The Effects of Physical and Social Context on Evaluations of Captive, Intensive Service Relationships

Expanding a conceptual framework, we differentiated services on the basis of their levels of capacity (the difficulty of a customer's leaving) and intensity (the number of service performance), arguing that context is especially critical to service delivery when these levels are high. Data from cruise ships generally supported our hypotheses. We report effects of physical and social context on evaluation made by passengers, industry experts, and government regulators. Implications for managers of other service settings are discussed. [PUBLICATION ABSTRACT]