Content area
Full Text
Using Critical Incident Technique, data are collected from 166 respondents who related incidents involving embarrassment experienced over a total of 44 different service environments. In applying a functional analysis, a number of embarrassment antecedents in the form of sources (e.g., customer, service provider, others present) and stimuli (e.g., criticism, awkward acts, image appropriateness, forgetfulness/lack of knowledge/error, environment/ surroundings, and violations of privacy) are identified. Embarrassment was found to be manifested by emotional, physiological, and behavioral reactions, and its long-term consequences include both positive and negative behavioral intentions and word-of-mouth communications. The Functional Analysis of Consumer Embarrassment provides an informative framework to enhance our understanding of affective reactions in service encounters and provides a solid foundation for future research.
Keywords: service encounter; affective reactions; embarrassment; emotions; consumption; services
To date, the service encounter has received considerable attention in the literature (e.g., Bitner, Booms, and Mohr 1994; Bitner, Booms, and Tetreault 1990; Verhoef, Antonides, and de Hoog 2004), and this is deservedly so given the impact that the service encounter has on customer evaluations, satisfaction, and loyalty in relation to a service product. Defined as "the dyadic interaction between a customer and service provider" (Surprenant and Solomon 1987, p. 87) and "a period of time in which a customer interacts with a service" (Shostack 1984, p. 134), the service encounter is argued to comprise three basic dimensions: the temporal duration of the interaction, the spatial proximity of service provider and customer, and the service encounter's emotional content (Price, Arnould, and Deibler 1995). In other words, the service encounter represents a time period in which the customer and the relevant service components (e.g., service personnel, service processes, servicescape) come together, either remotely or in close proximity, to facilitate the production and simultaneous consumption of a service. Given the complex nature of the service encounter, where many variables abound, predictability is difficult and surprises (positive and negative) are common. Such surprises, or unexpected occurrences, represent interruptions to tasks in relation to production and consumption and, for the individual, result in arousal (affect) and, subsequently, affective reactions (emotions) (Pieters and van Raaij 1988). Consequently, it could be suggested that service encounters are breeding grounds for emotion.
The study of emotions within the services realm has been relatively limited...