The role of other customers during self-service technology failure

Youjae Yi () and Seo Young Kim ()
Additional contact information
Youjae Yi: Seoul National University
Seo Young Kim: Seoul National University

Service Business, 2017, vol. 11, issue 4, No 1, 695-715

Abstract: Abstract Service recovery through inter-customer helping is especially meaningful in the self-service technology (SST) failure context because SSTs are associated with a high risk of failure due to the lack of face-to-face contacts with employees. In understanding the phenomenon of inter-customer helping, two fundamental questions are investigated in the current research: (1) does social influence play a role in customers’ helping decisions? and (2) what are the motives for helping? Through two experimental studies, we provide evidence that two different forms of social influence play a role in helping others during SST failures, and customers have self-centered (vs. other-centered) motives. Results from Study 1 showed that individuals in the private environment indicated more willingness to help than individuals in the public environment did due to heightened perceived responsibility. Study 2 revealed that tie strength influenced willingness to help via a dual pathway: perceived responsibility and social approach motives. Finally, we discuss and highlight the positive influence that self-centered motives can exert in the SST failure scene.

Keywords: Self-service technology (SST); Customer citizenship behavior (CCB); Service failure; Inter-customer helping; Helping behavior; Self-centered motives (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2017
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (10)

Downloads: (external link)
http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s11628-016-0325-2 Abstract (text/html)
Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:spr:svcbiz:v:11:y:2017:i:4:d:10.1007_s11628-016-0325-2

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.springer.com/business/journal/11628

DOI: 10.1007/s11628-016-0325-2

Access Statistics for this article

Service Business is currently edited by S.M. Lee and J. Millet Roig

More articles in Service Business from Springer, Pan-Pacific Business Association
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().