| Service encounters take place in the presence of other customers in numerous service settings. Despite the importance of other customers' influence in service settings, little is known about the way other customers influence one's service experiences. The purpose of the dissertation was to investigate when, why, and how others customers matter in services. Drawing on a number of social psychology theories and several streams of marketing as well as social psychology literatures, three dimensions of other customers' influence were proposed: (1) Crowding, (2) Appearance of other customers, and (3) Behaviors of other customers. Moreover, two research phases were involved to investigate the topic.; Two studies were conducted in the exploratory/qualitative phase. In study 1, open-ended questionnaires were used to collected customers' descriptions of customer-to-customer experiences. Critical Incident Technique (CIT) was employed to analyze the data which resulted in 9 categories of customer-to-customer incidents in services. Study 2 involved 22 semi-structured individual in-depth interviews. Grounded theory approach was used and an overall conceptual framework of other customers' influence in services was developed.; The second quantitative phase involved three experimental studies testing the different components of the overall framework. Scenario-based experiments were conducted and the data were collected from online surveys. In Study 3, appearance of other customers and the moderating effect of individual differences (i.e. sociability and emotional contagion) on consumer comfort and desire to leave the setting was tested. Study 4 tested the influence of displayed behaviors of other customers and the moderating effect of desire for privacy on consumer comfort and desire to leave. Finally, negative customer-to-customer experiences were focused on in Study 5. Specifically, the impact of severity of service failure/problem created by other customers and the moderating effect on employee response on emotions, expectation disconfirmation, and repurchase intentions were tested. The results largely supported the proposed relationships. Both theoretical and managerial implications were also explored. |
