PurposeThis paper proposes investigating a model of service recovery performance in a public health‐care setting.Design/methodology/approachFrontline hospital staff (administrative and nursing staff) representing a range of out‐patient departments/clinics in a New Zealand inner‐city public hospital completed a self‐administered questionnaire on organizational variables affecting their service recovery efforts, job satisfaction and intention to resign. Data obtained from the hospital were analyzed using the SEM‐based partial least squares (PLS) methodology.FindingsThe results show significant relationships between perceived managerial attitudes, work environment perceptions, service recovery performance and outcomes variables.Research limitations/implicationsLimitations of the study are noted including the generalizability of the findings within a public health‐care environment. Suggestions for future research include an examination of other variables potentially important in service recovery efforts. A patient perspective would also be valuable.Practical implicationsThe research advances understanding of frontline service recovery performance in a health‐care setting and the findings indicate that health‐care managers can take actions on a number of fronts to assist progress toward the achievement of frontline service recovery excellence.Originality/valueVery little attention has been given to understanding the antecedents and outcomes of service recovery performance in the health‐care literature. By expanding earlier research in private sector industries, the study investigates a model of service recovery performance in a public health‐care setting.

*Very little attention has been given to understand the antecedents of service recovery performance in a public healthcare setting. In this study, a cross-sectional survey investigates a model of service recovery performance. Frontline hospital employees completed a self-administered questionnaire on how factors characterising management commitment to service quality (MCSQ) affect their service recovery efforts. The results suggest the influence of MCSQ is mediated by frontline employees' affective commitment to their hospital. The research advances understanding of frontline service recovery performance in a public healthcare setting and the findings indicate that public healthcare managers can take actions on a number of fronts to assist progress towards the achievement of frontline service recovery excellence.

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Purpose Despite the growing number of studies surrounding user-generated content (UGC), understanding of the implications, potential and pertinence of user-generated images (UGI), the visual form of UGC, on brand image in services is limited. The purpose of this paper is to introduce the concept and a comprehensive framework of image word of mouth (IWOM), which identifies UGI as visual articulations of service experiences that result in consumer judgment of service brand image. The framework takes a consumer-focussed approach and covers key branding issues relevant to services marketers such as identifying and linking valued services dimensions, made evident through IWOM, to ideas and thoughts inferred by consumers (viewers) of the brand image and consequent consumer intentions. Design/methodology/approach The paper reviews and synthesises current services, marketing and branding literature surrounding electronic word of mouth (WOM) and UGC, where it highlights the need to consider interpretations of UGI as persuasive forms of visual WOM or IWOM, as well as a critical stimuli of brand image. Findings The paper illuminates the importance of adopting a visual perspective that applies constructs developed in cognitive psychology, to decode how viewers (consumers) interact and form associations of brand image via IWOM. Originality/value The paper examines, integrates and adds to extant literature surrounding WOM, UGC, visual images and brand image within services.

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