Tipping: an Incentive/Reward for Service?

Tipping is an interesting, pervasive, and under researched form of consumerbehavior. Tips are supposed to be an incentive/reward for good service. However,tipping is a complex behavior motivated by the desires to conform with social norms,compensate for poor service wages, display power/status, avoid the servers' envyand ill will, and express interpersonal attraction. It is possible that these othermotivesfor tipping undermine its role as an incentive/reward. This possibility was examinedin two original studies of restaurant tipping. The studies found that tipping is relatedto consumers' evaluations of service and the dining experience, but that theserelationships are weak. This result suggests that tipping is, in part, a reward forgoodservice, but that it may not provide a sufficient incentive for the delivery of goodservice.