Unravelling the Influence of Service Failure on Negative Customer Engagement: the Moderating Role of Service Recovery

Abstract

This study examines negative customer engagement through the influences of service failure, service recovery, (dis)satisfaction with service recovery, and perceived severity of service failure by adopting a mixed-method approach. Based on the qualitative study which identified the most frequent service failures and recoveries in hotels, a scenario-based experiment was designed to test the proposed relationships. The results show that service failure impacts the perceived severity of service failure but is contingent upon the type of service recovery. (Dis) satisfaction with service recovery, which is influenced by perceived severity of service failure determines negative customer engagement. Moreover, the relationships among the perceived severity of service failure, (dis) satisfaction with service recovery, and disengaged behaviour are curvilinear.