Cassidy (writing as Harris), Kim and Baron, Steve (2004) Consumer-to-consumer conversations in service settings. Journal of Service Research, 6 (3). pp. 287-303. ISSN 1094-6705

Full text not available from this repository.

Abstract

This article contributes, in two ways, to our understanding of the nature, scope, and significance of conversations between strangers in service environments. First, a framework is introduced that provides both academics and practitioners with a summary of the key issues associated with the stimuli, manifestations, and consequences of such conversations. Second, the article reports a market-oriented ethnography of a specific service—rail travel—that locates stranger conversations within a broader categorization of consumer travel behaviors. This has resulted in the identification of a stabilizing effect of conversations between strangers through consumer anxiety reduction, the enactment of the partial employee role, and the supply of social interaction. The stabilizing effect can act as a "defuser" of dissatisfaction in services where consumers are in close proximity for prolonged periods in the service setting and regularly express dissatisfaction with service provision

Item Type:	Article
Additional Information:	This article contributes, in two ways, to our understanding of the nature, scope, and significance of conversations between strangers in service environments. First, a framework is introduced that provides both academics and practitioners with a summary of the key issues associated with the stimuli, manifestations, and consequences of such conversations. Second, the article reports a market-oriented ethnography of a specific service—rail travel—that locates stranger conversations within a broader categorization of consumer travel behaviors. This has resulted in the identification of a stabilizing effect of conversations between strangers through consumer anxiety reduction, the enactment of the partial employee role, and the supply of social interaction. The stabilizing effect can act as a "defuser" of dissatisfaction in services where consumers are in close proximity for prolonged periods in the service setting and regularly express dissatisfaction with service provision
Keywords:	Consumer-to-consumer interactions, Ethnography, Utilitarian services, Stabilizing effect, Consumer dissatisfaction
Subjects:	N Business and Administrative studies > N240 Retail Management
Divisions:	College of Social Sciences > Faculty of Business & Law > Lincoln Business School
Depositing User:	Bev Jones
Date Deposited:	22 Jun 2007
Last Modified:	18 Jul 2011 16:12
URI:	http://eprints.lincoln.ac.uk/id/eprint/536

Actions (login required)

View Item