Relationship between Attribution Theory, recovery satisfaction, repurchase intention and positive WOM: Evidence from hospitality sector

Due to the process-intensive structure of the service, the relatively high customer-employee interaction, and the simultaneous production-consumption features, some failures are encountered during the service delivery process. These unfavorable situation, which are called service failure in the literature, are a situation that every service business encounters and cannot completely eliminate. Firms' reactions with the aim of rebuilding customer satisfaction after any service failure are called service recovery strategies. The fact that service failures cannot be completely prevented and the dissatisfaction of customers who experience service failures can be managed by applying service compensation strategies, increasing the importance of these concepts for service businesses. In this context, it is fruitful field to investigate and to expand the existing literature by considering two concepts, service failure and service recovery, which are vital especially for service businesses, in the context of different theories. For this purpose, in the study, the concepts of service failure and service compensation are discussed on the basis of attribution theory. The effect of customer attributions on recovery satisfaction after service failures experienced in accommodation establishments and the effect of recovery satisfaction on customer repurchase intention and positive word-of-mouth communication are examined in this study. The scenario method is used and a total of eight scenarios are created in which the sub-dimensions of the attribution theory are manipulated. The sample of the study consists of 377 participants in total and the scenarios are presented to them via a questionnaire. The structural equation model is used to test hypotheses. According to the results, controllability and persistence of failure, which are sub-dimensions of attribution theory, have a moderately positive effect on recovery satisfaction while the source of the failure has a moderately negative effect on recovery satisfaction. Moreover, the source of the failure has a strong negative effect on repurchase intention and positive word of mouth. Last but not least, it is observed that recovery satisfaction has strong positive effect on positive word of mouth and repurchase intention.