Customer creation of service products: role of frustration in customer evaluations

Purpose – The paper models psychological processes in consumers' evaluation of an exchange and proposes frustration as a mediating mechanism explaining the relationship between consumers' perceptions of control, fairness, and satisfaction. Design/methodology/approach – Data were collected in an experimental setting using video scenarios. Hypotheses were tested using repeated‐measures MANOVA and ANCOVA. Findings – The results support hypotheses predicting that frustration mediates the influence of fairness on satisfaction and supporting a control‐fairness‐frustration‐satisfaction linkage. Research implications/limitations – This paper extends research in the area of consumers' cognitive and affective service evaluation processes and suggests future theoretical and methodological research directions. Although sample is representative of the population, no claims are made to generalize the findings of the study to a broader population. Practical implications – Service industry managers should analyze their consumer interaction processes and evaluate whether consumers feel they are in control, or alternatively are being treated fairly, to reduce consumer frustration and dissatisfaction. Originality/value – Considering consumers as actual creators of service product this study emphasizes the consumer's role in a service product focusing research and managerial attention on the cognitive and affective processes consumer adopt while producing and consuming their desired service.