Gender Stereotypes and Service Quality in Customer–Waitperson Encounters

The ‘auxiliary characteristics’ of service providers such as sex, age, and ethnic affiliation, play a significant role in customer–attendant encounters. This study aims to investigate whether various service quality conditions and gender stereotypes would affect the perceived service quality in fine dining restaurants. This research also identifies the moderating effects of ‘server gender stereotype,’ ‘gender in-group bias’ and ‘respondent's gender’ on the perceived service quality. A total of 447 subjects participated in the study with 2 (scenarios of service quality: favorable vs. unfavorable)×2 (gender of server: female vs. male) between-subjects factorial design. The results showed that under favorable service quality conditions, the respondents’ perceived service quality derived from a female server was better than her male counterpart. On the other hand, under unfavorable service quality conditions, the server gender stereotype could affect the rating of empathy dimension.