Service Recovery Research Articles

Current Situation and Engineering Application Prospect of Liquid Air Energy Storage Technology

Liquid air energy storage (LAES)technology is a new-coming energy storage method using cryogenic technology as basic theory. It managed to reach consumption of new energy in a grid-connected way, absorbing low power properly, and stable output of many other forms of energy like industrial gas and electricity. This paper introduces the technical principle and advantages of LAES, analyzes and discusses the problems faced by the development of LAES technology and the corresponding solutions, summarizes the applied fields of LAES technology. It also looks forward to the development direction of LAES technology. LAES has the advantages of high energy storage density and low storage pressure, and is less restricted by geographical conditions. It can store the remaining or discontinuous power for a certain time and produce stable power output. LAES technology has a wide range of application prospects in the power system, providing a variety of energy storage services and market opportunities for the power system, the industrial field, providing a variety of energy recovery, peak-valley balance, emergency backup and energy conversion services for industrial production, and urban gas systems, providing a variety of energy reserve, peak load emergency, emergency backup and auxiliary services for urban gas systems. It is of great significance to improve the phenomenon of "wind abandonment" and "light abandonment" in the power generation industry and meet the demand of "peak cutting and valley filling" in the power grid system.

The Role and Experiences of Frontline Social Care Staff within Integrated Care

Background: This study explores the role of those frontline individuals working in care and support roles in ensuring that people receive Integrated Care and how they interact, collaborate and work in partnership with external professionals. Such staff are often central to the people’s experience of person-centred, co-ordinated care due to their frequent contact with people, their families and a multitude of professionals. Despite the centrality of their role, there is a lack of research on these individuals with most research around Integrated Care focused on formal professions such as Nurses and Social Workers. 
 Who is it for? This research study has been conducted for frontline social care staff within Integrated Care services and for all stakeholders involved in a person’s care ranging from Social Workers, CPNs, Housing support, health and local authorities. This will also be of interest to those responsible for managing future integrated services and to those implementing new Integrated Care programmes.
 Who did you involve and engage with? This research study was led by a PhD Research student around an Integrated Mental Health Recovery Service for Adults in the Midlands region of England which had been implementing integrated care over the past five years. The service supports people to leave /avoid hospital or prison etc to develop new skills, manage their risks and to support the Mental Health Recovery journey for individuals. The emerging insights from this study will be shared with a lived experience panel in order to gain their perspectives.
 What did you do? A scoping literature review was conducted which highlighted the limited number of research studies involving frontline social care and support staff. With the premise that all involved in Integrated Care are equal partners, a lack of literature on these individuals highlighted a gap in data. Qualitative semi-structured interviews are being conducted with social care staff and various professionals involved in the case study site, based on themes which emerged in the literature review.
 What results did you get? This research study is part of a PhD Thesis due for completion in September 2023 and data gathering will be complete and initial analysis will be presented at the conference.
 What is the learning for the international audience? The areas of learning will be around the key themes which emerge from the findings of the qualitative interviews on barriers and facilitators of Integrated Care based on the role and experiences of frontline social care staff, a group which has been under researched both within the UK and internationally.
 What are the next steps? The insights from this research study will help to inform the Integrated service and the local areas to improve the support to people in services, to help advance practice within Integrated Care and for the future development of Integrated Care services and programmes.

When Going Above and Beyond Meets Diversity: Are Service Recoveries Evaluated Based on Inference or Recognition?

Not all recoveries are successful. Previous research mostly focuses on employee service-recovery actions, while limited research examines how customers evaluate the interactions of employees’ diverse appearance features and their performance in service recoveries. To build upon the research gaps, this study examines the two processes of evaluation: inference-based and recognition-based evaluations. To do so, this research examines how service employees’ diversity features (e.g., gender and race) and their organizational citizenship behavior (OCB) performance influence customer evaluations of service recovery. Using a between-subjects experimental research design, the findings contribute to the diversity, service recovery, and OCB literature by adding new evidence on how recognition-based evaluations of employees’ appearances (gender and race) and inference-based evaluations of behaviors (OCB to customers) can affect customer perceptions of employee competence, trustworthiness, and dignity in service recoveries.

Fully Decentralized Horizontal Autoscaling for Burst of Load in Fog Computing

With the increasing number of Web of Things devices, the network and processing delays in the cloud have also increased. As a solution, fog computing has emerged, placing computational resources closer to the user to lower the communication overhead and congestion in the cloud. In fog computing systems, microservices are deployed as containers, which require an orchestration tool like Kubernetes to support service discovery, placement, and recovery. A key challenge in the orchestration of microservices is automatically scaling the microservices in case of an unpredictable burst of load. In cloud computing, a centralized autoscaler can monitor the deployed microservice instances and make scaling actions based on the monitored metric values. However, monitoring an increasing number of microservices in fog computing can cause excessive network overhead and thereby delay the time to scaling action. We propose DESA, a fully DEcentralized Self-adaptive Autoscaler through which microservice instances make their own scaling decisions, cloning or terminating themselves through self-monitoring. We evaluate DESA in a simulated fog computing environment with different numbers of fog nodes. Furthermore, we conduct a case study with the 1998 World Cup website access log, examining DESA’s performance in a realistic scenario. The results show that DESA successfully reduces the scaling reaction time in large-scale fog computing systems compared to the centralized approach. Moreover, DESA resulted in a similar maximum number of instances and lower average CPU utilization during bursts of load.

Long-term Consequences on Soil Fungal Community Structure: Monoculture Planting and Natural Regeneration.

Understanding the regeneration and succession of belowground communities, particularly in forests, is vital for maintaining ecosystem health. Despite its importance, there is limited knowledge regarding how fungal communities change over time during ecosystem development, especially under different forest restoration strategies. In this study, we focused on two restoration methods used in northern Japan: monoculture planting and natural regeneration. We examined the responses of the fungal community to monoculture plantations (active tree planting) and naturally regenerated (passive regeneration) forests over a 50-year chronosequence, using natural forests as a reference. Based on DNA metabarcoding, we assessed the richness of fungal Operational Taxonomic Units (OTUs) and their dissimilarity. Our findings revealed that soil fungal richness remained stable after natural regeneration but declined in monoculture plantations, from 354 to 247 OTUs. While the compositional dissimilarity of fungal assemblages between monoculture plantations and natural forests remained consistent regardless of the time since tree planting, it significantly decreased after natural regeneration, suggesting recovery to a state close to the reference level. Notably, the composition of key functional fungal groups-saprotrophic and ectomycorrhizal- has increasingly mirrored that of natural forests over time following passive natural regeneration. In summary, our study suggests that monoculture plantations may not be effective for long-term ecosystem function and service recovery because of their limited support for soil fungal diversity. These results underscore the importance of natural regeneration in forest restoration and management strategies.

The role of service guarantees in contemporary foodservice encounters

ABSTRACT Drawing on the role congruity theory, this research revisits a common service practice – service guarantee’s effectiveness in contemporary foodservice encounters across different customer-company relationships (communal vs. exchange) and delivery modes (touch vs. tech) in two service failure settings (Study 1 – catering service and Study 2 – food ordering/delivery service). The research shows that a service guarantee does not effectively enhance customers’ post-failure satisfaction in a communal relationship. Conversely, in an exchange relation, its presence significantly enhances customers’ post-failure satisfaction following a touch service failure. The research further investigates the underlying process driving such satisfaction through serial mediation effects. Specifically, when customers face a touch service failure in an exchange relation, the presence of a service guarantee enhances perceived competence of the service provider and expected service quality, thus reducing perceived risk, which in turn, has a positive impact on customers’ post-failure satisfaction. The current research contributes to the classic service guarantee literature with novel insights and provides industry practitioners guidelines regarding how to employ service guarantees as an effective service recovery strategy.

Benefits of Integrating Technology into Home Exercise Therapy in Patients with Lower Extremity Peripheral Artery Disease.

(1) Background: Telerehabilitation is an approach that uses digital technology to provide remote medical recovery services. It can be an option for cardiovascular recovery at home in patients with peripheral arterial disease (PAD) of the lower limbs. (2) Methods: We performed literature research through two databases: PubMed and Embase. We included randomized controlled trials and cohort studies that evaluated the effectiveness of a technology-assisted home exercise intervention compared with conventional rehabilitation or the usual care in patients with PAD. We analyzed population, intervention, and outcome data. (3) Results: We identified 2468 studies. After rigorous screening, we included 25 articles in the review. The following results were evaluated: dissemination and acceptance of digital technologies among these people, functional capacity, exercise intensity, patient motivation, sex-specific response differences in mortality and clinical outcomes, quality of life assessment, and changes in values of inflammatory biomarkers. All of these were correlated with the type of intervention and the dose of the exercise. (4) Conclusions: Home-based exercise therapy supervised with the help of specific devices could be successfully implemented in the therapeutic management of the PAD population. Health specialists should take into account the clinical-paraclinical profile and the emotional status of the patients. Such individualized interventions could bring significant benefits for the people with this disease and for the healthcare system, including increasing exercise adherence, engagement, self-care capacity, life expectancy, and quality of life for these patients, as well as reducing their symptoms, cardiovascular complications, and hospitalizations.

Good morning, sunshine: How time‐of‐day of complaint submittal can affect customer satisfaction with company response time

AbstractTraditional models of consumer behavior assume that customers perceive factors, e.g., time, in a rational manner throughout the day. For example, the same time period of an hour should, fundamentally, be evaluated as the same as an hour in the afternoon. Yet, across three experimental studies, we find evidence counter to this belief. Under the theoretical framework of the categorization of time, we posit that the unconscious categorization of time influences our satisfaction with company response time due to perceptions of time and resource depletion. We empirically demonstrate that the time‐of‐day of complaint submission impacts satisfaction with company response time such that the same company response time will be perceived as more satisfying in the morning than when received in the afternoon. This previously overlooked relationship builds on a robust and growing literature examining timing strategies in service recovery. We provide both low/no‐cost initiatives as well as strategic timing prioritization for marketing practitioners to maximize customer satisfaction with firm response time.

Funding and Implementation of Recovery Oriented Treatment Programs in the US from 2006-2020.

Background: Not much is known about funding for and implementation of Person-centered, long-term services - referred to as "recovery services." Methods: SAMSHA funding archives from 2004-2020 were analyzed using Latent Class Analysis (LCA). Results: All 50 states (plus DC and Guam) received about 482 recovery-based grants from 2004-2020 (total from 2004-2020 = $425 million vs. 63.3 ± 29.1 million in total SAMSHA funding per year on average). LCA showed 4 trends: peer focused (Pr(Class) = .09, 95%CI = 0.08, 0.10), treatment focused (Pr(Class) = 0.14, 95%CI = 0.12, 0.18), system focused (Pr(Class) = 0.57, 95% CI = 0.54, 0.59) and consumer focused (Pr(Class) = 0.19 (0.17, 0.21). Conclusions: Funding for recovery makes up a relatively low percentage of overall funding for substance prevention and treatment. Implications are discussed.

Service recovery types on customer forgiveness: a moderated moderation model of promotions and customer type

ABSTRACT This study examines the effect of three justice types' direct and three-way interactions on customer forgiveness, including the two moderators of sales promotions and customer type. Notably, the analysis revealed that procedural justice's impact on customer forgiveness is significant, but the direct effects of distributive and interactional justice are insignificant. Specifically, the more positive the non-complainers' evaluations of service recovery efforts, the more forgiving they are in response to price discounts. Meanwhile, although complainers respond positively to price discounts, their reactions to coupons and discounts are similar and increase somewhat in a positive nature.

The COVID-19 pandemic and neurology: A survey on previous and continued restrictions for clinical practice, curricular training, and health economics.

The COVID-19 pandemic has significantly impacted health systems worldwide. Here, we assessed the pandemic's impact on clinical service, curricular training, and financial burden from a neurological viewpoint during the enforced lockdown periods and the assumed recovery by 2023. An online 18-item survey was conducted by the European Academy of Neurology (EAN) NeuroCOVID-19 Task Force among the EAN community. The survey was online between February and March 2023. Questions related to general, demographic, clinical, work, education, and economic aspects. We collected 430 responses from 79 countries. Most health care professionals were aged 35-44 years, with >15 years of work experience. The key findings of their observations were as follows. (i) Clinical services were cut back in all neurological subspecialties during the most restrictive COVID-19 lockdown period. The most affected neurological subspecialties were services for patients with dementia, and neuromuscular and movement disorders. The levels of reduction and the pace of recovery were distinct for acute emergencies and in- and outpatient care. Recovery was slow for sleep medicine, autonomic nervous system disorders, neurorehabilitation, and dementia care. (ii) Student and residency rotations and grand rounds were reorganized, and congresses were converted into a virtual format. Conferences are partly maintained in a hybrid format. (iii) Affordability of neurological care and medication shortage are emerging issues. Recovery of neurological services up to spring 2023 has been incomplete following substantial disruption of neurological care, medical education, and health economics in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. The continued limitations for the delivery of neurological care threaten brain health and call for action on a global scale.

Peritoneal malignancy in the global COVID-19 pandemic: experience of recovery and restoration in a high-volume centre through NHS and independent sector collaboration.

Treatment of peritoneal malignancy with cytoreductive surgery (CRS) and hyperthermic intraperitoneal chemotherapy (HIPEC) requires substantial critical care, theatre and nursing resources. The COVID-19 pandemic caused challenges in providing a high volume, tertiary referral service. We reviewed data on referrals and operations performed in a tertiary referral centre in both NHS and independent sector settings. The impact of COVID-19 on activity was assessed using 2019 as a benchmark. New patient referrals were similar, with 891 in 2019 compared with 833 in 2020. Delivery of CRS and HIPEC operations were initially impacted by COVID-19. NHS and independent sector collaboration facilitated recovery, with 284 patients treated in 2020 compared with 280 in 2019. Close collaboration and structural organisation between the clinical and management teams in the NHS and independent sectors facilitated recovery and restoration of a complex tertiary referral service for peritoneal malignancy during the COVID pandemic.

Contemporary challenges of consumption: a Kafkaesque and critical marketing perspective

Abstract Purpose Markets are sites of collaboration as well as contestation between their various actors, including firms and consumers. In this respect, a narrative that consumers are more empowered than ever has been in vogue. Drawing from Kafka’s literature and philosophy and the paradigm of critical marketing, this paper argues for a broadened perspective. Design/methodology/approach Using a selective and exploratory-review approach, six dimensions of the state of today’s consumer emerge. These are subsequently assessed and developed as manifestations challenging the empowerment thesis. Findings The depiction of intense subjugation in Kafka’s fiction and the lack of agency his characters portray furnish narrative frames to view the paradoxical state of contemporary consumption. Specifically, consumer choice and sovereignty, service failures and recoveries, privacy concerns, the capitalist nexus, transformation in service provisioning modes, and frontline employees’ lowered stakes comprise six analytical frames of consumers’ lives that depict their paradoxical simultaneity of empowerment and entrapment. Originality/value The work contributes to critical marketing theory in particular and critical philosophy in general. Specifically, the proposed framework of consumption challenges depicted herein can serve as a mid-range theoretical taxonomy. The exemplar states highlighted reveal managerial and policy challenges.

Empathic accuracy in artificial intelligence service recovery

PropósitoLas agentes de inteligencia artificial (IA) se aplican cada vez más en el sector del turismo y la hostelería. Sin embargo, los fallos de los servicios de IA son inevitables. Por lo tanto, la recuperación de servicios de IA merece una investigación empírica. Esta investigación explora cómo la precisión empática de la IA afecta a la satisfacción de los clientes con la recuperación del servicio de IA.Diseño/Metodología/EnfoqueSe presentó un modelo de mediación moderado para describir el efecto de la precisión empática en la satisfacción del cliente mediante cuatro experimentos basados en escenarios.HallazgosLos resultados revelan el impacto positivo de la precisión empática de la IA en la satisfacción del cliente y los efectos mediadores de la agencia percibida y la experiencia percibida. Además, el antropomorfismo modera el efecto de la precisión empática.OriginalidadEste artículo amplía los estudios sobre los servicios de IA al investigar el papel de la precisión empática en la satisfacción del cliente. Los resultados aportan un punto de vista teórico novedoso sobre la retención de clientes tras el fallo de un servicio de IA.

A Phenomenological Study of Barriers and Needs Related to Opioid Prevention, Treatment, and Recovery in Rural Alabama

Rural areas with limited access to preventive care, treatment, and recovery services are particularly affected by the opioid crisis. This study identified four rural areas in Alabama that had higher opioid prescription rates than the state and national average. This study explores the views of three groups [healthcare service providers, persons who use/used opioids (PWUO), and community stakeholders] on the barriers to and needs for opioid prevention, treatment, and recovery services using a phenomenological qualitative design. Purposeful and snowball sampling was used to recruit 95 participants across 12 focus groups which were audio-recorded and transcribed verbatim. A seven-member analysis team conducted a directed content analysis using a semi-structured script and seeded themes with a rigorous plan to promote trustworthiness. Regardless of group type, commonly identified barriers and needs related to rural locality, financial factors, cultural norms, and stigma among others. Prominent needs included education and healthcare coordination. Findings suggest recommendations for community and provider interventions to address the knowledge gaps and recovery needs. They also supported the suitability of the Telehealth Extension for Community Healthcare Outcomes, a videoconferencing tool that networks multidisciplinary experts and professionals around specialty topics, as a promising intervention to increase training among providers.

Service recovery strategies: mitigating negative word-of-mouth in the hotel industry through enhanced customer engagement

Service recovery strategies: mitigating negative word-of-mouth in the hotel industry through enhanced customer engagement

Promotional games in service recovery: Luck works

This research proposes a proactive strategy for alleviating unfavorable post-failure consequences from a luck-based perspective—offering discounts through promotional games before service failures. Findings show that winning discounts through promotional games (vs. direct discounts) induces higher perceived luck, recovery expectancy, and customer forgiveness. Additionally, results indicate that in crowded environments, messages about the winning result framed as non-losses (vs. gains) are more effective in generating positive customer outcomes. However, in non-crowded environments, both types of message framing yield similar results. Findings bring new knowledge to an under-researched area—proactive service recovery and expand the literature on luck and promotional games in the tourism service recovery field. Results suggest hotels should proactively conduct promotional games to counteract negative post-failure influences.

Exercise capacity following SARS-CoV-2 infection is related to changes in cardiovascular and lung function in military personnel

BackgroundSince the COVID-19 pandemic, post-COVID syndrome (persistent symptoms/complications lasting >12 weeks) continues to pose medical and economic challenges. In military personnel, where optimal fitness is crucial, prolonged limitations affecting their ability to perform duties has occupational and psychological implications, impacting deployability and retention. Research investigating post-COVID syndrome exercise capacity and cardiopulmonary effects in military personnel is limited. MethodsUK military personnel were recruited from the Defence Medical Services COVID-19 Recovery Service. Participants were separated into healthy controls without prior SARS-CoV-2 infection (group one), and participants with prolonged symptoms (>12 weeks) after mild-moderate (community-treated) and severe (hospitalised) COVID-19 illness (group 2 and 3, respectively). Participants underwent cardiac magnetic resonance imaging (CMR) and spectroscopy, echocardiography, pulmonary function testing and cardiopulmonary exercise testing (CPET). Results113 participants were recruited. When compared in ordered groups (one to three), CPET showed stepwise decreases in peak work, work at VT1 and VO2 max (all p < 0.01). There were stepwise decreases in FVC (p = 0.002), FEV1 (p = 0.005), TLC (p = 0.002), VA (p < 0.001), and DLCO (p < 0.002), and a stepwise increase in A-a gradient (p < 0.001). CMR showed stepwise decreases in LV/RV volumes, stroke volumes and LV mass (LVEDVi/RVEDVi p < 0.001; LVSV p = 0.003; RVSV p = 0.001; LV mass index p = 0.049). ConclusionIn an active military population, post-COVID syndrome is linked to subclinical changes in maximal exercise capacity. Alongside disease specific changes, many of these findings share the phenotype of deconditioning following prolonged illness or bedrest. Partitioning of the relative contribution of pathological changes from COVID-19 and deconditioning is challenging in post-COVID syndrome recovery.

Understanding the role of risk perception and health measures in ridesourcing usage in the post-COVID-19 era

The COVID-19 pandemic has had a significant impact on how people perceive health risks when using ridesharing services, as there is an increased risk of transmission. To mitigate this risk, individuals have implemented self-imposed preventive measures, while ridesharing service providers have introduced health measures to reduce the likelihood of transmission and encourage ridership. To understand the impact of COVID-19 on ridesharing usage and willingness to use it, we propose a framework to study the relationship between influencing factors (such as risk perception, vaccination status, and self-imposed or service-imposed non-pharmaceutical health measures like masks and/or sanitizing) and ridesharing-related decisions and intention. A web-based survey in China collected over 2300 responses, and Multiple Indicators and Multiple Causes models were estimated to investigate the influencing factors’ impacts on ridesourcing service usage at the later stage of the pandemic when China was still under Zero-COVID policy and their willingness to use it after the pandemic. The estimation results indicate that risk perception, self-imposed and service-imposed health measures, post-pandemic expectations of these measures are key influencing factors, along with certain sociodemographic and travel behavior factors. These findings can help decision-makers develop strategies to support the recovery of ridesharing services in the post-COVID-19 era.

Employees’ service recovery performance: the role of functional manager’s emotional intelligence in the hospitality industry

Emotional intelligence has taken a firm hold in organizations. The emotional intelligence of managers is essential for building a motivated workforce. This study investigates the relationship between functional managers’ emotional intelligence and employees’ service recovery performance in the context of the hospitality industry. In this study, functional managers’ emotional intelligence includes four dimensions: self-emotion appraisal, other-emotion appraisal, use of emotion, and regulation of emotion. A mixed method was employed to explore the influence of functional managers’ emotional intelligence on employees’ service recovery performance. The data were collected from 238 functional managers at 33 four- and five-star hotels in five provinces and cities in Vietnam. Factor analysis, correlation analysis, and regression analysis were used to analyze the data. The results show that functional hotel managers’ emotional intelligence has a positive and significant impact on employees’ service recovery performance, with others’ emotion appraisal having the strongest impact, followed by emotion regulation, use of emotion, and self-emotion appraisal. These findings contribute to the literature and deepen the understanding of service recovery. This study also provides managers with useful advice on managing customer service as a competitive advantage.