Customer participation in service production: An empirical assessment of the influence of realistic service previews

A distinguishing characteristic of services is their simultaneous production and consumption. As a result, customers are often present and must participate in the service creation process. Customer inputs can be essential to effective service delivery, and by implication customers are partially responsible for their own satisfaction. The purpose of this dissertation is to explore the role of customers in service production and delivery, and to empirically examine a means by which such participation can be facilitated.; A conceptual model of service evaluation is developed grounded in diverse literatures including services marketing and management, organizational socialization, cognitive scripts, and consumer satisfaction. The model's foundation is the expectancy disconfirmation paradigm, but it also takes into account the experiential nature of services and the role of perceived control in determining satisfaction. Drawing upon the realistic job preview literature in organizational socialization, the model proposes that novice customers can be prepared for their service experiences via a "realistic service preview" (RSP) that endows them with knowledge of appropriate participatory behavior and gives them realistic expectations for the upcoming event. These realistic expectations are hypothesized to provide customers with a sense of personal control over the service experience, increasing their satisfaction.; The hypothesized model and the effects of the RSP were tested in a laboratory experiment within a mammography screening context. The experiment utilized a 2 (service preview) x 3 (service outcome) between-subjects factorial design to test the influence of a realistic service preview (vs. no preview) on expectations, perceived control, and satisfaction across three outcome conditions (better than expected, as expected, and worse than expected).; The empirical test indicated support for the RSP's influence in satisfaction evaluations. Results also showed that perceived control, enhanced by the preview information, leads to greater satisfaction with the service event; its effects are independent of traditional antecedents such as disconfirmation and perceived performance.; The results suggest implications for customer satisfaction theory through the integration of perceived control into the model and by exploration of the role of realistic expectations. Implications for management practice point to the value of socializing service customers prior to service delivery to enhance their satisfaction evaluations.