From Service Failure Typologies to Configurational Recovery and Outcomes in Logistics Delivery Networks.

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YILDIRIM C., Korukmez S., Yilmaz N.

INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF MARKETING COMMUNICATION AND NEW MEDIA, cilt.14, sa.26, ss.297-325, 2026 (ESCI)

Özet

Service failure and recovery research generally follows a linear and firm-centric perspectives and consider failures and resulted outcomes as isolated phenomena. Besides, service failure and recovery have been widely studied in industries like tourism and hospitality. Limited research focused on logistics, particularly in B2B contexts, involving complex operations with multiple actors during delivery process, which increases the likelihood of failures. This study deviate from existing views by proposing a configurational understanding of service failure and recovery in logistics delivery networks. Drawing upon qualitative data collected through Critical Incident Technique (CIT), the study analyses 69 cases of service failures and recoveries. The findings identify diverse service failure typologies and demonstrate that heterogeneous failures are likely to produce multiple, simultaneously occurring behavioural outcomes. Similarly, we reveal that heterogeneous failures tend to require multiple, simultaneously occurring recovery actions that are aligned with specific failure characteristics. For instance, results emphasize that operational failures are mostly resolved with procedural and interactional justice. Furthermore, the findings disclose that outcome configurations propagate across actors within logistics delivery networks, affecting inter-organizational relationships. By revealing service failure typologies, and outcome and recovery configurations, this study contributes to the existing literature by proposing a multi-level and configurational perspective on failure and recovery within logistics delivery networks.