published in Journal of Retailing, November 1997
What does personalization mean to consumers? How should a waiter behave to be courteous? Is a server's friendliness important to customers in a restaurant? Do these answers differ in different cultures? This research examines the way consumers evaluate service encounters in two countries.
Samples of approximately 100 students in each of the United States and Japan are used to determine what behaviors are important to consumers in evaluating service encounters. Then additional samples of approximately 200 students in each country are used to determine how these behaviors group together into factors for service encounters with restaurants.
The findings expand traditional thinking about components of service transactions and develop behaviorally- based service encounter dimensions, each with multiple measures, for the United States and Japan. A new conversation factor is identified in both countries and significant cross-cultural differences are revealed in both the dimensions and behaviors identified. The relationship of dimensions to encounter satisfaction is also examined.
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