This study seeks to examine the buffering effect of the brand equity of a destination on the customer responses to a service failure of the hotel/restaurant industry, which represents an important constituent of the tourism ecosystem. In this regard, a destination brand is viewed from the prism of customer-based brand equity as the “differential effect of destination brand knowledge on the responses of the customers to the marketing of the destination”. The stimulus-organism-response framework is used to investigate the role of forgiveness as the affective mechanism linking the stimulus of customer-based destination brand equity (CBDBE) and customer reactions to adversarial service firm performance such as switchover intentions and recommendation intentions. The study utilizes a robust explanatory sequential mixed-method design. In the first stage, the conceptual model was tested empirically through Partial Least Squares-Structural Equation Modelling (PLS-SEM) using online questionnaires containing an inventory of 33 scale items. Data was collected from 400 tourists visiting the valley using convenience sampling. The second stage helped gain further insights into the validity of survey research (Study 1) through 40 semi-structured qualitative interviews (Study 2) analysed thematically using NVivo 14. The overall findings of Study 1 revealed that service firms belonging to the tourism ecosystem can indeed rely on the brand equity of the destination to ameliorate the negative consequences of service failure such as switchover intentions by leveraging the positively-valanced construct of forgiveness of the customer. However, the moderating impact of service failure severity weakens the buffering effect found through the customer-based destination brand equity (CBDBE) and forgiveness linkage. Therefore, this advantage of the destination's brand equity ceases to exist in the case of severe service failures. Additionally, while forgiveness decreases the impact of switchover intentions, it fails to translate into customer intentions to recommend the firm to others. In fact, the findings reveal that even though insignificant, the recommendation intentions were negative despite the consumer's forgiveness of the service breakdown. Furthermore, the researchers identified 38 thematic codes through qualitative research to reinforce the findings of empirical research. The study is the first to examine customer-based destination brand equity as an antecedent to post service failure customer reactions. In fact, the study makes a dual contribution to the field of service failure/recovery in the hospitality industry by examining brand equity not merely for its conditional effects but going beyond, to assess its role as an antecedent. Additionally, it makes a strong case for macro investigations whereby, service ecosystems such as destinations offer benefits to enhance micro efficiency and effectiveness of firms. It represents a maiden attempt to leverage mixed-methodology to validate and refine the proposed conceptual model.

中文翻译：

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基于客户的目的地品牌资产是否可以帮助客户原谅旅游生态系统中公司服务的失败？通过解释性顺序混合方法设计进行的调查

本研究旨在探讨目的地品牌资产对客户对酒店/餐厅行业服务失败的反应的缓冲效应，酒店/餐厅行业是旅游生态系统的重要组成部分。在这方面，从基于顾客的品牌资产的角度来看，目的地品牌被视为“目的地品牌知识对顾客对目的地营销的反应的差异效应”。刺激-有机体-反应框架用于研究宽恕作为情​​感机制的作用，该情感机制将基于客户的目的地品牌资产（CBDBE）的刺激与客户对对抗性服务公司绩效（例如转换意图和推荐意图）的反应联系起来。该研究采用了稳健的解释性序贯混合方法设计。在第一阶段，概念模型通过偏最小二乘结构方程模型 (PLS-SEM) 使用包含 33 个量表项目的在线调查问卷进行了实证测试。数据是通过方便抽样从 400 名参观山谷的游客中收集的。第二阶段通过使用 NVivo 14 进行主题分析的 40 次半结构化定性访谈（研究 2），帮助进一步了解调查研究（研究 1）的有效性。研究 1 的总体结果表明，属于旅游生态系统的服务公司可以事实上，依靠目的地的品牌资产来改善服务失败的负面后果，例如通过利用客户宽恕的积极评价结构来改变意图。然而，服务失败严重程度的缓和影响削弱了通过基于客户的目的地品牌资产（CBDBE）和宽恕联系发现的缓冲效应。因此，在服务严重失败的情况下，目的地品牌资产的这种优势就不复存在。此外，虽然宽恕会降低转换意图的影响，但它无法转化为客户向其他人推荐该公司的意图。事实上，调查结果显示，尽管消费者原谅了服务故障，但推荐意图却是负面的，尽管微不足道。此外，研究人员通过定性研究确定了 38 个主题代码，以强化实证研究的结果。该研究首次考察了基于客户的目的地品牌资产，作为服务失败后客户反应的先决条件。事实上，这项研究对酒店业的服务失败/恢复领域做出了双重贡献，不仅检查了品牌资产的条件影响，还评估了其作为先行因素的作用。此外，它为宏观调查提供了强有力的理由，目的地等服务生态系统为提高企业的微观效率和有效性提供了好处。