Customer participation in service recovery: accounting for the role of customers’ perceived control and empowerment in hotel services

Customer participation in service recovery is common, yet little is known about how different participation roles shape recovery evaluations. This gap is especially salient in hotels, where recovery often unfolds under time pressure and heightened emotions. We conceptualize participatory service recovery as involving two distinct customer roles: solution identification and solution implementation. Across three studies, we examine how these roles shape recovery satisfaction and whether perceived control and psychological empowerment help shape these effects. Study 1 uses the critical incident technique to identify role-specific participation behaviours and customers' interpretations of their recovery involvement. Studies 2 and 3 use scenario-based experiments to test the effects of role-specific participation on recovery satisfaction and to examine a process linking solution identification, perceived control, psychological empowerment, and satisfaction. Results indicate that role-specific participation matters. Solution identification is associated with stronger recovery evaluations, but these benefits attenuate when customers are also required to implement the recovery. The findings are consistent with a process in which solution identification enhances perceived control and, in turn, psychological empowerment, particularly when implementation participation is absent. These findings suggest that participatory recovery should be understood not only in terms of how much customers participate, but also what role they perform.