Marketing Letters

, Volume 27, Issue 1, pp 63–75 | Cite as

Powerlessness following service failure and its implications for service recovery

Article
First Online:

Abstract

This research examines whether service failure in hospitality settings reduces situational power and whether feelings of powerlessness have implications for service recovery efforts. Three studies demonstrated that service failure reduced consumers’ situational power, but only among those with high dispositional power motivation (studies 1 and 2). Moreover, those with high dispositional power motivation evinced greater satisfaction with service recovery efforts that involved status-enhancing compensation as opposed to utility-enhancing compensation (study 2), and when status-enhancing compensation was presented in public as opposed to in private (study 3). These findings suggest that consumers with high dispositional power motivation prefer service recovery attempts that counteract the feelings of powerlessness they experience from service failure. Service managers can benefit from these findings by understanding how feelings of power interact with service recovery efforts.

Keywords

Situational power Dispositional power motivation Service failure Service recovery 
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Copyright information

© Springer Science+Business Media New York 2014

Authors and Affiliations

  • Jimmy Wong
    • 1
  • Joshua D. Newton
    • 2
  • Fiona J. Newton
    • 3
  1. 1.Department of Marketing, Caulfield CampusMonash UniversityCaulfield EastAustralia
  2. 2.Office of the Pro Vice Chancellor, Faculty of Business and LawDeakin UniversityBurwoodAustralia
  3. 3.Department of Marketing, Peninsula CampusMonash UniversityFrankstonAustralia

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