Low and high outcome quality in co-created hospitality services: Two explanations for consumer satisfaction

Nowadays, co-creation is a significant trend in the hospitality industry. Through two experiments, this paper investigates the effects of low and high outcome quality resulting from co-creation on consumer satisfaction. In particular, we examine engagement and emotions as the underlying mechanisms that mediate the relationship between outcome quality and satisfaction. Our findings build upon a service-dominant logic framework and indicate that outcome quality influences customer satisfaction, with emotions acting as a mediator for low-quality outcomes and engagement as a mediator for high-quality outcomes. Interestingly, engagement operates in low outcome quality settings and partly compensates for a suboptimal result, highlighting the key role co-creation can play in the event of a failed encounter. This article contributes to co-creation literature as well as to the ongoing methodological debate on emotion measurement. In addition, it offers managerial insightful directions for hospitality companies.