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

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

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.

Bibliometrics, Hospitality and tourism, Recovery management, Service failure, Service recovery, Text mining
0959-6119
186-217
Akarsu, Tugra
55dfe523-451c-47d2-a912-4beca0c1dced
Marvi, Reza
4e6d71b4-0a72-45cd-bdee-eb37f4e2fb05
Foroudi, Pantea
c237afb7-4c2a-4b96-87c4-4263f2c49ce8
Akarsu, Tugra
55dfe523-451c-47d2-a912-4beca0c1dced
Marvi, Reza
4e6d71b4-0a72-45cd-bdee-eb37f4e2fb05
Foroudi, Pantea
c237afb7-4c2a-4b96-87c4-4263f2c49ce8

Akarsu, Tugra, Marvi, Reza and Foroudi, Pantea (2023) Service failure research in the hospitality and tourism industry: A synopsis of past, present and future dynamics from 2001 to 2020. International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management, 35 (1), 186-217. (doi:10.1108/IJCHM-11-2021-1441).

Record type: Article

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.

Text
Paper-Service failure research in the hospitality and tourism industry_IJCHM Accepted 2022
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More information

Accepted/In Press date: 19 August 2022
e-pub ahead of print date: 19 August 2022
Published date: 2 January 2023
Additional Information: Funding Information: The authors are grateful to the Editor-in-Chief for his support during the submission, review, and acceptance journey. Also, their thanks go out to Atif Iqbal for his contributions to the data collection process. All three authors have been involved in all the research processes from the conceptual development of the paper to the writing-up stage. Publisher Copyright: © 2022, Emerald Publishing Limited.
Keywords: Bibliometrics, Hospitality and tourism, Recovery management, Service failure, Service recovery, Text mining

Identifiers

Local EPrints ID: 471318
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/471318
ISSN: 0959-6119
PURE UUID: 092df91f-6e15-45b6-97e1-97404f44d156
ORCID for Tugra Akarsu: ORCID iD orcid.org/0000-0003-0491-3707

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Date deposited: 03 Nov 2022 17:31
Last modified: 17 Mar 2024 03:58

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Contributors

Author: Tugra Akarsu ORCID iD
Author: Reza Marvi
Author: Pantea Foroudi

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