An examination of the impact of cultural orientation and familiarity in service encounter evaluations

Purpose - Customers' judgment of service quality is by and large based on their evaluation of personal experiences during the service encounter. The purpose of this study is to investigate from a customer perspective, the impact of familiarity (of the individual service provider) and cultural orientation on evaluations of both successful and failed service encounters. Design/methodology/approach - The authors employ an experimental design with data collected from student samples in the USA (Western, individualist culture) and Thailand (Eastern, collectivist culture). Findings - Results show an individual customer's cultural orientation, as well as familiarity (with a focal service provider), have an impact on perceptions and post-purchase evaluations of both successful and unsuccessful service encounters. Originality/value - This research contributes to the services marketing and consumer behavior literature by shedding light onto the role of familiarity and cultural value orientation in influencing consumer responses to service encounters. It is one of only a handful of cross-cultural studies in this research domain.