Purpose This paper aims to present two updated typologies of service failures and recoveries in the omni-channel context. These typologies are based on customer complaints and recoveries collected from the corporate Facebook pages of four omni-channel department stores, two operating in Australia and two in the UK. Design/methodology/approach A document review is used of 400 customer complaints and recoveries. Content analysis is used to condense the Facebook data into categories of failures and recoveries. Findings Customer complaints on Facebook were triggered by a multitude of varying failures in the omni-channel context, given that it is the service brand that customers are experiencing, not just retail channels. The most prevalent failures were “bricks and mortar” shopping, delivery, marketing activities including communications and pricing, quality of goods and customer service. For service recoveries on Facebook, the four-dimensional justice framework appears valid. Research limitations/implications Study limitations include potentially missing details about the nature of the service failures and recoveries, including customer satisfaction with service recovery. Practical implications The typologies offer guidance to omni-channel retailers by showing the range of online and offline situations, including those unrelated to actual transactions that trigger customer complaints on Facebook and the tactics of recovering. Originality/value The authors contribute to the service domain by updating failure and recovery typologies to reflect the emerging omni-channel context, jointly exploring failures and recoveries on Facebook and applying a four-dimensional justice framework for recoveries on Facebook.

Consumers are participating in alternative consumption channels in increasing numbers, but increasingly they are becoming creators as well as consumers. The triggers and motivations that lead to consumers becoming creators have been explored in this paper, as we examine the motivations for consumers to become initiators of Collaborative or Alternative Consumption platforms. In-depth interviews examined initiators’ experiences and found that unmet needs from existing retail providers triggered the move to creation. However, the impetus to move from unmet needs to creation included specific intentions. The findings uncover six motivations to create Collaborative or Alternative platforms, with most creators noting two or more motivating elements. This research demonstrates that consumers can be initiators, and creators of alternative consumption platforms and provides an original perspective to understand the consumers in this context.

The consumer landscape is changing, with traditional behaviours, channels and models of commerce evolving rapidly. This has resulted in an increasingly disruptive landscape for businesses. One example is the growth of communities of consumers who collaborate through diverse and non‐conventional channels (often focused on specific needs or interests) to engage in information seeking and giving, socialisation, resource sharing and trade. This emerging field of research presents challenges due to the diverse and fragmented theory base available to explore, explain and analyse the phenomena we position in alternative consumption literature. In this paper, we address this challenge in the form of a Communities of Benefit Exchange (CoBE) taxonomy of exchange dimensions detailing purpose, nature of gain and benefit, channel and level of interaction and entity structure evident for consumers who participate in this practice.

A series of Ag +-Cu 2+ binary mixtures with different Ag/Cu ratios were supported on mordenite with different Si/Al ratios and were subsequently reduced under hydrogen in the temperature range 323K-473K. Ag and Cu K-edge X-ray Absorption Spectroscopy (XAS) was conducted on these systems in-situ to monitor the reduction species formed and the kinetics of their reduction. In-situ XANES clearly demonstrates that the formation of silver particles is severely impeded by the addition of copper and that the copper is converted from Cu(II) to Cu(I) during reduction and completely reverts back to Cu(II) during cooling. There are no indications at any stage of the formation of bimetallic Ag-Cu clusters. Interestingly, the Ag/Cu ratio appears to have no influence of the reduction kinetics and reduction products formed with only the highest Si/Al ratio (MR= 128) investigated during this study having an influence on the reduction and stability to air oxidation.

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