Consumer views of service classifications in the USA and France

Abstract : In the services marketing literature, few service classifications are based on how customers view services, and fewer of these have been validated cross-culturally. To fill this gap, this research presents the results of a study that examined how US and French customers perceived and classified a set of 13 services based on multidimensional scaling. Service classifications were developed on a perceptual space where the actual services were mapped for two countries, the USA and France. The results of the study suggest that there are two underlying dimensions that explain approximately 80 percent of the total variance in service perceptions and classifications. The dimensions and correlations for the classifications and services displayed many consistencies and some differences among American and French consumers. Directions for future academic research and managerial implications are cited and discussed.