the CBR values decreased with increase in OPMF. The reduction in MDD ranged from 20.28g/cm3, 18.5 g/cm3, 15.65 g/cm3, 12.53 g/cm3 as the OPMF increased from 1%, 2% to 3%, 4%. and the optimum moisture content remained almost unaffected due to high-absorbent nature of the fibers. With the inclusion of the OPMF, the CBR value under soaked conditions dropped from 5% to 1.8% rendering them very unsuitable for pavement subgrade. It was concluded that the presence of fiber depreciated the engineering properties of the earth materials. Direct application of OPMF in any part of road pavement has been dissuaded.

The Mediating Role of Trust in Experiential Quality as a Determinant of Indonesian Online Buyers' Behavioral Intention

Merchants and sites that promote online businesses may face challenges in how to satisfy different online buyers. This research implies the organism-response (SOR) theory of stimuli, stimuli are considered as cognitive and affective reactions are organisms that measure online services and experiences in online purchases. This research is considered very important because the issue raised is how service failure, namely trust, is a phenomenon that is often heard about in this business. This research distributed 150 online questionnaires to a random sample of volunteers who had substantial online shopping experience from 15 provinces in Indonesia. The research results show that trust mediates the influence of experience quality on online buyers' behavioral intentions. The quality of experience directly influences behavioral intentions. For further research, other mediating variables need to be developed which are considered to support stimuli such as emotions and satisfaction. Big data is needed in consumer behavior segmentation.

Factors Influence MSME’s Switching Behavior in Digital Marketing Channel: Evidence from Indonesia

In realizing digital-based services and the application of people's economy, the Surabaya, Indonesia. The government has launched a website called E-Peken. It is hoped that the presence of digital marketing infrastructure can help MSME actors increase their business potential by expanding the marketing reach of their superior products. This study aims to determine the desire to switch to e-commerce regarding the failure of e-commerce services and the experience of using the E-Peken website. The research method used was quantitative with data collection through observation and questionnaires on 346 MSMEs in Surabaya City who were recorded as users of the E-Peken website. The results obtained show that the failure of e-commerce services has proven to affect switching intentions; usage experience is proven to affect switching intentions and switching intentions are proven to affect switching behavior from E-Peken to other e-commerce. In this manner, it is suggested that assist investigation include mediating or moderating variables. Managerial suggestions that can be submitted to the Surabaya Government as the E-Peken site service provider are to make strides in administrations on a progressing premise and continuously react to the desires of MSME’s players as users.

Tourism service failure, service recovery, and negative word-of-mouth: three-country comparison using a choice experiment

ABSTRACT This study analyzes service failures and recovery impacts on group tours using choice experiments and conditional logit models. It assesses negative word-of-mouth likelihood based on failures in food outlets, travel agencies, and scenic spots, and recovery actions like apologies, refunds, and punishment. Results show forced purchases, itinerary changes, and food sanitation significantly influence negative word-of-mouth. Preferences for recovery measures differ among Chinese, Japanese, and South Korean tourists, with Chinese favoring punitive actions, Japanese and South Koreans preferring refunds, and South Koreans finding personal apologies more acceptable.

An acoustic emission identification model for train axle fatigue cracks based on deep belief network

Railway axles are safety-critical components of the railroad rolling stock and the consequences of possible in-service failures can have a huge impact. Axle fatigue cracks are relatively common defects during train operation, but how to intelligently identify axle fatigue cracks in running trains is still a great challenge. In order to identify axle fatigue cracks more intelligently, the problem that needs to be solved is how to overcome the manual extraction of features by manual experience as well as shallow networks. Therefore, in this paper, an acoustic emission signal identification method based on deep belief networks (DBNs) for axle fatigue cracks is proposed. In this method, a DBN model is constructed. The axle fatigue crack acoustic emission signal data were obtained by our designed acquisition experimental setup, and these data were used to verify the accuracy of the constructed DBN network model identification. The experimental results show that the method of identification of axle fatigue cracks based on DBN, compared with the traditional fault diagnosis method, eliminates the operations of data feature extraction, feature screening, feature fusion, etc and makes complete use of all the information contained in the fault data. The method can not only identify fatigue crack signals but also has a high identification rate of fatigue cracks at different stages. In the axle fatigue crack acoustic emission identification field, it can be seen that the proposed method in this paper will be a promising approach.