Purpose This paper aims to study the citations made in service failure literature and assesses the knowledge construction of this region of exploration to date. Design/methodology/approach The bibliometric investigation assesses 416 service failure articles in business associated research. Multidimensional scaling is used to uncover the scope of the scholarly impacts that have helped understand the nature of the service failure literature. The establishment of knowledge in the service failure literature is revealed by analysing co-citation data to identify significant topical impacts. Findings The theoretical model combines five areas with significant propositions for the future improvement of service failure as an area of investigation. The most important research themes in service failure literature are service failure, service failure communication, recovery process, recovery offer and intention. Research limitations/implications Potential research concentrating on the service failure literature could use search terms improved from the literature review, or use a comparable approach whereby a board of well-informed scholars approved the key words used. Practical implications This paper is beneficial for any reader who is interested in understanding the components of the perception of justice and recovery and how it improves repurchase intention. Originality/value The study seeks to influence resource and recovery-based concepts and utilises the five supporting knowledge groups to suggest a plan for future research that fills existing gaps and offers the possibility of expanding and enhancing the service failure literature.