Service failure research in the hospitality and tourism industry: a synopsis of past, present and future dynamics from 2001 to 2020

Abstract

Purpose When service failure occurs, it leads to dissatisfaction, lack of trust and avoidance behaviour among customers, and it can also be seen as a threat to the survival of the business. This paper aims to investigate the current and potential dynamics of service failure research within the tourism and hospitality area. Design/methodology/approach By adopting qualitative, quantitative (citation and text mining) and science-mapping tools (descriptive, conceptual and intellectual), this study analyses 99 key papers on service failure in 18 major hospitality and tourism journals over a 20-year span. Findings The research on service recovery strategies, recovery efforts, pre- and post-failure and post-recovery in the service encounter and the impacts of justice on post-recovery and post-complaint behaviour are identified as the major streams of service failure research. While emotional labour, rumination and satisfaction recovery were identified as emerging themes, service failure perceptions and social media were found as the developed and substantial trends. Practical implications This study presents a comprehensive understanding of service failure research development in the hospitality and tourism industry. This study propose three areas – circumstantial cues, interactional cues and crisis management – that practitioners need to understand to minimise service failure during the service interaction. Originality/value To the best of the authors’ knowledge, no prior bibliometric study has investigated the current and future dynamics of service failure in the hospitality and tourism industry and offered a research agenda based on this gap in the literature.

Publication DOI: https://doi.org/10.1108/IJCHM-11-2021-1441
Divisions: College of Business and Social Sciences > Aston Business School > Marketing & Strategy
College of Business and Social Sciences > Aston Business School
Additional Information: © 2022 Emerald Publishing Limited. This author accepted manuscript is deposited under a Creative Commons Attribution Non-commercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC) licence. This means that anyone may distribute, adapt, and build upon the work for non-commercial purposes, subject to full attribution. If you wish to use this manuscript for commercial purposes, please contact permissions@emerald.com.
Uncontrolled Keywords: Service failure,Bibliometrics,Text mining,Hospitality and tourism,Service recovery,Recovery management
Publication ISSN: 0959-6119
Last Modified: 27 Mar 2024 08:40
Date Deposited: 16 Dec 2022 13:04
Full Text Link:
Related URLs: https://www.eme ... -1441/full/html (Publisher URL)
http://www.scop ... tnerID=8YFLogxK (Scopus URL)
PURE Output Type: Article
Published Date: 2023-01-02
Published Online Date: 2022-08-19
Accepted Date: 2022-07-29
Authors: Akarsu, Tugra Nazli
Marvi, Reza (ORCID Profile 0000-0002-2583-4613)
Foroudi, Pantea

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