The Role of Culture in the Service Evaluation Process

This research examined the impact of culture on customer evaluations of complex services. The goal was to underStand the trade-offs that Western and Asian customers are willing to make between personalized service and pleasant physical environment in a context of luxury hotels. Overall, the results from the conjoint analysis suggest that customers with Western cultural backgrounds might be more likely than their Asian counterparts to rely on the tangible cues from the physical environment. Furthermore, the hedonic dimension of the consumption experience might be more important for Western consumers, whose core values include fun and enjoyment, than for Asians, whose value structures tend to reflect duty in life.