1 Preliminary Conversation Analytic (CA) Study on Complaint Sequence in Service Encounter and Possible CA Contribution to Socially Sustainable Business Practice Kadek Ratih Dwi Oktarini (Nanyang Technological University & Bali State Polytechnic) Abstract This paper documented an initial attempt to explore Conversation Analysis (CA) method potential contribution to sustainable business practice in tourism industry. The objectives of this endeavour are two-folds. The immediate one is to show how CA method works. Presumably CA method is unfamiliar for the field of tourism, hence this paper introduced some key concepts of CA and showed and analysis of a piece of data from service line in tourism. The particular data analysed in this study is an acrimonious complaint interaction involving three hotel staffs and a guest. The distant objective of this study is to oversee CA possible contribution to the field of tourism, particularly sustainable tourism. The results of this study are also two-folds: immediate and distant. There are two immediate results of this study. The first one is an outline of the internal structure of the analysed complaint interaction. The second results are some other observations, such as the guest showed agitation whenever the hotel staff told him to sit down, and the guest told the staff to summon anggota DPR (member of the parliament) when he was offered assistance to get in touch with (his) travel agent. The distant result of this study is to proposed CA possible application that can contribute to sustainable business practice in tourism industry. The application of CA to find best practice is not new. It has been done successfully since 1990s. The proposed application is a specific Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) and Training Regimen which is informed by both empirical CA analysis result and sustainability. This endeavour showed that the potential is there. CA can be employed for such ends. Nonetheless more works need to be done is developing the specific Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) and Training Regimen until it reaches a practical stage. I. Introduction This paper is divided into two major parts. The first one is a Conversation Analysis (CA) analysis on a single complaint interaction video. The second one is an exploration on CA method possible contribution to sustainable business practice in tourism industry, specifically in service line. Among others, social dimension in sustainability is crucial. Though it can easily be neglected, “social and cultural cohesion” is factor is forming sustainable business practice. According to Moser, 2001, there are three objectives for sustainable business practice: social, economic and environmental in nature. For social objectives the objectives are: poverty alleviation, education, and social and cultural cohesion. Based on previous works, Moser asserted that a business establishment’s impact should be seen not only from its economic, but also social