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Over-the-top (OTT) services, which provide streaming media through all devices in online setting, have surpassed the traditional content providers in the market. However, there is still no clear empirical evidence that indicates what recommendation agent values affect the users' search experience while using the OTT services and how it leads to continuous subscription. To address this gap, this study aims to examine recommendation agent values influencing search experience, which in turn affects decision satisfaction and continuance intention.

This study empirically develops and tests a research model with data obtained from 212 survey respondents in Korea. Structural equation modeling with partial least square approach was used to analyze the data.

(1) Recommendation agent variables such as match score accuracy, recommended content variety and thumbnail image appeal affect search experience variables such as perceived diagnosticity and perceived serendipity; (2) perceived diagnosticity and perceived serendipity of search experience increase decision satisfaction; and (3) decision satisfaction increases intention to continue to subscribe to OTT services.

Despite the widespread use of recommendation agents in OTT services, limited attention has been paid to understand what specific values of recommendation agents lead subscribers to continue their subscription. The findings of this study clarify subscribers' continuous subscription behavior in OTT services in terms of the recommendation agent values and search experience perspective.

The main objective of this paper is to compare consumers' online shopping behavior across three types of services (i.e. search, experience, and credence). Reviewing the marketing and psychology literatures, this study aims to propose that consumers' emotions (pleasure, arousal, and dominance) influence their perception of site atmospheric cues (site informativeness, effectiveness, and entertainment), which, in turn, impact consumers' site attitudes, site involvement, and purchase intention. It also aims to test the proposed model for three major types of services (i.e. search, experience, and credence) and to compare the path coefficients of all the relationships in the model across the three groups.

Lab experiments were conducted for data collection and structural equation modeling was utilized for multi‐group analysis.

The results supported the proposed model and revealed several non‐invariant structural paths across the three groups.

The student sample may not represent the general population.

Search‐, experience‐, and credence‐based services should attempt to evoke the most desired consumer emotional types (pleasure, arousal, and dominance).

Unlike many other studies in services marketing, this paper tests the proposed model across different service types to increase the generalizability of the results.

The purpose of this research is to add to our understanding of the antecedents of customer satisfaction by examining the effects of service reliability (Is the service “correctly” produced?) and service validity (Is the “correct” service produced?) of search, experience and credence services.

Service validity and service reliability were manipulated in scenarios describing service encounters with different types of services. Customer satisfaction was measured using questionnaires.

Service validity and service reliability independently affect customer satisfaction with search services. For experience services, service validity and service reliability are necessary conditions for customer satisfaction. For credence services, no effects of service validity were found but the effects of service reliability on customers' satisfaction were profound.

Scenarios provided a useful method to investigate customer evaluation of different types of service situations. A limitation of this method was that the participants were not observed in a real service situation but had to give their opinion on hypothetical scenarios.

For search and credence services, it is possible to compensate low service validity by providing a highly reliable service. However, managers of experience services should be aware that little can be gained when either service validity or service reliability is faulty.

The present study provides empirical data on the effects of service reliability and the thus far neglected effects of service validity and integrates these (new) concepts in the model of information verification.

While the brand equity associated with tangible goods has received a great deal of attention in the literature, a basic understanding of the nature of brand equity for services has yet to emerge. Most of what is known about brand equity for services is based on theoretical or anecdotal evidence. In addition, the presumed differences in brand equity associated with search‐dominant, experience‐dominant, and credence‐dominant services has yet to be empirically examined. The objectives of this study are threefold: to empirically test whether brand equity is more important for services than for tangible goods, to test whether the presumed differences in brand equity for search‐, experience‐, and credence‐dominant services can be confirmed in an empirical examination, and to assess whether consumer knowledge of a product category has an effect on the importance of brand equity across product types. Contrary to suppositions in the literature, the results indicate that brand equity is more important for tangible goods than for services. In addition, the results do not support the presumed differences between service types as brand equity for search‐dominant services is more important than for both experience‐ and credence‐dominant services. The same pattern of results is achieved when consumer knowledge of each product category is included as a covariate.

Many studies have documented that satisfaction does not always result in loyalty, and that dissatisfaction does not necessarily result in defection. In response, this study goes beyond satisfaction and proposes the moderating effects of locational convenience, interpersonal relationships, and commitment between satisfaction and customer loyalty across search, experience, and credence attribute services.

Hierarchical moderated regression analysis was used to test the hypotheses.

The results suggest that from search attribute services to experience and credence attribute services, the relative importance of locational convenience with regard to retaining dissatisfied customers is likely to decline. Search and experience attribute services that can develop and maintain close interpersonal relationships with their customers are more likely to retain dissatisfied customers. Commitment maintains customer loyalty, even when customer satisfaction is lower across search, experience, and credence attribute services.

This study discriminates dissatisfied customers' loyalty behaviors based on locational convenience from those behaviors resulting from interpersonal relationships and commitment across service types, and thus has significance for the marketing strategies of businesses providing different service types, particularly in terms of dissatisfaction resolution strategies.

Though the marketing literature offers an abundance of research on the topics of perceived risk, information search, and purchase intentions, very few researchers have empirically examined these constructs in the context of services. This research explores the linkages among these three constructs when services are classified on the basis of search, experience, and credence attributes. Specific hypotheses are developed and tested. The results of this study indicate that perceived risk increases along a continuum from search to experience to credence service purchases. Other hypotheses relating to information search length, information sources, behavioral intentions, and service attributes, received moderate support. Finally, managerial implications of the study were provided, along with directions for future research.

Service providers increasingly use conversational agents (CAs), such as chatbots, to effectively communicate with customers while managing interaction costs and providing round-the-clock customer service. Yet, the adoption and implementation of such agents in service contexts remains a hit-and-miss, and firms often struggle to balance their CAs implementation complexities and costs with relation to their service objectives, technology design and customer experiences. The purpose of this paper is to provide guidance on optimizing CA design, therefore, the authors develop a conceptual framework, TRISEC, that integrates service logic, technology design and customer experience to examine the implementation of CA solutions in search, experience and credence (SEC) contexts.

The paper draws on service marketing and communications research, combining the service context classification scheme of search, experience and credence and the technology infused service marketing triangle foci (service, technology and customer) in its conceptual development.

The authors find that an opportunity exists in recognizing the importance of context when designing CAs and aiming to achieve a balance between service objectives, technology design and customer experiences.

This study contributes to service management and communications research literature by providing interactive service marketing researchers with the highly generalizable TRISEC framework to aid in optimizing CA design and implementation in interactive customer communication technologies. Furthermore, the study provides an array of future research avenues. From a practical perspective, this study aims at providing managers with a means to optimize CA technology design while maintaining a balance between customer centricity and implementation complexity and costs in different service contexts.

In response to the call for research on customer experience across the customer journey, this study aims to analyze and compare the effects of perceived quality on customer satisfaction among the different stages of search, experience and credence services.

This paper constructs a formation model of customer satisfaction based on service stages. Data on perceived quality and customer satisfaction in different stages of search, experience and credence services was collected through experiments and practical survey and the model was empirically tested through multiple linear regression.

The results show that perceived quality in the preparation and departure stages of search and credence services has a greater influence on customer satisfaction than in the delivery stage. While compared to the preparation stage, the perceived quality in the delivery and departure stages of experience service has a greater influence on customer satisfaction.

This research will help service firms optimize the allocation of service resources according to the importance of different service stages within the three indicated service types, promoting customer satisfaction.

This is the first study of its kind to compare the effects of perceived quality on customer satisfaction among the stages of search, experience and credence services.

This paper aims to examine the relative importance of country of brand (COB), country of service delivery (COSD) and country of person (COP) in consumer evaluation of hybrid services.

Using data (N = 1,071) from Australia, Indonesia and Singapore, a conjoint analysis experimental design explored empirically the importance of country of origin (COO) effects in three service contexts: search, experience and credence.

The analysis reveals that the relative importance of COP was the highest for credence services, while COB was the strongest for experience services.

For firms operating offshore, companies must understand that the COO construct is multi-dimensional for services, as it is for tangible products and not limited only to COB as traditionally thought. At least two other distinct dimensions – COSD and COP – can play significant roles as predictors of service quality expectations. Companies must consider the implications of service type, according to the search-experience-credence continuum to inform staffing decisions and managing customer expectations.

This research contributes to the literature by extending the understanding of country image effects in the context of hybrid service provisions, particularly in the view of customer expectations of services with multiple country-of-origins. Although there have been several studies examining the effects of COO on services evaluation, no empirical study has examined the effects of multiple COOs simultaneously from the perspective of location where the service is delivered (COSD) and individuals who deliver the service (COP), in addition to the effect of COB origin.

The purpose of this study is to examine the consumer-side effects of “under new management” (UNM) signs. The authors integrate cue-utilization theory and relevance theory to guide hypotheses about the conditions under which these signs are and are not beneficial.

Two consumer-based experiments were used to examine the quality and reputation effects of restaurants signaling a management change on potential and existing customers.

The results suggest that positive and negative effects are possible. The direction of these effects is contingent upon consumers’ prior experience, type of service (i.e. search/experience) and the relevance of the signal.

The study is limited to one industry (i.e. restaurants) and examines the effects of market signals on perceived quality and reputation. In addition, this research brought forth the notion of “signal relevance” and suggested that it may be explicitly tied to attributions. However, this assertion must examine multiple signals (relevant/irrelevant) and their contingent effects on consumer perceptions.

The findings advise businesses to use caution when using signals such as an “UNM” sign, as they appear to have different effects depending on the experience of the consumer with the service and the relevance of the signal.

This research contributes to the literature on cue utilization theory to understand the effects of marketplace cues on consumer perceptions. It contributes to marketing theory and practice by proposing a model of cue effects based on prior customer experience, type of service and cue relevance.