An Empirical Examination of the Moderators of the Service Recovery Paradox

Some researchers (Abrams and Paese, 1993; Bitner, Booms, and Tetreault, 1990; Etzel and Silverman. 1981; Feinberg et al., 1990; Folkes and Kotsos, 1986; Gilly and Gelb, 1982; Hart, Heskett, and Sasser, 1990; Hocutt, Chakraborty, and Mowen, 1997; Kelley and Davis, 1994; Kelley, Hoffman and Davis, 1993; McCollough and Bharadwaj, 1992; Michel, 2001; Chrage, 2001; Smith and Bolton, 1998; Spreng, Harrell, and Mackoy, 1995; Tax, Brown, and Chandrashekaran, 1998) support the notion of a ‘recovery paradox’ which states that the occurrence of a failure may, if the recovery is effective, offer an opportunity to acquire higher satisfaction ratings from customers than if the failure had never happened. While a number of researchers have provided evidence in support of the recovery paradox, several recent studies (Andreassen, 2001; Maxham, 2001; Maxham and Netemeyer, 2002; McCollough et al. 2000) have failed to find such support. This dissertation theoretically and empirically examines factors which moderate the occurrence of a ‘recovery paradox’ in the event of a service failure. The research findings indicate that, under appropriate conditions, a customer can experience a paradoxical satisfaction increase after a service failure. One such condition entails the severity of the failure. That is, results indicate that it is unlikely that a first-rate redress initiative can return the satisfaction of a severe failure recipient to par. The findings of this investigation also reveal that a customer who has experienced a prior failure with the firm is less likely to be impressed by a superb recovery than a customer who has never encountered a problem with the service provider. In addition, customers are more forgiving of failures that occur during a process than mistakes that occur as part of the outcome. Furthermore, both control and stability intervene to affect the likelihood of increases in post-failure customer satisfaction. That is, people are more forgiving if they feel that the failure was not reasonably foreseeable to the service provider. Likewise, customers are more apt to exonerate the firm if they assess that the failure is unlikely to happen again. Lastly, this research found that control and relationship type interact to influence the probability of a recovery paradox. Specifically, customers in a true relationship are more likely to accept a low control explanation of the failure than customers in a pseudo-relationship with the firm

Empowering Catering Sales Managers with Pricing Authority

In the hotel business, catering sales managers often encounter potential clients who expect to negotiate for items such as room rental fees, audiovisual charges, and bartending fees. This article addresses both the advantages and disadvantages of empowering sales managers with the authority to reduce or waive these charges. Thus, hoteliers are advised to extend a structured yield management mindset into the hotel’s function-space area

A backward glance of who and what marketing scholars have been researching 1977-2002

Despite the diversity of all those involved within the marketing discipline, all have a stake in maximizing the advancement of marketing knowledge. Without a specific analysis it is difficult to reflect on where a field has been or where it might be heading. The purpose of this chapter is to examine who and what marketing scholars have been researching over the period 1977&ndash;2002 using content analysis. This chapter provides longitudinal benchmarking of the &lsquo;&lsquo;inputs&rsquo;&rsquo; (authors and institutions) and &lsquo;&lsquo;outputs&rsquo;&rsquo; (articles) examining the marketing literature in the four major marketing journals: the Journal of Marketing, the Journal of Marketing Research, the Journal of Consumer Research, and the Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science.<br /

Poising Frontline Service Providers for Success: An Integrative Review and Future Directions

ABSTRACT It has long been understood that frontline employees are a critical marketing tool in hospitality and tourism businesses. In fact, empirical research indicates that consumers often perceive the frontline employees with whom they interact as the company itsel

Understanding consumer services buyers based upon their purchase channel

Consumer services such as airlines and hotels include a proliferation of bookings through Internet-proprietary and Internet-third party sites. The other dominant channel for making airline and hotel purchases is via telephone. This research investigates differences in how buyers utilize the three channels in terms of internal and external price search, number of alternatives searched, brand loyalty, purchase frequency, risk of unavailability at the time of purchase, and Internet experience and usage. Results indicate that telephone buyers employ the least external search, consider the fewest number of alternatives during search, are the most brand loyal, are the most frequent buyers, and perceive the lowest level of risk of unavailability at the time of purchase. Conversely, Internet-third party buyers utilize the most external search, consider the largest number of alternatives, are the least brand loyal, are the least frequent buyers, and perceive the highest level of risk of unavailability. Managerial implications and suggestions for future research are provided.Brand loyalty Consumer services Information search Internet buying Purchase channels Purchase frequency