Open kitchen vs closed kitchen
研究服务失败时，开放式与封闭式厨房设计如何通过因果归因影响顾客反应，发现开放式厨房在失败原因明显时引发更负面评价。
Purpose This study aims to investigate, when a service failure occurs, whether circumstantial cues could be used to encourage more positive responses by customers toward restaurants through the mediation of causal attribution. Design/methodology/approach A 2 (cause of service failure: easily observable vs difficult-to-observe) × 2 (kitchen design: open vs closed) between-subject experiment is used to analyze customers’ causal attributions of service failures and resultant responses. Findings When a service failure whose cause is easy to identify occurs, customers at open-kitchen restaurants show more negative responses than those at closed-kitchen restaurants because they are likely to attribute the responsibility to the restaurant. Attribution is confirmed to mediate the relationship between the interaction of service failure by kitchen design and customers’ responses. Practical implications Diverse circumstantial cues should be actively used to encourage more positive responses by customers. The mediating role of causal attribution should be considered in managing customers’ responses toward service failures. Originality/value This study finds that circumstantial cues could be useful in dealing with service failures in restaurants by confirming the mediating role of causal attribution.