Este trabalho tem como objetivo principal investigar o efeito da sinalização de qualidade na expectativa de recuperação ante uma falha no contexto de serviços. As expectativas de recuperação são as crenças que os clientes têm sobre o nível de recuperação adequado depois de uma falha no serviço, e a percepção de qualidade é considerada um dos seus antecedentes. A teoria da sinalização indica que os sinais são ações que a empresa pode realizar para transmitir informações sobre a qualidade dos seus produtos. Assim a sinalização, ao afetar a qualidade percebida, também afetaria a expectativa de recuperação que o cliente pode ter do serviço. Neste trabalho foram utilizadas como variáveis sinalizadoras o preço e a responsividade. O controle comportamental percebido, entendido como a percepção do indivíduo sobre sua habilidade para realizar um comportamento, é proposto como moderador da relação entre as variáveis sinalizadoras e a qualidade percebida. Foram conduzidos dois estudos experimentais de desenho fatorial e intersujeitos para se testar as hipóteses formuladas com base na literatura. Os experimentos contaram com a participação de 116 e 220 estudantes de graduação, respectivamente. No primeiro experimento foram manipuladas as variáveis preço e responsividade; no segundo experimento foi adicionado a essas variáveis o controle comportamental percebido para-se verificar seu efeito moderador. Os resultados demonstram que a sinalização de qualidade através das variáveis preço e responsividade afetam a qualidade percebida e a expectativa de recuperação dos clientes ante uma falha. O segundo estudo suporta a hipótese envolvendo a moderação do controle comportamental percebido na relação entre a variável sinalizadora preço e a qualidade percebida. Estes resultados e as implicações encontradas são finalmente discutidos no capítulo de considerações finais. / The main purpose of this research is to investigate the effect of signal quality in the recovery expectation after a service failure. Recovery expectations are customer beliefs about proper levels of compensation after service failure, and this is preceded by the quality perception. The signaling theory states that signals are firms actions that can be performed to communicate information about the quality of a product. Thus signaling by affecting the perceived quality also affects customer recovery expectation. This study explores the signaling effects of price and responsiveness. The perceived behavior control, regarded as the individual perception over the ability to perform a behavior, was proposed as a moderator between signaling variables and perceived quality. Two experimental studies with factorial design and between subjects were conducted in order to test the hypotheses formulated based on the literature review. These experiments were performed with 116 and 220 undergraduate students. For the first experiment price and responsiveness variables were manipulated; for the second one, perceived behavior control was added to verify its moderation impact. Results show that signaling quality through price and responsiveness can affect perceived quality and it affects the customer recovery expectation after a failure. The second experiment supports the hypothesis of the perceived behavior control moderation between price as a signaling variable and the perceived quality. These results and their implications are discussed in the chapter of concluding remarks.

Este trabalho tem como objetivo principal investigar o efeito da sinalização de qualidade na expectativa de recuperação ante uma falha no contexto de serviços. As expectativas de recuperação são as crenças que os clientes têm sobre o nível de recuperação adequado depois de uma falha no serviço, e a percepção de qualidade é considerada um dos seus antecedentes. A teoria da sinalização indica que os sinais são ações que a empresa pode realizar para transmitir informações sobre a qualidade dos seus produtos. Assim a sinalização, ao afetar a qualidade percebida, também afetaria a expectativa de recuperação que o cliente pode ter do serviço. Neste trabalho foram utilizadas como variáveis sinalizadoras o preço e a responsividade. O controle comportamental percebido, entendido como a percepção do indivíduo sobre sua habilidade para realizar um comportamento, é proposto como moderador da relação entre as variáveis sinalizadoras e a qualidade percebida. Foram conduzidos dois estudos experimentais de desenho fatorial e intersujeitos para se testar as hipóteses formuladas com base na literatura. Os experimentos contaram com a participação de 116 e 220 estudantes de graduação, respectivamente. No primeiro experimento foram manipuladas as variáveis preço e responsividade; no segundo experimento foi adicionado a essas variáveis o controle comportamental percebido para-se verificar seu efeito moderador. Os resultados demonstram que a sinalização de qualidade através das variáveis preço e responsividade afetam a qualidade percebida e a expectativa de recuperação dos clientes ante uma falha. O segundo estudo suporta a hipótese envolvendo a moderação do controle comportamental percebido na relação entre a variável sinalizadora preço e a qualidade percebida. Estes resultados e as implicações encontradas são finalmente discutidos no capítulo de considerações finais. / The main purpose of this research is to investigate the effect of signal quality in the recovery expectation after a service failure. Recovery expectations are customer beliefs about proper levels of compensation after service failure, and this is preceded by the quality perception. The signaling theory states that signals are firms actions that can be performed to communicate information about the quality of a product. Thus signaling by affecting the perceived quality also affects customer recovery expectation. This study explores the signaling effects of price and responsiveness. The perceived behavior control, regarded as the individual perception over the ability to perform a behavior, was proposed as a moderator between signaling variables and perceived quality. Two experimental studies with factorial design and between subjects were conducted in order to test the hypotheses formulated based on the literature review. These experiments were performed with 116 and 220 undergraduate students. For the first experiment price and responsiveness variables were manipulated; for the second one, perceived behavior control was added to verify its moderation impact. Results show that signaling quality through price and responsiveness can affect perceived quality and it affects the customer recovery expectation after a failure. The second experiment supports the hypothesis of the perceived behavior control moderation between price as a signaling variable and the perceived quality. These results and their implications are discussed in the chapter of concluding remarks.

Este trabalho tem como objetivo principal investigar o efeito da sinalização de qualidade na expectativa de recuperação ante uma falha no contexto de serviços. As expectativas de recuperação são as crenças que os clientes têm sobre o nível de recuperação adequado depois de uma falha no serviço, e a percepção de qualidade é considerada um dos seus antecedentes. A teoria da sinalização indica que os sinais são ações que a empresa pode realizar para transmitir informações sobre a qualidade dos seus produtos. Assim a sinalização, ao afetar a qualidade percebida, também afetaria a expectativa de recuperação que o cliente pode ter do serviço. Neste trabalho foram utilizadas como variáveis sinalizadoras o preço e a responsividade. O controle comportamental percebido, entendido como a percepção do indivíduo sobre sua habilidade para realizar um comportamento, é proposto como moderador da relação entre as variáveis sinalizadoras e a qualidade percebida. Foram conduzidos dois estudos experimentais de desenho fatorial e intersujeitos para se testar as hipóteses formuladas com base na literatura. Os experimentos contaram com a participação de 116 e 220 estudantes de graduação, respectivamente. No primeiro experimento foram manipuladas as variáveis preço e responsividade; no segundo experimento foi adicionado a essas variáveis o controle comportamental percebido para-se verificar seu efeito moderador. Os resultados demonstram que a sinalização de qualidade através das variáveis preço e responsividade afetam a qualidade percebida e a expectativa de recuperação dos clientes ante uma falha. O segundo estudo suporta a hipótese envolvendo a moderação do controle comportamental percebido na relação entre a variável sinalizadora preço e a qualidade percebida. Estes resultados e as implicações encontradas são finalmente discutidos no capítulo de considerações finais. / The main purpose of this research is to investigate the effect of signal quality in the recovery expectation after a service failure. Recovery expectations are customer beliefs about proper levels of compensation after service failure, and this is preceded by the quality perception. The signaling theory states that signals are firms actions that can be performed to communicate information about the quality of a product. Thus signaling by affecting the perceived quality also affects customer recovery expectation. This study explores the signaling effects of price and responsiveness. The perceived behavior control, regarded as the individual perception over the ability to perform a behavior, was proposed as a moderator between signaling variables and perceived quality. Two experimental studies with factorial design and between subjects were conducted in order to test the hypotheses formulated based on the literature review. These experiments were performed with 116 and 220 undergraduate students. For the first experiment price and responsiveness variables were manipulated; for the second one, perceived behavior control was added to verify its moderation impact. Results show that signaling quality through price and responsiveness can affect perceived quality and it affects the customer recovery expectation after a failure. The second experiment supports the hypothesis of the perceived behavior control moderation between price as a signaling variable and the perceived quality. These results and their implications are discussed in the chapter of concluding remarks.

The retail industry is faced with increased customer service demands and a competitive market environment. For retailers to survive in a competitive marketplace, a customer orientation is vital in order to establish and maintain long-term relationships with customers. As the clothing retail industry is characterised as an industry with high human involvement, employee-related service failures are inevitable. Service failures cause the disconfirmation of service expectations which lead to customer dissatisfaction, a motivator of customer complaint behaviour. Given that the resolution of a customer complaint is critical in order to restore customer satisfaction, retailers are providing customers with a variety of innovative complaint channels, such as online complaining. Although online complaint channels have become commonplace, little research has been undertaken regarding the effect of a complaint channel on customers‟ complaint behaviour and customers‟ expectations in the clothing retail industry. South African clothing retailers could therefore benefit from an understanding of customers‟ online complaint intention and ensuing service recovery expectations. Scholars profess that complaint intention correlates positively with service recovery expectations as customers decide to post a complaint when they generally have high recovery expectations. Furthermore, complaint intention and service recovery expectations are increased by a positive attitude towards complaining. Consequently, attitude towards complaining plays a significant role in forecasting complaint behaviour of dissatisfied customers. Moreover, service failure severity has been used to measure how customers assess the intensity of service failures and is said to also influence customers‟ complaint intention and their subsequent service recovery expectation. The primary objective of this study was to uncover customers‟ online complaint intention and subsequent service recovery expectations after experiencing an employee-related service failure in the clothing retail industry. The empirical study was based on a descriptive research design in which a structured, self-administered questionnaire was fielded amongst respondents within the Johannesburg metropolitan area of South Africa. A non-probability, convenience sampling method was used and a total of 400 respondents participated in this study. The results indicate that although the majority of respondents use the Internet daily and exhibit a high propensity to complain, they prefer to complain in-store. After respondents had been presented with a fictional employee-related service failure scenario, they did not indicate a high intention to complain online. Very few differences were uncovered between different groups of respondents pertaining to their attitude towards complaining, online complaint intention, service failure severity perception and strength of service recovery expectation. Finally – with respect to an empirically tested theoretical model – respondents‟ attitude towards complaining in general and their perceptions of the severity of the service failure experienced, significantly and positively influence their strength of service recovery expectations, while no significant positive influences were uncovered for paths linking the aforementioned constructs with online complaint intention. As a result, online complaint intention was omitted from the measurement model seeing that respondents who participated in this study did not indicate a high tendency to complain online. It is recommended that clothing retailers recognise the importance of in-store complaint management programmes and ensure that in-store complaint channels are easily accessible, efficient and pleasant to use. Clothing retailers should actively educate customers regarding alternative mechanisms and channels available for complaining. In order to increase customers‟ online complaint intention, clothing retailers should provide a visible complaint portal on their website and communicate the benefits of online complaining during in-store advertising. Clothing retailers should furthermore provide the appropriate strength of service recovery for particular levels of service failure severity when managing customer complaints. Consequently, it is recommended that clothing retailers provide their employees with sufficient training that will educate them regarding their interaction with customers and the best practice thereof, the difference between minor and major service failures, and the selection of an appropriate service recovery strategy during different service failure severity encounters. It is recommended that this study is extended to other service settings in order to uncover online complaint intention and strength of service recovery expectations of customers in other industries. Finally, seeing that respondents‟ strength of service recovery expectations vary according to the severity of the service failure, scenarios representing different levels of service failure severity can be used as basis to measure the key constructs measured in this study. / MCom (Marketing management), North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2014

The retail industry is faced with increased customer service demands and a competitive market environment. For retailers to survive in a competitive marketplace, a customer orientation is vital in order to establish and maintain long-term relationships with customers. As the clothing retail industry is characterised as an industry with high human involvement, employee-related service failures are inevitable. Service failures cause the disconfirmation of service expectations which lead to customer dissatisfaction, a motivator of customer complaint behaviour. Given that the resolution of a customer complaint is critical in order to restore customer satisfaction, retailers are providing customers with a variety of innovative complaint channels, such as online complaining. Although online complaint channels have become commonplace, little research has been undertaken regarding the effect of a complaint channel on customers‟ complaint behaviour and customers‟ expectations in the clothing retail industry. South African clothing retailers could therefore benefit from an understanding of customers‟ online complaint intention and ensuing service recovery expectations. Scholars profess that complaint intention correlates positively with service recovery expectations as customers decide to post a complaint when they generally have high recovery expectations. Furthermore, complaint intention and service recovery expectations are increased by a positive attitude towards complaining. Consequently, attitude towards complaining plays a significant role in forecasting complaint behaviour of dissatisfied customers. Moreover, service failure severity has been used to measure how customers assess the intensity of service failures and is said to also influence customers‟ complaint intention and their subsequent service recovery expectation. The primary objective of this study was to uncover customers‟ online complaint intention and subsequent service recovery expectations after experiencing an employee-related service failure in the clothing retail industry. The empirical study was based on a descriptive research design in which a structured, self-administered questionnaire was fielded amongst respondents within the Johannesburg metropolitan area of South Africa. A non-probability, convenience sampling method was used and a total of 400 respondents participated in this study. The results indicate that although the majority of respondents use the Internet daily and exhibit a high propensity to complain, they prefer to complain in-store. After respondents had been presented with a fictional employee-related service failure scenario, they did not indicate a high intention to complain online. Very few differences were uncovered between different groups of respondents pertaining to their attitude towards complaining, online complaint intention, service failure severity perception and strength of service recovery expectation. Finally – with respect to an empirically tested theoretical model – respondents‟ attitude towards complaining in general and their perceptions of the severity of the service failure experienced, significantly and positively influence their strength of service recovery expectations, while no significant positive influences were uncovered for paths linking the aforementioned constructs with online complaint intention. As a result, online complaint intention was omitted from the measurement model seeing that respondents who participated in this study did not indicate a high tendency to complain online. It is recommended that clothing retailers recognise the importance of in-store complaint management programmes and ensure that in-store complaint channels are easily accessible, efficient and pleasant to use. Clothing retailers should actively educate customers regarding alternative mechanisms and channels available for complaining. In order to increase customers‟ online complaint intention, clothing retailers should provide a visible complaint portal on their website and communicate the benefits of online complaining during in-store advertising. Clothing retailers should furthermore provide the appropriate strength of service recovery for particular levels of service failure severity when managing customer complaints. Consequently, it is recommended that clothing retailers provide their employees with sufficient training that will educate them regarding their interaction with customers and the best practice thereof, the difference between minor and major service failures, and the selection of an appropriate service recovery strategy during different service failure severity encounters. It is recommended that this study is extended to other service settings in order to uncover online complaint intention and strength of service recovery expectations of customers in other industries. Finally, seeing that respondents‟ strength of service recovery expectations vary according to the severity of the service failure, scenarios representing different levels of service failure severity can be used as basis to measure the key constructs measured in this study. / MCom (Marketing management), North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2014

Dans l’hôtellerie, les défaillances de service sont presque inévitables. Pour limiter les conséquences indésirables, les chercheurs et les praticiens se sont concentrés sur l'efficacité de la compensation en cas d'échec. Malgré l'existence de divers modèles de recherche, les comportements des clients comme la rupture de la relation ou la propagation d’un bouche-à-oreille négatif, même après les efforts de récupération, restent à comprendre.Pour répondre à la question de recherche : « Dans le secteur de l'hôtellerie en Chine, dans quelle mesure la satisfaction après compensation de service peut-elle s'expliquer par les attributions et la (dis)confirmation des attentes ? », cette thèse propose un modèle conceptuel basé sur la théorie de l'attribution, le paradigme des attentes-confirmation et la théorie de la justice. Il s'appuie sur deux concepts-clés (attribution et attentes de compensation). Elle présente cinq hypothèses regroupés dans trois ensembles de relations : (1) l’influence de la défaillance du service sur l'attribution des clients, l’influence de l'attribution des clients sur les attentes de compensation et l’influence de la défaillance du service sur les attentes de compensation ; (2) l’influence de la différence entre les attentes de compensation des clients et la compensation effectivement obtenue sur la satisfaction des clients après compensation ; (3) l’influence de la satisfaction des clients après compensation sur les intentions comportementales. Ensuite, selon l'hypothèse d'appariement, nous explorons la relation entre le type de défaillance de service et le type d'attente de compensation du client ; et nous trouvons un certain décalage entre les attentes de compensation et ce qui est effectivement obtenu.Pour atteindre nos objectifs de recherche, nous avons ciblé des clients déclarant avoir eu une ou plusieurs expériences désagréables avec un hôtel au cours des six derniers mois. Au moyen d'un questionnaire en ligne, nous avons recueilli 318 réponses valides et analysé les données avec SPSS25.0. Les résultats montrent que (1) l'attribution de l'échec du service par le client a une influence significative sur les effets de l'échec du service sur les attentes de compensation ; (2) la différence entre les attentes de compensation et la compensation réelle a une incidence sur la satisfaction après la compensation ; (3) la satisfaction du client après la compensation a une influence sur les intentions du comportement ; (4) les types d'attentes de compensation sont influencées par le type de défaillance ; (5) la compensation effectivement obtenue est différente de celle attendue, principalement à cause des hôtels ne fournissant pas les compensations adéquates ou de clients recevant les indemnités non désirées ; ce décalage affecte l'efficacité de la compensation et la satisfaction du client après la compensation.Les résultats permettront aux chercheurs en marketing et aux praticiens de l'industrie hôtelière de mieux comprendre le rôle de l'attribution des clients et de leurs attentes en matière de compensation suite à une défaillance du service ainsi que le processus de compensation des services. Ils pourraient en conséquence élaborer et mettre en œuvre des stratégies de marketing plus localisées et plus satisfaisantes sur le marché chinois. / In the hospitality industry, service failures are almost inevitable. To avoid the undesirable consequences, researchers and practitioners have concentrated on the effectiveness of failure recovery. Despite that various of research models exist in empirical studies, customer behaviors like exiting or spreading negative WOM even after recovery efforts remain unsolved.As an attempt to answer the research question：In the hospitality industry of China, to which extent satisfaction recovery can be explained by client attributions and expectations (dis)confirmation? Why do customers who accept service recovery still leave the service provider or do something that is not good for the service provider? This dissertation proposes a conceptual model based on attribution theory, expectation-disconfirmation paradigm, justice theory. It relies on two key concepts (customer attribution and recovery expectation), and displays five hypotheses in three set of relationships: (1) the influences of service failure on customer attribution, the influences of customer attribution on recovery expectation and, the influences of service failure on recovery expectation; (2) the influences of the difference between customer recovery expectation and obtained recovery on customer satisfaction after recovery; (3) the influences of customer satisfaction after recovery on behavioral intention. And then, according to “matching hypothesis”, we explore the relationship between the type of service failure and the type of customer recovery expectation; and find some mismatch between recovery expectations and obtained.To achieve research objectives, we targeted customers who claimed to have had unpleasant experiences with hotels in the past six months. By means of an online questionnaire, we have collected 318 valid responses and analyzed the data with SPSS25.0. The results show that (1) customer attribution statistically significantly mediates the effects of service failure on recovery expectation; (2) the difference between recovery expectation and obtained recovery affects satisfaction after recovery; (3) customer satisfaction after recovery affects behavioral intentions; (4) types of recovery expectation are influenced by types of service failure; (5) obtained recovery differs from recovery expectation to some extent, mainly because of “hotels not giving appropriate compensations” or “customers receiving undesired compensations” – such “mismatch” or “difference” affects the effectiveness of failure recovery and customer satisfaction after recovery.The findings provide insights for marketing academics and industry practitioners to better understand the role of customer attribution and recovery expectation in service failure and service recovery process. Therefore, more localized and more satisfying marketing strategies are to be expected in the Chinese market.