The dynamic outcomes of service recovery in tourism services: A latent growth modeling approach

Abstract

The cross-sectional focus of service recovery literature can lead to a static effect or snapshot view of consumer responses; however, the dynamic outcomes of service recovery should play an important role in driving performance. Using a longitudinal approach, this study focuses on the dynamic changes in customers’ psychological responses during service recovery events. This study provides strong evidence that customer forgiveness and attitudes shift positively when service recovery efforts increase rapidly. We also no difference in the initial value of customer forgiveness, whereas its rate of change rises sharply toward behavioral intentions. Interestingly, the mean of customer forgiveness drops between T1 and T2 and increases sharply again at T3 (constituting a U-shaped curve). In contrast, the mean of customer attitudes steadily increases from T1 to T3. Therefore, we demonstrate that customer forgiveness and attitude trajectories vary, and their impacts can be extended or diluted during service recovery events. Thus, our research highlights that dynamic pathways are essential because they significantly influence behavioral intentions beyond the impact of the static levels, resulting in dynamic pathways playing a fundamental role in driving recovery performance.