| Abstract: | The overall purpose of my dissertation is to investigate whether, why, and when performance attribution influences consumer behaviors before, during, and after service operation in the fitness service context. The first study identifies the before-service effect of performance attribution by investigating the impact of trainers' attribution of their competent outcomes on service registration intention. The second study pinpoints the during-service effect of performance attribution by delving into the interactive effect of trainers' attribution of competent outcomes and customers' implicit mindset on service compliance. The third study explores the after-service effect of performance attribution by examining the effect of trainers' attribution of adverse outcomes on customer retaliation. These studies adopt and use an experimental design in data collection to examine the causal relationship among focal variables. These studies build upon each other by extending the scopes, outcome contexts, and boundary conditions of performance attribution effect in the fitness service context. These studies enrich both attribution theory and performance attribution literature by establishing various theoretical connections with adjacent theories. These studies also provide diverse practical implications about how to effectively utilize performance attribution to elicit customer behaviors conducive to fitness service organizations. The electronic version of this dissertation is accessible from https://hdl.handle.net/1969.1/197874 |
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