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should wait when these two conflicting cost components are considered. An integral part of this
model includes a measure of customer satisfaction with waiting time which is used to develop a
waiting cost function. The model is then applied to a major fast food chain, using data collected
at several locations. Analysis of the data reveals that the “ideal” waiting time for this firm is significantly
less than the current corporate waiting time policy. Thus, as indicated by the model, a
corporate policy change is recommended to provide much faster service. The adoption of such a
policy would result in increased labor costs, and would simultaneously increase the firm’s overall
profits. Although appearing contradictory, increases in current labor costs and long-term profits
are both possible when management takes the long-range perspective suggested in this paper.
Keywords: Consumer behavior, Service operations management
14. Katz, Karen L., Blaire M. Larson and Richard C. Larson. Prescription for the waiting-in-line
blues: Entertain, enlighten, and engage, Sloan Management Review, 1991, 44–53.
Abstract. As consumers experience a greater squeeze on their time, even short waits seem
longer than ever before. If firms can improve customers’ perceptions of the time they spend
waiting to be served, then customers will experience less frustration and may feel more satisfied
with the service encounter. This paper examines customer perceptions of waiting in line and
investigates methods for making waiting more tolerable.
15. Green, Linda V., Donald R. Lehmann and Bernd H. Schmitt. Time perceptions in service systems:
An overview of the TPM framework, Advances in Services Marketing and Management,
5, 1996, 85–107.
Abstract. We present Time Perception Management (TPM)—a conceptual framework for organizing
research and managerial issues regarding time perceptions in service systems. The
TPM framework proposes that customers’ perceptions of time in service systems are affected
by factors that operate both before and after, as well as during, the actual service encounter.
Moreover, whereas some of these factors are related to the specific service system, others are the
result of the generic service type and personal/sociocultural characteristics. The framework has
important implications for managing and measuring time perceptions and for the relationship
between time perceptions and customer satisfaction.
16. Hui, Michael K. and David K. Tse. What to tell consumers in waits of different lengths: An
integrative model of service evaluation, Journal of Marketing, 60, 1996, 81–90.
Abstract. We conduct an experimental study to examine the impact of two types of waiting
information—waiting-duration information and queueing information—on consumers’ reactions
to waits of different lengths. We test a model that includes three different constructs—perceived
waiting duration, acceptability of the wait, and effective response to the wait—as mediators
between waiting information and service evaluation. Results show that though acceptability of
the wait and affective response to the wait have a significant mediating effect on the relationship
between waiting information and service evaluation, perceived waiting duration does not.
Moreover, neither type of information has significant impact in the short-wait condition, whereas
waiting-duration information has greater impact than queueing information in the intermediate-
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