The dynamics of customer participation in service recovery: The roles of failure severity, quality signals, and responsiveness

In high-contact hospitality settings, service failures can disrupt encounters in ways that prompt customers to intervene. Drawing on control theory and signaling theory, we conceptualize customer participation (CP) as a solution-oriented behavioral response through which customers attempt to influence recovery when service delivery is disrupted. We examine how quality signals and frontline employee responsiveness shape the extent to which participation translates into recovery outcomes. Across five studies, we show that severe service failures can prompt solution-oriented participation, but this response is contingent on contextual conditions. Quality signals attenuate the likelihood that failure severity translates into participation by shifting perceived responsibility toward the firm, creating a conditional quality signaling paradox. Employee responsiveness strengthens the positive effects of participation once enacted, but cannot compensate when participation is not initiated. These findings advance an understanding of CP by distinguishing between participation initiation and effectiveness, with managerial implications for balancing quality signaling and responsive frontline behavior.