Judging Credence Service Based on Experience Service Evaluation: Moderating Effect of Ease of Assessing and Extrinsic Cues

The impact of service failure on customers\u27 perception of service quality is of vital importance to service providers. Prior research reveals little about how services that are purchased jointly by consumers are evaluated. My dissertation investigates the effect of failure of an experience service on the evaluation of a credence service that is purchased at the same time. In experimental study 1 carried out in the context of automobile services, it is found that the effect of service failure on trust is mediated by evaluation of service quality, and moderated by the ease of assessing service. In study 2 carried out in the same context, it is found that trust in the service provider mediates the effect of evaluation of experience service on evaluation of quality of credence service. The experience service evaluation to trust in service provider path and trust in service provider to evaluation of credence service path are moderated by service guarantee and type of relationship (pseudo- vs. true-). Together, study 1 and study 2 findings provide an explanation for how failure of an experience service impacts the evaluation of a credence service purchased simultaneously