Development and Validation of a Service Captivity Scale

Abstract

Service captivity is a customer’s perception of being constrained regarding choice, voice, and power during service provision. Customers in many contexts experience service captivity, and some do so daily. Service captivity experiences in extended and complex services are related to increased vulnerability, helplessness, and negative well-being. In more mundane services, it is associated with reduced fairness and quality perceptions, as well as heightened negative word-of-mouth and dissatisfaction. In short, customer and organizational outcomes are influenced by perceptions of service captivity. To better understand customers’ experiences of service captivity and facilitate research on this phenomenon, the current research is the first to develop and validate a robust measure of service captivity, which it does across six studies. The resulting unidimensional scale, which captures the reflective latent construct of service captivity as a manifestation of limited choice, voice, and power, is helpful for research aimed at understanding customers’ constrained service experiences and exploring the role of service captivity in service research models and service delivery outcomes.