Title

A Psychological Perspective on Service Segmentation Models: The Significance of Accounting for Consumers' Perceptions of Waiting and Service

Author Info

Ziv Carmon, Duke University
J. George Shanthikumar, University of California - Berkeley
Tali F. Carmon, University of California - BerkeleyFollow

Recommended Citation

Published in Management Science, Volume 41, Issue 11, November 1, 1995, pages 1806-1815.

NOTE: At the time of publication, the author Tali F. Carmon was not yet affiliated with Cal Poly.

The definitive version is available at https://doi.org/10.1287/mnsc.41.11.1806.

Abstract

We examine how service should be divided and scheduled when it can be provided in multiple separate segments. We analyze variants of this problem using a model with a conventional function describing the waiting cost, that is modified to account for some aspects of the psychological cost of waiting in line. We show that consideration of the psychological cost can result in prescriptions that are inconsistent with the common wisdom of queuing theorists derived according to the conventional approach (e.g., equal load assignments). More generally, our intention in this paper is to illustrate that aspects of the psychological cost of waiting can be accounted for in the analysis of queuing systems, and that this may have significant implications for the service schemes that are derived.

Disciplines

Industrial Engineering | Manufacturing

Copyright

1995 INFORMS.