The impacts of hotels’ error management culture on customer engagement behaviors (CEBs)

Abstract

Purpose Drawing upon an error management perspective, this study aims to examine how in the wake of an information security breach, a hotel’s error management culture influences customer engagement behaviors and trust. The potential moderating effects of the perceived error controllability are also assessed. Design/methodology/approach This study develops four experimental conditions concerning a privacy breach in Hotel A, where different levels of error controllability and error management culture are manipulated for testing hypotheses. Data collection is administered with the help of Amazon Mechanical Turk. Findings The findings from 235 former hotel guests show significant influences of error management culture on customer engagement behaviors, which are mediated by consumer trust. No moderating effect of the perceived error controllability is found. Practical implications This study stresses the significance of cultivating a high error management culture and communicating it to attract consumers. It also provides guidance to hoteliers for adopting effective error analysis and management approaches, improving customer engagement and, ultimately, enhancing the firm’s performance. Originality/value The results of this study expand the error management literature by studying the impacts of error management within the organization to its impacts on consumer-related outcomes. Further, this study contributes to the customer engagement literature by focusing on a series of customer engagement behaviors after a service failure scenario. Third, this study extends previous service failure and recovery literature to credence-related service encounters.

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