Reasoning about online and offline service experiences: The role of domain-specificity in the formation of service expectations

As companies that operate traditional stores set up Internet Web sites and Internet firms establish a physical presence, consumers increasingly interact with the same firm in on- and offline settings. Understanding the extent to which experiences in one domain (e.g., online or offline) influence expectations about the other domain has important implications for marketing theory (e.g., the extent to which consumer reasoning is unique to a domain) as well as marketing practice (e.g., the extent to which marketing practices in the on- and offline environments should be aligned).; In a series of five experiments, this dissertation studies the extent to which consumers use their service experiences in one domain to develop expectations about future encounters in another domain. Drawing on research in services marketing, domain-specificity and categorization, the dissertation examines whether consumers generalize service experiences equally within and across the on- and offline environments, and what factors lead consumers to make these generalizations. Studies 1 and 2 examine potential differences in the generalization of on- and offline experiences. Study 3 examines whether similarity perceptions enhance generalizations between domains and Studies 4 and 5 examine whether experiences in more prominent domains (e.g., the online domain for Amazon and the offline domain for Barnes and Noble) have a greater impact on expectations.; Whereas Studies 1 and 2 find evidence for stronger generalizations based on offline experiences, Studies 3 and 4 find that the impact of online experiences on offline expectations increases with rising perceptions of similarity between domains (Studies 3 and 4) and online prominence (Study 4). However, the impact of offline experiences on online expectations does not increase as perceptions of similarity and offline prominence rise. These results indicate asymmetric generalizations of on- and offline experiences. Experiences with hypothetical firms are used within experimental stimuli in Studies 1 through 4 and real firms are used in Study 5. Asymmetries found in Study 4 are resolved when real firms that are prominent online (i.e., Amazon) and offline (i.e., Barnes and Noble) are used. Results suggest that the cross-domain impacts of both on- and offline experiences are greater as perceptions of prominence rise.