Publication Date

3-1-2011

Document Type

Customer relationship and experience marketing

Abstract

The delivery of services involves unique characteristics that can lead to suboptimal service quality, or service failures, in the eyes of consumers. Service failures are to some extent inevitable and often poorly handled by service delivery staff, resulting in significant losses for organizations. It is therefore critical that service firms better understand how to effectively recover from these situations. An extension to an existing research program (Weber & Sparks, 2009; Weber, Hsu & Sparks, 2010a; 2010b), the proposed study draws on acculturation theory to establish responses to service failures and recovery strategies by hotels of Chinese consumers living in a Western country (United States) who exhibit differing levels of acculturation - an area thus far largely ignored by researchers. Furthermore, this research examines the combined effects of consumers’ pre-consumption mood and justice strategies that potentially threaten consumers’ identity. Thus, this research is unique in that it 1) explores the impact of culture in service failure/recovery situations beyond the prevalent Western/Asian consumer differentiation, and 2) shifts the focus from examining consumers’ affective states resulting from a service failure event to those prior it, recognizing the fact that service failure events are often part of a broader travel experience. Data collection will involve an experimental design. Research results will make significant theoretical and practical contributions.