Perceptions of Services

Abstract

Much recent research has examined the differences between goods and services, but less empirical work has been done investigating differences among services. In this paper, we focus solely on services: through the use of multidimensional scaling, subjects' perceptions are used to infer dimensions that are relevant to consumers in differentiating consumer services. Subjects rated the similarity between pairs of a variety of services, which ranged from simple services to professional services. Attributes of services discussed in the literature assisted interpretation of the dimensions. We suggest several theoretical conclusions, as well as managerial and educational implications.

Keywords: services, multidimensional scaling, perceptions, classification