Impact of waiting attribution and consumer's mood on perceived quality

Abstract

Waiting involves both emotions and cognition, in particular attribution of the cause for waiting. How do emotions impact on the attribution process? Do emotions and attribution impact on perceived service quality? The present study focuses on these rather new questions through the employment of videos simulating waiting lines in a bank. Subjects' mood was manipulated by two (sad-vs.-happy) television videos before subjects were exposed to the waiting video. Subjects were administered a three part questionnaire: Servqual (to assess perceived service quality in the bank); the Russell's Causal Dimension Scale to assess the three dimensions of Weiner's attribution of waiting time; the Mehrabian-Russell's questionnaire on mood (pleasure-arousal-dominance). A structural equation model was built. Mood affects some dimensions of service quality, those related to the personnel in contact; attribution affects the relational dimensions of service quality (personnel's empathy and assurance); mood does not affect the attribution process. Service quality is assessed not only in terms of what consumers receive at the end of the service delivery process but also in terms of the process itself.