The Effect of Employee Behaviors on Consumers\u27 Emotions and Behavioral Intentions in Positive Service Encounters

Focusing on positive service encounters, this study examined the relationships among employee behaviors, customers\u27 positive emotions, and subsequent customer behaviors. A comprehensive framework of positive service encounters and ten hypotheses were developed based on an in-depth literature review and an application of the theory of cognitive appraisal and the theory of positive emotions. The dissertation employed a survey design with measurements from previous research and collected data with Amazon Mechanical Turk. The target sample (N=299) was individuals that had a positive interaction with an employee at hotels over the last six months. The Structural Equation Modeling results suggested that employees\u27 mutual understanding affects customer gratitude and employees\u27 unsolicited behaviors and competence influence customer delight. Subsequently, customer gratitude has a positive relationship with customers\u27 repurchase intentions and word-of-mouth. In addition, customer delight has a positive relationship with customer\u27 repurchase intentions and positive word-of-mouth. However, the results of the study did not support that customer delight can be triggered by employees\u27 authenticity and customer gratitude can be evoked by employees\u27 customized service. In addition, the relationship between customer gratitude and customers\u27 providing feedback was not established. This study provides valuable implications for the industry regarding generating favorable customer behaviors in positive service encounters. This research also offers a theoretical explanation of systematic relationships among five dimensions of employee behaviors, two customers\u27 discrete emotions, and three customer behavioral intentions in positive service encounters