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

Chenyu Zhang, Junkyu Park, Mark A. Bonn and Meehee Cho
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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

Sustainability, 2021, vol. 13, issue 6, 1-19

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.

Keywords: service failures; Guanxi; direct complaints; negative word-of-mouth; switching intentions; revisit intentions; sustained restaurant businesses (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

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