Does service failure criticality affect global travellers' service evaluations? An empirical analysis of online reviews

Purpose: Increased global air travel and competition in the airline industry entail better service delivery and failure management. This study examines how airline type, failure criticality and the traveller's culture influence travellers' airline evaluations of service failure. Design/methodology/approach: The study uses a large data set of customers' online reviews and incorporates quantitative and qualitative feedback from 20 major airlines across the world. Semantic tagging, sentiment and multivariate analyses have been used to analyse the data. Findings: Failure criticality and travellers' cultural backgrounds significantly affect airline evaluations after service failures. Moreover, failure criticality influences evaluations of travellers from individualistic cultures more severely. Contrary to expectations, full-service airlines were evaluated positively after less critical service failures. Practical implications: The findings support that customers undergo different emotional states when they experience service failure. Understanding these internal emotional sensitivities and how services would be judged by travellers across cultures can help airlines to better manage their service recovery efforts and to strategise prioritisation of scarce resources. Originality/value: Though airline service failure has been well researched, this study examines the role of culture in service failure evaluations. The study uses a novel method to analyse a large data set of both quantitative and qualitative traveller feedback useful in service recovery management.