Customer Value Assessment in Service Environments

Summary

Customer value assessment in service environments centres on how customers perceive the trade-off between benefits received and sacrifices made when consuming a service. Core dimensions include functional value (performance and utility), emotional value (affective responses), social value (status and relationships) and monetary value (price and cost savings). Modern approaches recognise the interplay of hedonic and utilitarian drivers, with perceived risk and experiential factors also shaping value judgments. Measurement techniques range from structural equation modelling and best–worst scaling to large-scale meta-analyses, reflecting the field’s methodological diversity. Research highlights causal chains linking perceived value to satisfaction, loyalty, electronic word-of-mouth and repurchase intention, moderated by context (online vs offline, B2B vs B2C, contractual conditions). Across hospitality, retail and digital services, rigorous value assessment informs service design, personalisation strategies and resource allocation, underpinning competitive advantage and sustainable growth on a global scale.

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Customer Value Assessment in Service Environments publication trend

The graph below shows the total number of articles in customer value assessment in service environments across all publications each year (not limited to Nature Index journals).

Technical terms

Customer perceived value (CPV): The customer’s overall evaluation of the net benefit of a service, weighing perceived benefits against perceived sacrifices.

Perceived service quality: A customer’s judgment of how well a service meets or exceeds expectations across reliability, assurance, tangibles, empathy and responsiveness.

Repurchase intention: A customer’s stated likelihood to purchase the same service again in the future based on their satisfaction and perceived value.

References

  1. Customer Perceived Value: A Comprehensive Meta-analysis. Journal of Service Research (2023).
  2. A comparative study of generations X, Y, Z in food purchasing behavior: the relationships among customer value, satisfaction, and Ewom. Cogent Business & Management (2022).
  3. Using best-worst scaling method to examine consumers’ value preferences: A multidimensional perspective. Cogent Business & Management (2016).
  4. The Structural Relationship among Perceived Service Quality, Perceived Value, and Customer Satisfaction-Focused on Starbucks Reserve Coffee Shops in Shanghai, China. Sustainability (2021).

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