Professional paper
https://doi.org/10.20867/thm.31.4.9
Examining revenge and forgiveness intentions in response to service failures: Insights from the hospitality industry
Engin Tengi̇li̇moğlu
orcid.org/0000-0001-7080-6147
; Assist. Prof., Lecturer, B.A.A. Tourism Faculty/ Selcuk University, Department of Tourism Management Turkey
Abstract
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.
Keywords
Service Failures; Revenge Intentions; Forgiveness Intentions; Failure Severity
Hrčak ID:
341794
URI
Publication date:
19.12.2025.
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