Hospitality service failures: Who will be more dissatisfied?

This research examines consumer responses to process and outcome failures in two hospitality settings, a hotel and a restaurant. Converging evidence from two experiments indicates that dissatisfaction with service failures reflects the joint influence of failure type and value orientation. Specifically, a face-conscious value that emphasizes a positive public self-image has an aggravating effect on dissatisfaction, and the effect is stronger for process failures. In contrast, a fate-submissive value that conduces fatalistic thinking has an attenuating effect on dissatisfaction, and the effect is stronger for outcome failures. These results have broad implications for hospitality research and practice, especially in the areas of service quality management and target marketing.