Although there is a substantial literature on customer (dis)satisfaction and complaining behaviour, relatively little progress has been made in developing a theoretical understanding of how consumer evaluate a companys response to service failure and ... Die Arbeit erhielt den ITB Wissenschaftspreis 2004
Table of Contents
CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION
1.1 Background to the Research
1.2 Research Objectives
1.3 Research Context
1.4 Research Methodology
1.5 Research Contributions
1.5.1 Conceptual and Empirical Contributions
1.5.2 Managerial Contributions
1.6 Conclusions
CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW
2.1 Introduction
2.2 Service Failures
2.3 Responses to Services Failures
2.3.1 Market Factors
2.3.2 Seller and Services Factors
2.3.3 Consumer Factors
2.4 Service Recovery
2.4.1 Definition
2.4.2 Service Recovery Strategies
2.4.3 Customer Evaluations of Service Recovery
2.4.3.1 Distributive Justice
2.4.3.2 Procedural Justice
2.4.3.3 Interactional Justice
2.4.3.4 Summary
2.4.4 Outcomes of Service Recovery
2.4.4.1 Behavioural Outcomes
2.4.4.2 Emotional Outcomes
2.5 Service Recovery Management
2.5.1 First Level of Service Recovery Management
2.5.2 Second Level of Service Recovery Management
2.5.3 Third Level of Service Recovery Management
2.6 Conclusions
CHAPTER 3: EXPLORATORY RESEARCH I: SEMI-STRUCTURED INTERVIEWS
3.1 Introduction
3.2 Background to the Study
3.3 Methodology
3.4 Results
3.5 Conclusions
CHAPTER 4: MODEL DEVELPOMENT AND RESEARCH HYPOTHESES
4.1 Introduction
4.2 Satisfaction Judgements involving Service Failure and Recovery Encounters
4.3 Antecedents of Customer Satisfaction involving Service Failure and Recovery Encounters
4.3.1 Cognitive Antecedents
4.3.1.1 Interactional Justice
4.3.1.2 Procedural Justice
4.3.1.3 Distributive Justice
4.3.2 Emotional Antecedents
4.4 Consequences of Customer Satisfaction involving Service Failure and Recovery Encounters
4.4.1 Behavioural Responses
4.4.2 Relationship Quality
4.5 Conclusions
CHAPTER 5: RESEARCH CONTEXT: TRAVEL AND TOURISM SERVICES
5.1 Introduction
5.2 Clarification of the Terminology
5.3 Travel and Tourism as an Economic Factor
5.4 Defining Travel and Tourism
5.5 Structure and Organisation of the Travel and Tourism Industry
5.6 Characteristics of Travel and Tourism Services
5.6.1 Generic Service Characteristics
5.6.2 Particular Characteristics
5.7 Conclusions
CHAPTER 6: METHODOLOGY
6.1 Introduction
6.2 Research Objectives
6.3 Research Philosophy
6.4 Research Design
6.4.1 Semi-Structured Interviews
6.4.2 Experimental Study
6.4.3 Main Survey
6.4.3.1 Survey Instrument
6.4.3.2 Questionnaire Structure
6.4.3.3 Measures
6.4.3.3.1 Measurement of Independent Variables
6.4.3.3.2 Measurement of Dependent Variables
6.4.3.3.3 Ancillary (Exploratory) Measures
6.4.3.3.4 Measurement Issues
6.4.3.4 Sampling
6.4.3.5 Distribution
6.5 Conclusions
CHAPTER 7: EXPLORATORY RESEACH II: EXPERIMENTAL STUDY
7.1 Introduction
7.2 Background to the Study
7.3 Research Method
7.4 Results
7.5 Conclusions
CHAPTER 8: DATA ANALYSIS I: DESCRIPTIVE STATISTICS
8.1 Introduction
8.2 Response Rates
8.3 Non-Response Bias
8.4 Descriptive Statistics
8.4.1 Socio-Demographic Characteristics of the Sample
8.4.2 Characteristics of the Service Recovery Encounter
8.4.3 Descriptive Statistics for the Key Variables
8.5 Reliability and Validity of the Data
8.5.1 Validity Analysis
8.5.2 Reliability Analysis
8.6 Conclusions
CHAPTER 9: DATA ANALYSIS II: HYPOTHESES TESTING
9.1 Introduction
9.2 Test for Structural Change (Chow-Test)
9.3 Multiple Regression Analysis
9.3.1 Regression Diagnostics
9.3.2 Equations for the Proposed Model
9.4 Hypotheses Testing
9.4.1 Testing of Hypotheses related to Secondary Secondary Satisfaction (H1-H6)
9.4.1.1 The Effect of Primary Satisfaction on the Formation of Secondary Satisfaction (H1)
9.4.1.2 The Effect of Perceived Justice Evaluations on the Formation of Secondary Satisfaction (H2-H4)
9.4.1.3 The Effect of Emotions on the Formation of Secondary Satisfaction (H5-H6)
9.4.2 The Effects of Perceived Justice Evaluations on Emotions (H7-H12)
9.4.3 The Effect of Secondary Satisfaction on Post-Purchase Behaviour (H13-H16)
9.4.4 The Effect of Secondary Satisfaction on Relationship Quality (H17-H18)
9.5 Conclusions
CHAPTER 10: SUMMARY AND CONLUSIONS
10.1 Introduction
10.2 Research and Conceptual Contributions
10.3 Implications for Management
10.4 Limitations and Suggestions for Future Research
10.5 Conclusions
Research Objectives and Themes
The primary objective of this thesis is to investigate customer evaluations of service failure and recovery encounters, specifically within the travel and tourism industry. The research seeks to understand how perceived justice evaluations (distributive, procedural, and interactional) and post-consumption emotions influence customer satisfaction, and how these satisfaction levels subsequently drive post-purchase behaviors and the quality of long-term buyer-seller relationships.
- The role of justice perceptions in evaluating company responses to consumer complaints.
- The impact of consumption emotions on satisfaction judgments following service recovery.
- The cognitive-affective nature of customer satisfaction in a service failure context.
- The application of these theoretical frameworks specifically to the travel and tourism services sector.
- Empirical validation of the proposed model using a two-stage research design (interviews, experiments, and surveys).
Excerpt from the Book
2.5.1 First level of Service Recovery Management
Customers are at a high involvement level whenever service failure occurs. The fact that emotions are more important than cognitions "clearly points to the need for service marketers to manage consumers' emotional experience during and after a service failure" (Dubé and Maute, 1995, p. 141). In leading the customer through a negative experience, employees are requested to act quickly (Andreassen and Best, 1977; Hart et al., 1990; Johnston, 1995) to show concern and empathy (Bell and Zemke, 1987; Johnston, 1995) for customers and to remain pleasant, helpful, and attentive (Johnston, 1995, Tax et al., 1998, Nel et al., 2000). It is important that customers are treated as individuals and that their specific requests are acknowledged, since "token responses by a company resulted in the most vehemently negative responses" (Spreng et al., 1995, p. 19).
Furthermore, employees have to act flexibly according to customers' needs (Johnston, 1995). Doing so requires decision-making and rule breaking - exactly what employees have been conditioned against (Hart et al., 1990). Ironically, while many business reengineering projects aimed to reduce service failures by designing better service delivery processes through standards and regulations, these rules often impede effective service recovery (Michel, 1998).
Summary of Chapters
CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION: This chapter provides the research background, defines the core objectives, outlines the methodology, and highlights the conceptual and managerial contributions of the study.
CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW: This chapter reviews existing academic literature regarding service failures, customer responses, the concept of service recovery, and the different levels of service recovery management.
CHAPTER 3: EXPLORATORY RESEARCH I: SEMI-STRUCTURED INTERVIEWS: This chapter presents qualitative findings from exploratory interviews, used to substantiate the relevance of justice theory in the context of travel and tourism.
CHAPTER 4: MODEL DEVELPOMENT AND RESEARCH HYPOTHESES: This chapter develops a cognitive-affective conceptual model and formulates testable hypotheses based on the literature and exploratory findings.
CHAPTER 5: RESEARCH CONTEXT: TRAVEL AND TOURISM SERVICES: This chapter establishes travel and tourism as the industry context, clarifying terminology and outlining the characteristics that make it unique for studying service recovery.
CHAPTER 6: METHODOLOGY: This chapter describes the research design, justifying the use of a combined qualitative and quantitative approach to test the proposed model and hypotheses.
CHAPTER 7: EXPLORATORY RESEACH II: EXPERIMENTAL STUDY: This chapter presents the results of an experimental study investigating how perceived justice influences the elicitation of specific emotions.
CHAPTER 8: DATA ANALYSIS I: DESCRIPTIVE STATISTICS: This chapter details the descriptive statistics for the collected survey data and validates the measurement scales used.
CHAPTER 9: DATA ANALYSIS II: HYPOTHESES TESTING: This chapter provides the results of the multiple regression analysis used to test the proposed hypotheses and discusses the findings.
CHAPTER 10: SUMMARY AND CONLUSIONS: This final chapter synthesizes the research findings, discusses managerial implications, notes limitations, and provides suggestions for future research.
Keywords
Service recovery, Service failure, Perceived justice, Customer satisfaction, Travel and tourism, Complaint handling, Consumer behaviour, Relationship marketing, Emotions, Cognitive appraisal, Repurchase intention, Word-of-mouth, Commitment, Trust, Methodology.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the core focus of this research?
The research explores how customers evaluate a company's response to service failures, specifically focusing on the roles of perceived justice and consumption emotions in shaping satisfaction and post-purchase behavior.
What are the central thematic areas?
The study centers on justice theory (distributive, procedural, and interactional), the cognitive-affective nature of satisfaction, and the specific dynamics within the travel and tourism services sector.
What is the primary research question?
The study aims to determine what role justice perceptions play in evaluating complaint responses and how these evaluations, coupled with emotional states, influence subsequent customer satisfaction and behavioral outcomes.
Which scientific methodology is utilized?
The research employs a two-stage strategy: an initial exploratory phase using semi-structured interviews and experiments, followed by a quantitative phase using a large-scale, self-administered, cross-sectional survey.
What is covered in the main section of the work?
The work provides a thorough literature review, develops a theoretical cognitive-affective model of service recovery, and tests this model empirically through structural equation and regression analysis of survey data collected from travel and tourism consumers.
Which keywords best characterize this study?
Key terms include service recovery, perceived justice, customer satisfaction, travel and tourism marketing, and consumer behavior.
Why is the travel and tourism context specifically chosen?
The industry is identified as a critical context for service failure due to the high variability of delivery processes, the high-risk nature of the products, and the fact that failures are often unavoidable, making recovery a key competitive advantage.
What does the study conclude regarding managerial practices?
The findings emphasize that managers should prioritize fair complaint-handling procedures and empower frontline employees, as effective recovery is vital for maintaining customer loyalty and preventing negative word-of-mouth.
- Quote paper
- Dr. Klaus Schöfer (Author), 2002, Customer Evaluations of Service Failure and Recovery Encounters, Munich, GRIN Verlag, https://www.grin.com/document/185871
