IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/zbw/fubjbm/149031.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Understanding the effects of the presence of others in the service environment: A literature review

Author

Listed:
  • Albrecht, Kathrin

Abstract

Sharing the same service environment leads to direct and indirect interactions between customers that can either enhance or damage a customer's service experience. Especially in situations where customers are observing complaint situations of others, negative effects can be transmitted to the observing party, thus posing a considerable threat to the service provider. Although many research studies have examined the presence of other customers in a service context, a literature review systemizing both theoretical and empirical findings is still lacking. Through the current literature analysis three contextual factors have evolved that affect customerto-customer interactions during service encounters in the service environment, i.e. customer-related factors, firm-related factors and encounter-related factors. Finally, four avenues of future research are exposed with regard to the contextual factors. Moreover, this article helps managers to carefully design their customer experience initiatives with regard to socially present other customers in the service environment.

Suggested Citation

  • Albrecht, Kathrin, 2016. "Understanding the effects of the presence of others in the service environment: A literature review," jbm - Journal of Business Market Management, Free University Berlin, Marketing Department, vol. 9(1), pages 541-563.
  • Handle: RePEc:zbw:fubjbm:149031
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.econstor.eu/bitstream/10419/149031/1/866560947.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Jennifer J. Argo & Darren W. Dahl & Rajesh V. Manchanda, 2005. "The Influence of a Mere Social Presence in a Retail Context," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 32(2), pages 207-212, September.
    2. Uhrich, Sebastian & Tombs, Alastair, 2014. "Retail customers' self-awareness: The deindividuation effects of others," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 67(7), pages 1439-1446.
    3. van Noort, Guda & Willemsen, Lotte M., 2012. "Online Damage Control: The Effects of Proactive Versus Reactive Webcare Interventions in Consumer-generated and Brand-generated Platforms," Journal of Interactive Marketing, Elsevier, vol. 26(3), pages 131-140.
    4. Holt, Douglas B, 1995. "How Consumers Consume: A Typology of Consumption Practices," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 22(1), pages 1-16, June.
    5. Brocato, E. Deanne & Voorhees, Clay M. & Baker, Julie, 2012. "Understanding the Influence of Cues from Other Customers in the Service Experience: A Scale Development and Validation," Journal of Retailing, Elsevier, vol. 88(3), pages 384-398.
    6. Hui, Michael K & Bateson, John E G, 1991. "Perceived Control and the Effects of Crowding and Consumer Choice on the Service Experience," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 18(2), pages 174-184, September.
    7. James C. Ward & Amy L. Ostrom, 2006. "Complaining to the Masses: The Role of Protest Framing in Customer-Created Complaint Web Sites," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 33(2), pages 220-230, July.
    8. Fullerton, R. A. & Punj, G., 2004. "Repercussions of promoting an ideology of consumption: consumer misbehavior," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 57(11), pages 1239-1249, November.
    9. Gruen, Thomas W., 1995. "The outcome set of relationship marketing in consumer markets," International Business Review, Elsevier, vol. 4(4), pages 447-469.
    10. Michela Mari & Sara Poggesi, 2013. "Servicescape cues and customer behavior: a systematic literature review and research agenda," The Service Industries Journal, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 33(2), pages 171-199, February.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Argo, Jennifer J. & Dahl, Darren W., 2020. "Social Influence in the Retail Context: A Contemporary Review of the Literature," Journal of Retailing, Elsevier, vol. 96(1), pages 25-39.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Cavusgil, Erin & Yayla, Serdar & Cem Kutlubay, Omer & Yeniyurt, Sengun, 2022. "The impact of demographic similarity on customers in a service setting," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 139(C), pages 145-160.
    2. Bacile, Todd J. & Wolter, Jeremy S. & Allen, Alexis M. & Xu, Pei, 2018. "The Effects of Online Incivility and Consumer-to-Consumer Interactional Justice on Complainants, Observers, and Service Providers During Social Media Service Recovery," Journal of Interactive Marketing, Elsevier, vol. 44(C), pages 60-81.
    3. Bruce, Helen L. & Wilson, Hugh N. & Macdonald, Emma K. & Clarke, Beverly, 2019. "Resource integration, value creation and value destruction in collective consumption contexts," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 103(C), pages 173-185.
    4. Argo, Jennifer J. & Dahl, Darren W., 2020. "Social Influence in the Retail Context: A Contemporary Review of the Literature," Journal of Retailing, Elsevier, vol. 96(1), pages 25-39.
    5. Luck, Michael & Benkenstein, Martin, 2015. "Consumers between supermarket shelves: The influence of inter-personal distance on consumer behavior," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 26(C), pages 104-114.
    6. Arne K. Albrecht & Gianfranco Walsh & Simon Brach & Dwayne D. Gremler & Erica Herpen, 2017. "The influence of service employees and other customers on customer unfriendliness: a social norms perspective," Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, Springer, vol. 45(6), pages 827-847, November.
    7. Weitzl, Wolfgang & Hutzinger, Clemens, 2017. "The effects of marketer- and advocate-initiated online service recovery responses on silent bystanders," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 80(C), pages 164-175.
    8. Uhrich, Sebastian, 2011. "Explaining non-linear customer density effects on shoppers’ emotions and behavioral intentions in a retail context: The mediating role of perceived control," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 18(5), pages 405-413.
    9. Ladeira, Wagner Junior & Dalmoro, Marlon & de Oliveira Santini, Fernando & Ruffatto, Juliane & Zanoni, Roberto, 2021. "More bodily motor action, less visual attention: How supermarket stimuli and consumer-related factors influence gaze behavior," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 59(C).
    10. Yoshida, Masayuki, 2017. "Consumer experience quality: A review and extension of the sport management literature," Sport Management Review, Elsevier, vol. 20(5), pages 427-442.
    11. Kohei Kawaguchi & Kosuke Uetake & Yasutora Watanabe, 2019. "Effectiveness of Product Recommendations Under Time and Crowd Pressures," Marketing Science, INFORMS, vol. 38(2), pages 253-273, March.
    12. Nguyen, July & Ferraro, Carla & Sands, Sean, 2020. "Similarity over difference: How congruency in customer characteristics drives service experiences," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 121(C), pages 592-603.
    13. Marius Johnen & Oliver Schnittka, 2019. "When pushing back is good: the effectiveness of brand responses to social media complaints," Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, Springer, vol. 47(5), pages 858-878, September.
    14. Marília Lara Marcondes Machado de Oliveira & Andres Rodriguez Veloso, 2015. "Dysfunctional Consumer Behavior: Proposition of a Measurement Scale," Brazilian Business Review, Fucape Business School, vol. 0(2), pages 24-49, August.
    15. Hutzinger, Clemens & Weitzl, Wolfgang J., 2021. "Co-creation of online service recoveries and its effects on complaint bystanders," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 130(C), pages 525-538.
    16. Lee, Myounggu & Cho, Jihoon & Kim, Youngju & Kim, Hye-Jin, 2023. "Impact of movie-watching on cross-selling revenue in shopping malls: Implications for post-pandemic recovery," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 73(C).
    17. Weitzl, Wolfgang J. & Einwiller, Sabine A., 2020. "Profiling (un-)committed online complainants: Their characteristics and post-webcare reactions," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 117(C), pages 740-753.
    18. Michaud Trevinal, Aurélia & Stenger, Thomas, 2014. "Toward a conceptualization of the online shopping experience," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 21(3), pages 314-326.
    19. Tombs, Alastair G. & McColl-Kennedy, Janet R., 2010. "Social and spatial influence of customers on other customers in the social-servicescape," Australasian marketing journal, Elsevier, vol. 18(3), pages 120-131.
    20. Imran Khan & Mobin Fatma, 2022. "Using Netnography to Understand Customer Experience towards Hotel Brands," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(1), pages 1-11, December.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:zbw:fubjbm:149031. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://jbm-online.net/index.php/jbm/index .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.