This study aims to extend previous research on the structural relationships between organisational empowerment and frontline employees’ behaviors，and explores the role of the self-regulating process and its impact on service recovery performance by using fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA). Following the procedure of applying fsQCA (data calibration, truth table construction and fsQCA analysis) on the data of express mail firms in China, the results explore the combination of several causes as solutions that lead to both high and low service recovery performance. The findings show that the organisational empowerment is a sufficient antecedent for high service recovery performance, especially in case where frontline employee have full awareness and positive work involvement. Moreover, in the context of organisational empowerment, a reasonable level of emotional exhaustion represents a positive impact on performance in service recovery. This study offers more comprehensive insights for practitioners to empower frontline employees and monitor their emotions and behaviors using more appropriate approaches.

• Mo Zhang(Shanghai Maritime University, China)
• Shengce Ren(Shanghai Maritime University, China)