Description
INTRODUCTION
Service failure is a widespread phenomenon in the hospitality and tourism industry. Yet few research has examined how customer identity many shapes their reaction after encountering service failure. The current research proposes that customers who have a global identity are more inclined than those who have a local identity to show forgiveness and reuse the service again in the future after a service failure. This is because forgiveness expression is a means of signaling power during consumption (Yao & Chao, 2019), and individuals with a salient global identity are more likely to think abstractly, which further increase one’s sense of power (Smith et al., 2008). Further, the severity of service failure may act as a moderator. This study uncovers a novel yet neglected factor shaping consumer experience after encountering service failure during consumption. Additionally, it will give business owners efficient marketing tactics. Additionally, it will give proprietors of businesses efficient marketing maneuvers.
METHODOLOGY
Study 1
A total of 200 participants will be recruited from the Credamo to join an online experimental study, in which they will be asked to watch a video regarding a service failure in a restaurant consumption scenario. After watching the video, participants will be asked to finish several questions regarding their opinions, including measurements about forgiveness (Ngan & Yu, 2019), reuse intention, and global (vs. local) identity (Tu et al., 2012), by utilizing well-established scales in previous literature.
Study 2
Participants in this study will first be randomly assigned into either the global or local identity condition. The identity will be manipulated in accordance with previous research by having participants write down their initials in support of a restaurant’s “Think Local Movement” or “Think Global Movement” campaign while they are traveling. This will be followed by manipulation checks of participants’ perceptions of their local and global identities (Nie et al., 2022). Subsequently, a scenario illustrating the service failure during dining was shown to the participants. After then, participants are asked to complete measurements on sense of power (Sembada et al., 2016), forgiveness, and word-of-mouth (Honora et al., 2022).
Study 3
This study featured a 2 (identity: global vs. local) × 2 (failure severity: low vs. high) between-subjects experimental design. Participants were primed with the identity as in study 2. Next, participants will be shown a scenario illustrating the service failure occurring in online hotel booking platform, varying in the severity. After that, participants respond to the same questionnaires used in Study 2 to gauge their intentions for reuse (Maxham, 2001), forgiveness, and sense of power.
REFERENCES
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Nie, X., Yang, Z., Zhang, Y., & Janakiraman, N. (2022). How Does Global–Local Identity Affect Consumer Preference for Access-Based Consumption? Investigating the Mediating Role of Consumption Openness. Journal of Marketing Research, 59(3), 555-577.
Ngan, H. F. B., & Yu, C. E. (2019). To smile or not to smile–an eye-tracking study on service recovery. Current Issues in Tourism, 22(19), 2327-2332.
Sembada, A., Tsarenko, Y., & Tojib, D. (2016). The positive effects of customers’ power on their behavioral responses after service failure. Journal of Service Research, 19(3), 337-351.
Smith, P. K., Wigboldus, D. H., & Dijksterhuis, A. P. (2008). Abstract thinking increases one’s sense of power. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 44(2), 378-385.
Tu, L., Khare, A., & Zhang, Y. (2012). A short 8-item scale for measuring consumers’ local–global identity. International Journal of Research in Marketing, 29(1), 35-42.
Yao, D. J., & Chao, M. M. (2019). When forgiveness signals power: Effects of forgiveness expression and forgiver gender. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 45(2), 310-324.
