The role of collective angst during and after a service failure

Abstract

Purpose - To examine the role of collective angst, the concern about the future viability of one’s group, during service failure and recovery.Design/methodology/approach - To test this objective we utilize an experiment to examine how Kuwaitis react to service failures when the front line employee is a foreigner.Findings - The results indicate that collective angst is associated with greater anger following a service failure. We also find that collective angst moderates the impact of cultural distance on anger and recommendation intentions following a service failure recovery attempt. More specifically, cultural distance leads to greater anger and lower intentions to recommend a service establishment for consumers that experience greater collective angst.Originality/value - Our research provides a first attempt at examining how locals consumers react to foreigner service providers, by examining how concern about the future vitality of one’s national group, in other word collective angst affects such reactions.