The role of emotions in utilitarian service settings: The effects of emotional satisfaction on product perception and behavioral intentions

The role of emotions in hedonic service settings is well established, but their role in utilitarian service settings has received scant attention. This research attempts to fill this gap by investigating the effects of customers’ perceptions of service quality and servicescape on their emotional reactions, and their perceptions of product quality and subsequent behavioral intentions. Data are collected from 189 clients/patients who visited an optometry clinic. The study reports that perceived service quality (reliability, responsiveness, assurance, and empathy) and service environment (atmosphere and layout) both increase positive emotional satisfaction. In turn, positive emotional satisfaction leads to a high perception of product quality, high recommendation, patronage intention, and likelihood of purchase. Additionally, product quality perceptions have a significant positive impact on behavioral intentions.     

The double-edged sword: The positive and negative effects of switching costs on customer exit and revenge

What happens when customers have to deal with switching costs after a service failure and a poor recovery? This study seeks to address this question by proposing and testing an integrative model that incorporates customers' negative emotions as mediators between switching costs and behavioral outcomes (i.e., loyalty and revenge). The model distinguishes positive from negative switching costs, and inward from outward negative emotions. Analysis of survey data from 280 real customers who actually experienced a service failure and poor recovery with a major telecommunications firm reveals that customers react to switching costs strongly, emotionally, and sub-optimally. In contrast to most findings in the service literature, the results indicate that negative switching costs generate both exit and desire for revenge. Paradoxically, positive switching costs generate both loyalty and an even higher level of desire for revenge. These findings have important implications for the service industry.     

Understanding the Influences of Atmospheric Cues on the Emotional Responses and Behaviours of Museum Visitors

ABSTRACT

The ability of an atmosphere to affect consumer emotions and behaviour is known to be particularly relevant for service organisations. This study examined the role of atmospherics in a service domain via a survey of the responses to relevant stimuli among a sample of visitors to ten UK museums. A model indicating the relationships between museum atmospherics and visitor conduct was developed and tested. Visitors' internal reactions to various atmospheric factors were explored and the consequences of these responses for an individual's approach-avoidance behaviour were evaluated.     

New insights into emotion valence and loyalty intentions in relational exchanges

This research examines how emotion valence and future intentions arising from relational exchanges with a service firm depend on a consumer's level of goal attainment and locus of causality (firm vs. self) of relational outcomes. Drawing on the theories of goal‐directed behavior and agency of causation, this study hypothesizes that levels of goal attainment and locus of causality influence the generation of positive emotions (gratitude), negative emotions (grudge and guilt), relational mediators (trust and commitment), and subsequent future intentions to remain loyal to the firm. Based on a controlled experiment with 284 subjects in a consumer‐determined relationship setting, the research finds that emotion valence and future loyalty intentions are contingent upon the fulfillment of relational objectives of individual consumers and the agency of causation for the outcome of the relational exchanges. In doing so, this study delineates the conditioning mechanism that directs how emotion valence influences behavioral intentions. The study contributes to the consumer behavior and services marketing literatures on consumption‐based emotions and has significant practice implications for relational behaviors.     

Revisiting customers' perception of service quality in fast food restaurants

This research is an extension to previous work in fast food restaurant marketing. The population of this research consists of actual fast food restaurant customers. Following the literature, data are analyzed using Confirmatory Factor Analysis, Structural Equation Modeling, and Path Analysis. Findings of this work identify factors impacting customer satisfaction, as well as dimensions of service quality and their rankings in the fast food restaurant context. Results indicate that there is no direct way of increasing behavioral intentions through improving service quality for fast food restaurants. Rather, behavioral intentions can be improved through customer satisfaction as an intermediary. Further, this work finds evidence that customer satisfaction can be improved through service quality, food quality, and price-value ratio, which in turn would pave an indirect path toward improvement in behavioral intentions in this industry. Results of this research shed light on prioritizing managers’ focus and resource allocation for customer satisfaction and different dimensions of service quality and can be used by fast food restaurant managers to set guidelines and strategies in providing better service to their customers.     

Validating Restaurant Service Quality Dimensions

Abstract

Service-based industries such as hotels and restaurants are spending a tremendous effort to measure and improve the service quality of their businesses. Service quality is one of the key factors in achieving competitive advantages in the restaurant industry since high service quality presumably results in increased customer satisfaction, and thus increased future patronage. The purpose of this study was to examine the two generic service-quality dimensions: physical quality and staff behavior/attitude in restaurants by employing the confirmatory factor analysis approach. The findings indicated that the two-factor model of restaurant service quality was successfully validated and also, the predictive accuracy of the model was established.     

Emotional prototypes,emotional memory usages,and customer satisfaction

In this study, we investigated the positive and negative emotion concepts in the prototype perspective and then tested them on customer satisfaction. By studying 612 customers in luxury restaurants, we found that two levels of customer emotions (i.e. positive and negative emotions) as a super-ordinate level, 4 positive emotions (i.e. contentment, happiness, love, and pride) and 5 negative emotions (i.e. anger, fear, sadness, shame, and disgust) as a basic level, and 49 specific emotions as a subordinate level are significantly related to customer satisfaction. We also examined the moderating role of emotional memory (EM) usage in the relationship between consumers’ emotions and their satisfaction. We found that product (food and beverage)-related EM strengthens and service-related EM usage weakens the relationship between customers’ negative emotions and their satisfaction. Interestingly, we found that positive and negative emotions are significantly related to customer satisfaction regardless of experience and store-related EM usage.     

Customer Satisfaction with Consumption Systems

ABSTRACT

Purpose: This research examines how satisfaction toward a product and its associated services offered together by a single provider jointly affects behavioral intentions toward the provider.

Design/methodology/approach: In this study, empirical tests were conducted using longitudinal data spanning 5 years from a multinational company that offers both products and associated services as part of a consumption system to their customers.

Findings: Results show a joint congruent effect of product and services satisfaction on behavioral intentions is linear and positive. It appears that offering great service cannot compensate for less-than-adequate satisfaction toward the product. The results further highlight decreasing customer sensitivity to improvements in both sources of satisfaction and imply that focusing on too high levels of one type of satisfaction for their customers can actually be counterproductive for firms.

Research Limitations: Our model was tested using the data obtained from a single firm. Future research could test this model with data from multiple firms in various different industries and establish broader generalizability to the findings.

Practical Implications: Findings provide managers with insights on how to allocate resources across product and service spaces and to manage product and services revenues over time. Results also indicate that customer behavioral intention ratings are more weighted on product quality over the service received by them. However, mere improvements in the product cannot provide the highest desired results and therefore quality improvements in the product need to be complemented by improvements in service quality.

Originality/Value: There is a rapid emergence of the phenomenon of manufacturers providing both products and services as an integrated consumption system to their customers. While the provision of both product and service subsystems by the same firm leads to certain synergies, there are obvious costs to the development of new service capabilities and coordination with existing product capabilities. Our research intends to address this issue.     

The effect of the servicescape on customers’ behavioral intentions in an international airport service environment

This study was conducted to identify the constructs of an international airport servicescape and to assess the relationships among the servicescape of an international airport, emotional states, and behavioral intentions. The constructs of an international airport servicescape are identified as the ambient factor, functional factor, esthetic factor, safety factor, and social factor. The results of this study showed that functional factor, esthetic factor, safety factor, and social factor influence customers?? positive emotions, whereas the ambient factor and social factor affect customers?? negative emotions. Positive emotions, but not negative emotions, were shown to have a significant impact on behavioral intentions. Limitations and suggestions for future studies were addressed.     

Self-diminishing effects of awe on consumer forgiveness in service encounters

Previous studies address consumers' emotions as an endogenous consequence of the service experience and assume that consumers base their decisions to forgive on the service situation's features; however, they rarely mention the role of the emotions that people might be experiencing, for reasons unrelated to the service failure itself. The current study thus considers a foundational but rarely examined human experience in business settings, awe, as well as its prosocial effect in service encounters. Incidental awe might alleviate the negative impacts of a service failure and enhance consumer forgiveness, through self-diminishment processes. Using four scenario-based experiments, referring to four types of service failures (outcome, process, controllable, and uncontrollable failures), this study tests for the positive effect of awe on consumers' inclination to forgive service failures and the mediating role of the small self in this effect. The present research thus enriches understanding of consumer forgiveness due to incidental emotions, which offers marketers some insights into how they might leverage methods that affect consumers' incidental emotions to encourage consumer forgiveness in service failures.     

旅游者参与、服务质量、消费情感对旅游者忠诚影响

旅游者参与是旅游者重要需求,通过参与达到正面的情感体验;在激烈的市场竞争中,实现旅游者忠诚是旅游地重要目标,因此对旅游者参与及相关变量对旅游者忠诚的影响研究具有重要意义。文章构建了旅游者参与对旅游者忠诚影响的整合模型,并提出若干研究假设。通过对武夷山观光旅游者调查获取基础数据,实证了旅游者参与、服务质量、消费情感、旅游者满意等变量的相互关系及其对旅游者忠诚的影响。研究发现,旅游者参与对服务质量、正面消费情感、旅游者满意具有显著直接正向影响,对负面消费情感具有显著直接负向影响,并通过服务质量、消费情感、旅游者满意三个中介变量对旅游者忠诚产生间接影响;服务质量通过旅游者满意对旅游者忠诚产生产生间接影响;消费情感对旅游者忠诚既产生直接影响,又通过旅游者满意对其产生间接影响;旅游者满意是旅游者忠诚的直接前因变量。最后指出研究局限及未来研究方向。     

服务质量与服务忠诚的多维度关系研究

本文选择北京地区接受餐饮业服务的消费者为调研样本,运用因子分析、结构方程模型等计量手段,从多维度角度研究服务质量与服务忠诚的关系。研究结果表明:服务质量由有形性、可靠性、响应性、保证性和移情性五维度构成,服务忠诚由情感忠诚和行为忠诚两维度构成;服务质量不仅对服务忠诚存在着显著的直接正向影响,而且通过顾客满意对服务忠诚存在着显著的间接正向影响;服务质量各维度对服务忠诚各维度的影响机理与程度各不相同。研究结果同时引申出若干有关我国服务业如何提升服务质量以达到提升服务忠诚的启示。     

The influence of the DinEX service quality dimensions on casual-dining restaurant customers’ satisfaction and behavioral intentions

The following empirical study examines the effects of specific service quality dimensions from the DinEX model on customers’ satisfaction and behavioral intentions. The originality of DinEX over other restaurant service quality instruments is primarily its focus on dimensions such as social connectedness and homophily, which represent social constructs that portray an internal sense of belonging and the tendency for people to affiliate with similar others. A self-administered questionnaire was distributed in an independent casual-dining restaurant located in the southeastern United States and a sample of 209 respondents was obtained. Results show that food healthfulness and food quality have an influence on customers’ satisfaction, which in turn affects their behavioral intentions. The implications for practitioners are discussed in detail.     

The Tempo and Cooking Sound of a Gourmet Hamburger

Hamburger is the spontaneous product image that comes to mind for a quick service restaurant. However, current consumer trends are reshaping the idea of fast-food including some gourmet food parameters. Consumers’ preferences are changing as they are aware of the product they are eating, quality and preconsumption practices. The methodology for this study consist of a 2 (fast/slow tempo) x 2 (sizzling sound/not) between group experimental design that takes place in Colombia (South-America). It evaluates the influence of sound (music and cooking) on the conceptual identity of a restaurant. Results show that the express concept increases with fast tempo music and the gourmet concept increases with cooking sound. Moreover, the sizzling sound lowers the perception of express for a hamburger restaurant. Findings demonstrate the importance of taking care of ambient sounds, designing or controlling them, aiming for consistency with the brand concept.     

Understanding effects of co-creation on cognitive,affective and behavioral evaluations in service recovery: An ethnocultural analysis

While cognitive, affective and behavioral consequences of service recovery have been extensively explored in the literature, the role of co-creation is mostly neglected. Most efforts dedicated to investigating co-recovery are limited to cognitive and behavioral factors. Furthermore, most of the recent studies explored co-recovery on western and eastern cultures, ignoring the role of ethnics in countries with different sub-cultures. This study aims to discover all possible factors on service recovery procedure, focusing specifically on effects of co-creation. Thus, a 2(distributive justice: high/low)×2 (interactional justice: high/low)×2(procedural justice: high/low)×2(co-creation: yes/no)×2(ethnics Azerbaijani vs. Baluch) between-subjects factorial design experiment was performed. A sample of 977 Iranian mobile banking customers participated in the study. Results of Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) indicate that most cognitive, affective and behavioral factors were supported by predictors. In addition, Multi-group SEM reveal that co-creation increases effects of most positive nature variables except negative emotions which is conceptualized as negative nature factor. The results of cultural differences indicate that Azeri people are more intended to participate in co-creation programs, whereas Balochs are more loyal due to higher level of reuse intentions.     

Online consumer behavior: Comparing Canadian and Chinese website visitors

Zajonc's (1980) theory of emotions and Mehrabian and Russell's (1974) stimulus-organism-response (SOR) framework inform the development of a model of online customer behavior. The model examines the impacts of the three types of emotions (pleasure, arousal, and dominance) on perceptions of site atmospherics (informativeness, effectiveness, and entertainment). In turn, the associations of site atmospherics on site attitudes, site involvement, service attitudes, and purchase intentions are investigated. The model is compared between Canadian and Chinese customers based on Hofstede's (1991) cultural value dimensions. The findings supported the model and revealed several non-invariant paths between the groups. Particularly, the impact of pleasure (dominance) on the other behavioral variables was higher for Canadian (Chinese) compared to Chinese (Canadian) customers. Moreover, the impacts of low (high) task relevant cues were stronger for Chinese (Canadian) customers compared to their Canadian (Chinese) counterparts. Discussion centers on the theoretical and practical implications of the findings.     

A study of the relationships among sensory experience,emotion, and buying behavior in coffeehouse chains

Studies that simultaneously explore the effects of sensory experience on consumer emotions and behavior are rare. This paper builds a model of buying behavior based on sensory experience, 570 valid questionnaires were obtained from coffeehouse customers. Using structural equation modeling and multiple regression analysis, this paper validates the concept model and verifies that sensory experience is a significant antecedent to buying behavior. This study indicates that certain sensory experiences significantly influence emotion. Emotion also plays a mediating role in the relationship between sensory experience and behavioral intentions. The findings are theoretically and practically profound as they address the relationships among sensory experience, consumer emotions, behavioral intentions, and buying behavior, as well as explore how the five senses affect emotions and buying behavior. This paper concludes by indicating managerial implications and research limitations.     

When do AI chatbots lead to higher customer satisfaction than human frontline employees in online shopping assistance? Considering product attribute type

The increasing adoption of AI chatbots in online shopping assistance, as a complement or substitute for human frontline employees (HFLEs), leads to the question whether HFLEs perform better than AI service robots and why. From the perspective of product attribute type (experiential/functional) and focusing on customer satisfaction, this study explores how the impact of service agent on customer satisfaction varies along with product attribute type. A scenario-based experiment was designed and completed by 567 participants. Although HFLEs lead to higher customer satisfaction when the product attribute is experiential, AI chatbots perform better than HFLEs when the product attribute is functional. We make use of perceived information quality, perceived waiting time, and positive emotions, three determinants of customer satisfaction, to explain the variation of the role of different service agent types. The findings offer useful implications for companies when selecting service agent types in online shopping assistance.     

Influence of price and brand image on restaurant customers’ restaurant selection attribute

The study examines the influence of price and brand image on three major restaurant quality attributes (ambiance, food quality, and service quality). A total number of 363 cases from the survey were used to assess the proposed model for structural equation modeling. The results of this study indicated that brand image significantly affected customers’ restaurant attribute preference. Living status (residents vs. tourists) partially affected customers’ restaurant attribute preference. This study provides valuable information about restaurant customers’ preferences. The results also demonstrate how restaurant operators attract new customers and retain existing customers by improving their ambiance, food, and service quality.     

The impact of affective and cognitive antecedents on negative word-of-mouth intentions

Negative word-of-mouth (WOM), defined as derogatory information disseminated from person to person and aimed at defaming a product, highlighting a product complaint, and/or highlighting unsatisfactory service experiences, influences consumer behavior and can harm a company’s image. The present study was conducted to ascertain the impact of affective antecedents (negative emotions) and cognitive antecedents (distrust) in the intent of negative WOM. A proposed theoretical model was employed to analyze the effect that perceived injustice had on negative WOM and how this effect was mediated by emotional and cognitive aspects. The research was a pre-experimental design – one treatment leading to one observation – with 252 students. Through an OLS regression and mediation analyses, we found an indirect link between perceived injustice and negative WOM intent, which was mediated by negative emotions and distrust. Contributing to the field of marketing studies, this paper fills an investigative gap regarding affective and cognitive antecedents as mediators of negative WOM. The results suggest that marketing managers should create mechanisms to allow consumers to express their negative emotions and rebuild their trust in order to avoid the spread of negative WOM.