Xamining revenge and forgiveness intentions in response to service failures: Insights from the hospitality industry

Purpose – This study examines the impact of recovery methods and service failure severity on revenge and forgiveness intentions following service failures, within the framework of appraisal theory. Methodology/Design/Approach – A recall approach was employed to conduct online surveys, prompting respondents to reflect on service failures experienced in the past six months. The collected data was analyzed using structural equation modeling. Findings – The study found that apology, compensation, and failure severity influence the recovery satisfaction. This, in turn, has a positive effect on forgiveness intentions and a negative effect on revenge intentions. Moreover, failure severity negatively affects forgiveness intentions and positively affects revenge intentions. In terms of forgiveness intentions, recovery satisfaction is more influential, while in terms of revenge intentions, failure severity is more influential. Originality of the research – This research provides new insights into consumer forgiveness and revenge intentions in the hospitality context, with a particular focus on the effect of failure severity, which has been neglected in previous studies.