Globally, acceptance among the general public of waste-to-energy (WtE) incinerators is a crucial factor in implementing national waste-to-energy policies. This study aims to shed light on the acceptance of WtE incinerators, with a focus on anti-incinerator sentiment and the influence and interactions of place-, trust-, and fairness-based factors, with a case study in China. A total of 338 residents in the Asuwei area in North Beijing completed a survey on a proposed WtE incinerator in the vicinity. Hierarchical regression analyses indicate that place attachment positively enhances anti-incinerator sentiment through direct effects, as well as moderation and mediation effects between risk perception and opposing willingness. Furthermore, institutional trust negatively moderates the impact of perceived risk on anti-incinerator sentiment, in addition to directly reducing perceived risk. Trust also influences anti-incinerator sentiment via risk perception, attesting to the effectiveness of a casual model of trust. Likewise, fairness perception acts as another determinant of opposing sentiment, similarly to trust. These findings demonstrate the importance of using a range of instrumental and more effective strategies to promote the acceptance of renewable energy infrastructure.

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to examine the effect of perceived justice and consumer's moral judgment of a service failure on recovery outcomes.Design/methodology/approach: The research model is examined by adopting a field study approach followed by an experiment. The SPSS program with the PROCESS tool was used to analyze the simple moderation and moderated mediation effects.Findings: The research findings show that consumer's moral judgment of a service failure moderates the relationship between service recovery (psychological compensation vs monetary compensation) and recovery outcomes (recovery satisfaction, negative word of mouth and repurchase intention). Moreover, the conditional indirect effect of service recovery on recovery outcomes through perceived justice is significant when service failure is seen as less moral. Specifically, consumers report lower perceived justice and react negatively to recovery measures when service failure is seen as less moral. In contrast, when consumers perceive a service failure as moral, a psychological compensation outperforms a monetary compensation, lessening negative word of mouth (NWOM).Originality/value: These findings provide important insights into recovery measure development when considering consumer moral perspectives.

Purpose: Service failure is detrimental for both enterprises and customers; therefore, it is particularly important and cost effective for service enterprises to take precautionary measures rather than provide recovery after service failure. Based on the inoculation theory, this research examines the impact and the boundary conditions of inoculation messages on the effectiveness of service recovery.Design/methodology/approach: The proposed research model is examined through two scenario-based experimental studies. A total of 627 datasets was collected and analyzed with the SPSS program with the PROCESS tool to examine the moderation (Model = 1) and three-way interaction (Model = 4) effects.Findings: The research findings show that inoculation messages moderate the relationship between recovery measures and customer satisfaction. Specifically, there is a positive relationship between service recovery and recovery satisfaction, which can be further boosted with inoculation messages. Importantly, inoculation messages eliminate the significant difference between the effects of expected recovery and high recovery. However, inoculation messages are only effective for enterprises with high brand equity.Originality/value: These findings have important theoretical and practical implications for the service recovery practice of service enterprises.

Purpose: While many studies have focused on the effectiveness of service recovery after encountering service failure, few have considered for pre-recovery opportunities. Drawing on service guarantee research and the inoculation theory, this study examines the effect of pre-recovery strategy on customer’s satisfaction when faced with possible service failure. This study takes into consideration the uncertainty of service failure, including specific or unpredicted failures. Design/methodology/approach: Three experimental studies were conducted to examine our research hypotheses, which include a total of 1203 subjects recruited from online and offline platforms. Findings: The findings reveal that service guarantees and inoculation messages both effectively mitigate the negative consequences of a service failure. Specifically, the pre-recovery strategy is particularly effective for specific service failures. In addition, we thoroughly examined the mediating role of customer attribution. Originality/value: This research significantly contributes to the existing literature on service research by delving into the potential positive impact of proactive measures undertaken by service enterprises. Furthermore, the findings of this research offer valuable insights for practitioners.

Purpose: The rapid adoption of AI chatbots in diverse service contexts has been accompanied by increased service failures, making effective self-recovery strategies critical. This research examines the effect of linguistic forms of chatbot learning evidence on customer tolerance for service failures, aiming to provide actionable insights for effective chatbot service recovery. Design/methodology/approach: We conducted four experiments with 688 participants, including students and professionals. Each experiment simulated distinct service contexts and manipulated learning evidence types (quantitative vs. qualitative) and disclosure timings (ex ante vs. ex post). Participants were randomly assigned to chatbot interactions with varying service failure scenarios to test the proposed model. Findings: The results indicate that customers have a higher tolerance to chatbot service failures when chatbot learning evidence is provided, particularly with quantitative (vs. qualitative) evidence and that these effects are driven by perceived frustration. The boundary effect of disclosure timing of chatbot learning evidence indicates that the effect of linguistic form on customer tolerance of chatbot service failure is more effective in ex post disclosure. Originality/value: This research pioneers the exploration of learning evidence’s role in chatbot service recovery, uncovering mechanisms (perceived frustration) and boundary conditions (disclosure timing).