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...