An examination of interactive effects of employees’ warmth and competence and service failure types on customer’s service recovery cooperation intention

Purpose: Drawing from the compensation effects in social cognition theory, this study aims to investigate the interactive effects of employees’ warmth and competence and service failure types on customer’s service recovery cooperation intention after a service failure and before service recovery is completed. Design/methodology/approach: This study used a scenario-based experiment with a 2 (high vs low) warmth × 2 (high vs low) competence × 2 (outcome failure vs process failure) service failure between-subjects design. Data were collected using an online panel. Findings: This study finds that employees’ low warmth and high competence in outcome failure situations and high warmth and low competence in process failure situations are most effective at increasing customers’ service recovery cooperation intention. The findings further suggest that customers’ cooperation intention is prone to tradeoffs between customers’ perceptions of employees’ warmth and competence as suggested by compensation effects in social cognition theory, such that the effectiveness of employees’ warmth (competence) is curtailed by employees’ competence (warmth). Practical implications: The findings of this study provide insights to hospitality managers for effective service recovery management. Hospitality companies can enhance customers’ behavioral intentions by training employees to demonstrate appropriate warmth and competence combination that meet customers’ expectations for a specific failure type. Originality/value: This study argues that customer’s service recovery cooperation intention depends on the combination of warmth and competence displayed by employees after a service failure. The expected combination of warmth and competence varies depending on the service failure context.