Identifying aggressive versus ethical sales supervision in B2B service recovery: a multilevel perspective

PurposeThe current research provides a conceptual framework that explains how sales managers' aggression across business-to-business (B2B) sales organizations triggers salespeople's surface acting, deep acting and service recovery performance. It also investigates the moderating role of ethical leadership through sales managers' aggressiveness on service recovery performance.Design/methodology/approachThe authors test the model using multilevel analysis with cross-sectional data of 367 salespeople from different sales organizations.FindingsThe study shows that the aggression of sales managers has an adverse influence on service recovery performance. Additionally, aggressiveness among sales managers is positively connected with surface acting while adversely affecting deep acting. The study’s findings also indicate that ethical sales leadership is positively moderate among sales managers' aggressiveness and service recovery performance.Research limitations/implicationsThe authors collected data from individual salespersons, which is the limitation; however, future studies could collect data using the dyadic approach, such as matching responses from both managers and salespersons. This method could enhance the model's internal validity.Originality/valueSeveral studies have mainly focused on positive supervision styles in the literature on service recovery. At the same time, building a negative supervision model in the B2B service recovery context, which has been persistently ignored, is noteworthy.

THE IMPORTANCE OF PERSONALITY TRAITS ON SERVICE RECOVERY PERFORMANCE IN THE HOTEL INDUSTRY OF MALAYSIA

Service recovery in the hotel industry is really valuable as it ensures the happiness and loyalty of consumers. In addition to intensive jobs, lengthy and unpredictable working hours and routines are the standards for hotel workers, which could give a significant effect on the job efficiency of the hotel staff. Regarding the efficiency of service recovery, a large number of studies have been published. The number of studies on personality characteristics for the success of service recovery, however, is small. This present research was carried out to provide a conceptual framework for future researchers to explore and give empirical evidence that exists between personality traits and service recovery performance among hotel workers in Malaysia based on the problems and study gaps in this industry. Five functions of personality characteristics were included in this conceptual work; extraversion, conscientiousness, agreeableness, emotional stability and openness to experience on service recovery performance. In conclusion, the outcomes could lead to the relevance of service recovery performance in the hotel industry.

Service recovery performance and repurchase intentions: the mediation effect of service quality at KFC

PurposeThis paper investigates the effects of service quality on customer satisfaction and repurchase intentions among customers of the KFC Fast Food Restaurant Chains.Design/methodology/approachIn total, 500 randomly sampled KFC restaurant customers were surveyed using a quantitative research design. The partial least square technique was used for data analysis.FindingsThis paper shows that service quality and recovery directly impact customers' repurchase intention. The results further showed that a positive and significant connection exists between customer satisfaction and repurchase intentions.Practical implicationsThe study recommends that KFC utilizes service quality dimensions to meet their customers' expectations and elicit repurchase intentions necessary to remain competitive in the fast-food industry.Originality/valueThis paper highlights the impact of service quality in developing loyal customers in the fast-food sector. It offers managers insight into understanding the factors positively impacting repurchase intentions and the nexus between service recovery performance and repurchase intentions from an emerging market perspective.

Predicting Service Recovery Performance through Job Crafting Perception and Behaviour: Does Proactivity Make a Difference?

The central aim of this study is to investigate whether the proactive personality (PP) of frontline service employees moderates the impact of perceived opportunity to craft (POC) on actual job crafting (JC) behaviour. We also examine the consequent effect of JC on employee work engagement (WE) and perceived service recovery performance (SRP). Primary data collected from 624 dyads of Indian frontline banking employees and their immediate colleagues (peers) formed the basis of empirical analysis. Data on JC perception, WE and JC behaviour was self-reported by the employees. On the other hand, peer-rating was invited for frontline employees’ PP and recovery performance. Empirical results indicated that the likelihood of POC resulting in actual JC is significantly higher for proactive employees in comparison to their reactive counterparts. The results also suggest that JC nurtures WE which, in turn, enhances SRP.

The Antecedents and Consequences of Service Recovery Performance of Frontline Employees: A Study of Vietnam Retailing Industry

Previous studies on service recovery performance have merely focused on identifying the factors which affect it from the service provider side. This study investigates the effect of customer participation on Vietnam retailing service recovery performance. A structural model was developed and tested using data surveyed from 231 respondents who were currently full-time employees in Vietnam retailers. The results show that the more customer participation which frontline employees perceive, the more effective the service recovery they perform. Moreover, the results indicate that the more effective service recovery which frontline employees perform, the less stress they confront. Empowerment of and training for employees have an equivalent impact on the service recovery performance of frontline employees. However, there is no significant relationship between service recovery performance and intention to leave frontline employees.

Understanding the Antecedents and Consequences of Service-Sales Ambidexterity: A Motivation-Opportunity-Ability (MOA) Framework

Drawing on the motivation, opportunity and ability (MOA) framework, we investigate the influence of charismatic leadership on salespeople’s service and sales activities—termed service-sales ambidextrous (SSA) behavior, which subsequently turn into service recovery performance outcomes. The primary aim of this research is to strengthen salespeople’s service quality in parallel to their selling activities while recovering a service failure. We validate the model using a sample of 344 business-to-business salespeople using partial least square structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) technique. Study results show that charismatic leadership is positively and significantly related to service-sales ambidexterity. Likewise, service-sales ambidexterity has a positive and significant relationship with service recovery performance and adaptive selling behavior. Moreover, we found a significant relationship between adaptive selling behavior and service recovery performance. The results further specify that salesperson motivation, opportunity and ability to engage in SSA significantly moderate the relationship between charismatic leadership and service-sales ambidexterity. The results suggest the need for training programs that provide the salesperson with opportunities to understand the simultaneous implementation of selling strategies while also providing customer services.

Pengaruh Authentic Leadership terhadap Customer-Oriented Organizational Citizenship Behavior dan Service Recovery Performance melalui Job Crafting dan HR Flexibility

This study aims to determine and explain the effect of authentic leadership on service recovery performance and customer-oriented organizational citizenship behavior (Co-OCB) through job crafting and HR flexibility at a telecommunication company, PT. Telkom Indonesia in Surabaya region. This research is causality research with a quantitative approach”the sampling technique used non-probability sampling, namely purposive sampling. Statistical analysis used Partial Least Square (PLS) with SmartPLS 3.0 software. This study explains that authentic leadership does not affect customer-oriented OCB and service recovery performance. Then Co-OCB does not have any effect in mediating the relationship between authentic leadership and service recovery performance. However, job crafting has been shown to mediate the relationship between authentic leadership and Co-OCB and service recovery performance. HR flexibility is not proven in moderating the relationship between authentic leadership and job crafting in the context of high flexibility.

Role of Internal Marketing Practices in the Service Recovery Performance of Call Center Employees

The purpose of this study was to investigate whether the internal marketing philosophy is applicable to call centers operating in Pakistan. This study attempted to investigate the role of internal marketing practices assess through internal communication (Huang & Rundle-Thiele, 2014), employee rewards (Boshoff & Allen, 2000), employee training (Boshoff & Allen, 2000), and employee empowerment (Yavas, Karatepe, Avci, & Tekinkus, 2003) on the service recovery performance (Boshoff & Allen, 2000) of call center employees working in inbound telecom call centers. Primary data were collected through a self-administered questionnaire from 15 telecom call centers located in three major cities namely Karachi, Lahore, and Islamabad. A simple random sampling technique was implemented to collect data from 318 male and female respondents. Results showed that internal communication, employee rewards and employee training were positively linked with service recovery performance, while a nonsignificant relationship was found between employee empowerment and service recovery performance. Results revealed that internal marketing practices influence toward frontline employee’s service recovery performance. Findings suggested that the call centers operating in the Asian region, especially, in Pakistan, should focus on internal marketing practices to enhance the service recovery performance of the frontline employees.