Willing to wait for it or waste no time? How relationship status and cognitive rigidity affect waits for service delivery

Waits for service are an inevitable part of the service delivery process. Across three decades of research, the field has typically assumed that consumers will have similar reactions to waiting. Instead, this thesis uses four studies to show that reactions to waiting are impacted by a consumer’s relationship status. Specifically, people who are single are shown to be more likely to cancel a request for service if they must wait, when compared with people in romantic relationships. This occurs because partnered consumers have higher sensitivity towards sunk costs in consumption, whereas single consumers have lower sensitivity towards sunk costs