IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jsusta/v13y2021i6p3581-d522744.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Understanding Customer Responses to Service Failures during the COVID-19 Pandemic for Sustained Restaurant Businesses: Focusing on Guanxi

Author

Listed:
  • Chenyu Zhang

    (College of Hotel and Tourism Management, Kyung Hee University, 26 Kyungheedae-ro, Dongdaemun-gu, Seoul 02447, Korea)

  • Junkyu Park

    (College of Hotel and Tourism Management, Kyung Hee University, 26 Kyungheedae-ro, Dongdaemun-gu, Seoul 02447, Korea)

  • Mark A. Bonn

    (Dedman School of Hospitality and Tourism Management, Florida State University, 288 Champions Way, Tallahassee, FL 32306-2541, USA)

  • Meehee Cho

    (College of Hotel and Tourism Management, Kyung Hee University, 26 Kyungheedae-ro, Dongdaemun-gu, Seoul 02447, Korea)

Abstract

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, restaurants worldwide, including China, have been forced to protect public health by following food safety standards and adapting to the necessary social distancing practices. Accordingly, restaurant diners who are concerned about food safety and unsure of whether it is truly safe to dine out, put more importance on the entire stages of service consumption. Restaurants must make their best efforts to minimize service failures in their service provision process and outcomes. Given that customers from different cultures are reported to evaluate service quality differently, this study was designed to investigate what actions Chinese customers who encounter service failures would take under the influence of Guanxi . Guanxi represents Chinese attitudes towards long-term individual and business relationships and ultimately involves moral obligations and mutual favors. Analyzing our structural equation model using 439 responses obtained from Chinese diners, this study determined that Chinese consumers would react differently in the service process failures and outcome failures in terms of negative word-of-mouth, direct complaints, switching intention, and revisit intention. More importantly, this study confirmed the significant moderating effects of Guanxi within the proposed relationships. Based on the study’s findings, useful implications are provided for academics and practitioners regarding sustained restaurant businesses.

Suggested Citation

  • Chenyu Zhang & Junkyu Park & Mark A. Bonn & Meehee Cho, 2021. "Understanding Customer Responses to Service Failures during the COVID-19 Pandemic for Sustained Restaurant Businesses: Focusing on Guanxi," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(6), pages 1-19, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:13:y:2021:i:6:p:3581-:d:522744
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/13/6/3581/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/13/6/3581/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Seung Ho Park & Yadong Luo, 2001. "Guanxi and organizational dynamics: organizational networking in Chinese firms," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 22(5), pages 455-477, May.
    2. Ramasamy, Bala & Goh, K.W. & Yeung, Matthew C.H., 2006. "Is Guanxi (relationship) a bridge to knowledge transfer?," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 59(1), pages 130-139, January.
    3. Liu, Zhiwei & Park, Sangwon, 2015. "What makes a useful online review? Implication for travel product websites," Tourism Management, Elsevier, vol. 47(C), pages 140-151.
    4. Zeelenberg, M. & Pieters, R., 2004. "Beyond valence in customer dissatisfaction : A review and new findings on behavioral responses to regret and disappointment in failed services," Other publications TiSEM 7bfb4aa9-cba7-4786-850d-1, Tilburg University, School of Economics and Management.
    5. Aihie Osarenkhoe & Mabel Birungi Komunda & Jotham Mbiito Byarugaba, 2017. "Service Quality as a Mediator of Customer Complaint Behaviour and Customer Loyalty," International Review of Management and Marketing, Econjournals, vol. 7(1), pages 197-208.
    6. Mandl, Leonhard & Hogreve, Jens, 2020. "Buffering effects of brand community identification in service failures: The role of customer citizenship behaviors," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 107(C), pages 130-137.
    7. Yang, Hui & Chen, Jing & Chen, Xu & Chen, Bintong, 2017. "The impact of customer returns in a supply chain with a common retailer," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 256(1), pages 139-150.
    8. Gupta, Pranjal & Harris, Judy, 2010. "How e-WOM recommendations influence product consideration and quality of choice: A motivation to process information perspective," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 63(9-10), pages 1041-1049, September.
    9. Zeelenberg, Marcel & Pieters, Rik, 2004. "Beyond valence in customer dissatisfaction: A review and new findings on behavioral responses to regret and disappointment in failed services," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 57(4), pages 445-455, April.
    10. Zhao, Shengnan (Nancy) & Timothy, Dallen J., 2015. "Governance of red tourism in China: Perspectives on power and guanxi," Tourism Management, Elsevier, vol. 46(C), pages 489-500.
    11. Chen, Ching-Fu & Phou, Sambath, 2013. "A closer look at destination: Image, personality, relationship and loyalty," Tourism Management, Elsevier, vol. 36(C), pages 269-278.
    12. Liu, Chih-Hsing Sam & Lee, Tingko, 2016. "Service quality and price perception of service: Influence on word-of-mouth and revisit intention," Journal of Air Transport Management, Elsevier, vol. 52(C), pages 42-54.
    13. Filieri, Raffaele, 2015. "What makes online reviews helpful? A diagnosticity-adoption framework to explain informational and normative influences in e-WOM," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 68(6), pages 1261-1270.
    14. Mittal, Vikas & Huppertz, John W. & Khare, Adwait, 2008. "Customer complaining: The role of tie strength and information control," Journal of Retailing, Elsevier, vol. 84(2), pages 195-204.
    15. Mohr, Lois A. & Bitner, Mary Jo, 1995. "The role of employee effort in satisfaction with service transactions," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 32(3), pages 239-252, March.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Agata Balińska & Wioletta Olejniczak, 2021. "Experiences of Polish Tourists Traveling for Leisure Purposes during the COVID-19 Pandemic," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(21), pages 1-14, October.
    2. Koc, Erdogan & Hatipoglu, Sercan & Kivrak, Oguzhan & Celik, Cemal & Koc, Kaan, 2023. "Houston, we have a problem!: The use of ChatGPT in responding to customer complaints," Technology in Society, Elsevier, vol. 74(C).

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. White, Allyn & Breazeale, Michael & Collier, Joel E., 2012. "The Effects of Perceived Fairness on Customer Responses to Retailer SST Push Policies," Journal of Retailing, Elsevier, vol. 88(2), pages 250-261.
    2. Dongpu Fu & Yili Hong & Kanliang Wang & Weiguo Fan, 2018. "Effects of membership tier on user content generation behaviors: evidence from online reviews," Electronic Commerce Research, Springer, vol. 18(3), pages 457-483, September.
    3. Hinz, Vera & Drevs, Florian & Wehner, Jürgen, 2012. "Electronic word of mouth about medical services," hche Research Papers 2012/05, University of Hamburg, Hamburg Center for Health Economics (hche).
    4. Shaohua Yang & Salmi Mohd Isa & T. Ramayah, 2020. "A Theoretical Framework to Explain the Impact of Destination Personality, Self-Congruity, and Tourists’ Emotional Experience on Behavioral Intention," SAGE Open, , vol. 10(4), pages 21582440209, December.
    5. Raffaele Filieri & Elisabetta Raguseo & Claudio Vitari, 2018. "What moderates the influence of extremely negative ratings? The role of review and reviewer characteristics," Grenoble Ecole de Management (Post-Print) halshs-01923196, HAL.
    6. Ryan W. Buell & Tami Kim & Chia-Jung Tsay, 2017. "Creating Reciprocal Value Through Operational Transparency," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 63(6), pages 1673-1695, June.
    7. Cambra-Fierro, Jesus & Melero, Iguacel & Sese, F. Javier, 2015. "Managing Complaints to Improve Customer Profitability," Journal of Retailing, Elsevier, vol. 91(1), pages 109-124.
    8. Raffaele Filieri & Elisabetta Raguseo & Claudio Vitari, 2018. "What moderates the influence of extremely negative ratings? The role of review and reviewer characteristics," Post-Print halshs-01923196, HAL.
    9. Barari, Mojtaba & Ross, Mitchell & Surachartkumtonkun, Jiraporn, 2020. "Negative and positive customer shopping experience in an online context," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 53(C).
    10. Tari Kasnakoglu, Berna & Yilmaz, Cengiz & Varnali, Kaan, 2016. "An asymmetric configural model approach for understanding complainer emotions and loyalty," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 69(9), pages 3659-3672.
    11. Jayasimha, K.R. & Srivastava, Himanshu S., 2017. "Consumer advocacy: Examining the feeling and doing following a failed service encounter," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 34(C), pages 201-208.
    12. Heejung Ro, 2014. "Complaint, patience, and neglect: responses to a dissatisfying service experience," Service Business, Springer;Pan-Pacific Business Association, vol. 8(2), pages 197-216, June.
    13. Haase, Janina & Wiedmann, Klaus-Peter & Labenz, Franziska, 2022. "Brand hate, rage, anger & co.: Exploring the relevance and characteristics of negative consumer emotions toward brands," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 152(C), pages 1-16.
    14. Moradi, Masoud & Dass, Mayukh & Kumar, Piyush, 2023. "Differential effects of analytical versus emotional rhetorical style on review helpfulness," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 154(C).
    15. McColl-Kennedy, Janet R. & Patterson, Paul G. & Smith, Amy K. & Brady, Michael K., 2009. "Customer Rage Episodes: Emotions, Expressions and Behaviors," Journal of Retailing, Elsevier, vol. 85(2), pages 222-237.
    16. Hasan Al-Banna & Izra Berakon, 2024. "From bank to P2P lending: switching intention of SME’s: evidence from Indonesia," Journal of Financial Services Marketing, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 29(2), pages 568-581, June.
    17. Haithem Zourrig & Jean-Charles Chebat & Roy Toffoli & Alexandra Medina-Borja, 2014. "Customers’ coping with interpersonal conflicts in intra and inter-cultural service encounters," AMS Review, Springer;Academy of Marketing Science, vol. 4(1), pages 21-31, June.
    18. Wang, Saerom & Kirillova, Ksenia & Lehto, Xinran, 2017. "Reconciling unsatisfying tourism experiences: Message type effectiveness and the role of counterfactual thinking," Tourism Management, Elsevier, vol. 60(C), pages 233-243.
    19. Wedel, Michel & Bigné, Enrique & Zhang, Jie, 2020. "Virtual and augmented reality: Advancing research in consumer marketing," International Journal of Research in Marketing, Elsevier, vol. 37(3), pages 443-465.
    20. Yi Zhang & Zigang Zhang, 2006. "Guanxi and organizational dynamics in China: a link between individual and organizational levels," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 67(4), pages 375-392, September.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:13:y:2021:i:6:p:3581-:d:522744. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.