Holger Roschk

• Prof. Dr.
• Professor at Aalborg University

Extant service recovery research treats apology as a dichotomy, in that it is either present or absent, but how it is conveyed is neglected. Based upon social psychological research, this study argues that an apology comprises three different components: empathy, intensity, and timing, which make each apology unique. It is shown that how well an ap...

Service recovery is a crucial success factor for organizations. Thus, many studies have addressed the issue of post-complaint behavior. Conducting a meta-analysis, the authors test the following path model: ‘‘organizational responses (compensation, favorable employee behavior, and organizational procedures) → justice perceptions (distributive, inte...

To prevail in the fierce competition of in-store experiences, some firms have focused on providing pleasant ambient scents. However, equivocal results on scent effects make generalizations and managerial guidance uncertain. While efforts to consolidate research findings have been conducted, a comprehensive quantitative integration is notably lackin...

Atmospheric in-store stimuli have been the subject of considerable empirical investigation for over 30 years. This research presents a meta-analysis of 66 studies and 135 effects (N = 15,621) calibrating the atmospheric effects of music, scent, and color on shopping outcomes. At an aggregate level, the results reveal that environments in which musi...

The social nature of customer experiences creates complex and potentially detrimental dynamics in failure situations, such as when other customers side with the complainer or the firm. The present research is the first to analyze such coalitions and their consequences. We conceptualize a triad composed of a complainer, a service employee, and one o...

This research offers insights into the efficacy of gamification in a failure-recovery context, that is, providing recovery through a gamified experience. Using one field study and three online experiments across different contexts (i.e., retail, restaurant, gym, and hotel), we show that a gamified recovery (i.e., compensation offered through a spin...

Intentional failures, which refer to purposeful transgressions by the organisation or its employees against customers, are common across different industries including tourism, yet there is a lack of research on tourists’ perceptions and reactions to such failures. Using an experimental approach, we find that compared with unintentional failures, t...

Intentional failures, which refer to purposeful transgressions by the organisation or its employees against customers, are common across different industries including tourism, yet there is a lack of research on tourists' perceptions and reactions to such failures. Using an experimental approach, we find that compared with unintentional failures, t...

Purpose: Since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, one dark social-media phenomenon in particular has experienced a significant rise: consumer-to-consumer (C2C) conflicts, i.e., consumers who verbally attack each other in response to COVID-19 service failures. The aim of this paper is to uncover the sources of such conflicts and to gain an insight...

Intentional service failures (e.g., overbooking or overcharging) have received little scholarly attention, despite their regular occurrence and immense costs. Using a multi-method approach combining experimental and field data from online reviews, it was found that intentional (vs. unintentional) failures lead to greater negative word of mouth (nWO...

In this article we offer the first survey-based study on the motivations that spur consumers to bully others about the brands they support on social media, a phenomenon we term “Consumer Brand-Cyberbullying” (CBC). Analyzing data from 1,203 participants of online brand communities, we find that consumers who seek to be popular and attractive are mo...

The central concept of artificial intelligence can be understood as intelligent agents. We discuss potential applications of intelligent agents for supporting complaint management tasks and how they can become focus of complaint management. The discussion aims at portraying applications according to the current state of technology, which are organi...

Workplace coaching has been established as a popular managerial development tool to support employees on all hierarchical levels. In service industries, coaching is underrepresented. This is rather surprising because more than in any other industry, the employees’ attitudes and personal job satisfaction have an impact on customers’ service percepti...

As intangible experiences are crucial for approach tendencies toward a destination, this research proposes the CI-MI-R framework linking cognitive image (CI) to response (R) via mental imagery (MI). Cosmopolitanism, escapism, and cognitive thinking style are examined as moderators in the relationship between cognitive image and mental imagery. Two...

The COVID19 pandemic further emphasizes the need for automation in education by leveraging online learning digital innovations. Strategic, tactical and operational consideration must become part of the educational fabric, institutional culture, and online technologies innovations. This alignment between strategy and operations cannot be done withou...

Little research attention has been devoted to bottom of the pyramid consumers. This is surprising as services marketing may contribute to a society’s development. One approach aimed at improving the life situation of the impoverished is urban agriculture. Set in Malaysia, this study seeks to explore what discriminates urban agriculture participants...

Die international angesichts technologischer, politischer und gesellschaftlicher Veränderungen vorgetragenen Konzepte »Neuer Steuerung« betreffen im Kern die Wettbewerbsfähigkeit und Standorteffektivität des jeweiligen Schulsystems (vgl. Altrichter et al., 2016; Brauckmann et al., 2010). Sie richten sich auch im deutschsprachigen Bildungsraum darau...

This study explores the effect of background music on the perception and memory of an art exhibition in two experiments involving art evaluation, memory and behavioural intentions. The first (N = 234), a laboratory experiment conducted in a virtual art gallery, shows that background music helps people remember artworks but negatively influences eva...

The current study explores consumer brand bullying behaviour in online communities, which we define as a brand specific consumer interaction process during which one consumer harasses or is perceived to harass another consumer or the brand itself. The analysis is based on a sixteen-month netnography of four online brand communities, where we sought...

The authors discuss how Social Resource Theory can provide a theoretical perspective to the development of service businesses, in particular with regards to the early stages of service development (e.g. idea generation or concept development). Its value lies in the conceptualization of what resources can be exchanged and how they are exchanged in i...

Payment modes (e.g., cash vs. credit card) vary in the transparency of the outflow of money. Smartcards (multifunctional cards), which bundle payment with non-payment functions (e.g., loyalty programs, identification, and other information functions), have become an increasingly popular payment mode. This shift toward multifunctionality in payment...

This research examines how to recompense customers, from a social resource theory perspective, which portrays financial compensation as the act of offering the resource “money” to customers during a service recovery attempt. This resource can differ in its particularism (is the money offered in a more or less personal way?) and concreteness (is the...

Eastern versus Western culture pricing practices differ with respect to price endings; however, Eastern cultures are increasingly influenced by Western multinational corporations. At the same time, increasing antiglobalization sentiment suggests the use of localization strategies in these markets. The authors investigate whether pricing practices s...

The present research examines the occurrence of counter-cultural consumer behaviour in an experiential consumption context. We define this behaviour as product or service usage that varies across cultures, contradiction - rather than conforming to - the prevailing values in these cultures. Drawing on Hofstede´s cultural concept, we develop hypothes...

With the globalization of markets, advertisers are faced with the question whether to internationally standardize their campaigns or to tailor them to each country's target audience. This controversial issue is discussed in the so‐called standardization/differentiation debate in international marketing literature. Although standardization has the a...

With the globalization of markets, advertisers are faced with the question whether to internationally standardize their campaigns or to tailor them to each country's target audience. This controversial issue is discussed in the so‐called standardization/differentiation debate in international marketing literature. Although standardization has the a...

This article examines how compensation type and failure type explain the recovery effect of compensation, using a meta-analysis (Study 1) and an experiment (Study 2). Drawing on resource exchange theory, we propose new classifications for both compensation and failure type and find three major results. First, consistent with our matching hypothesis...

Recent studies analyze word-of-mouth (WOM) communication as a force that drives the success of motion pictures. The authors build upon that research and integrate measurements of WOM into a broader network of success determinants. Results show that production costs and critics' evaluation are predictors of WOM volume at the end of the first week. N...

This research examines how age moderates the impact of justice perception (i.e., distributive, procedural, and interactional justice) on post-complaint satisfaction. By tracking the three justice dimensions' effect sizes across different ages, we identify four developmental stages of adulthood, which are separated by five-year transition periods. T...

This paper examines the incremental effect of overcompensation as compared to simple compensation on post-complaint satisfaction. In overcompensation, consumers are entitled to a refund that is more than the purchase price, whereas in simple compensation, the refund given is equivalent to if not less than the purchase price. A meta-analysis of 17 e...

Eine erfolgreiche Beschwerdebehandlung vermag eine Kundenbeziehung in einem Ausmaß zu festigen, als wäre der Fehler nicht aufgetreten. Dazu muss der Kunde sie aber als „gerecht“ wahrnehmen, womit Zufriedenheit einhergeht. Holger Roschk analysiert die Kunden- und Situationsmerkmale und zeigt anhand einer empirischen Studie, dass Alter, Geschlecht so...