Title: When 'more' is not 'enough' in restaurants: do the challenge demands and service recovery performance compel a negative influence of the service recovery system on customer justice perceptions?

Authors: S. Rao K.P. Abhishek; Pai P. Yogesh; Lakshminarayanan Sethumadhavan; Prabhu K.P. Nandana

Addresses: Centre for Supply Chain Education and Research, Department of Commerce, Manipal Academy of Higher Education (MAHE), Manipal, India ' Manipal Institute of Technology (MIT), Manipal Academy of Higher Education (MAHE), Manipal, India ' Manipal Institute of Management, Manipal Academy of Higher Education (MAHE), Manipal, India ' T A Pai Management Institute (TAPMI), Manipal Academy of Higher Education (MAHE), Manipal, India

Abstract: This paper examines the service recovery system's influence on restaurant customer justice perceptions. Besides, this paper explores the mediating pathways of the service recovery system-customer justice perceptions relationship. This research has used the time-lagged two-wave research design and the multi-source method for the data collection on the study's constructs, i.e., service recovery system, challenge demands, service recovery performance and customer justice perceptions. This study has tested a model of the service recovery system-customer justice perceptions relationship by drawing a sample of 1,085 customers and 168 managers of 31 Indian restaurants. The study's results show that the service recovery system influences customer justice perceptions positively. Besides, the study also reveals that challenge demands and service recovery performance negatively mediate the relationship between the service recovery system-customer justice. The study's findings indicate that 'more' is insufficient for service recovery.

Keywords: service recovery system; challenge demands; service recovery performance; customer justice perceptions.

DOI: 10.1504/IJSOM.2025.144479

International Journal of Services and Operations Management, 2025 Vol.50 No.2, pp.170 - 196

Received: 16 Sep 2022
Accepted: 25 Dec 2022

Published online: 17 Feb 2025 *

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