Domestic inter‐cultural service encounters: an integrated model

Proposes to provide practicing managers and academic researchers with a framework that will help them to understand better the nature of domestic inter‐cultural service encounters.

Social identity theory is used to demonstrate how salient identity cues such as physiognomy, linguistic, and behavioral differences are likely to influence customer expectations during initial and subsequent encounters between domestic customers and culturally distant service providers.

The framework developed, and the associated propositions, provide practicing managers with insights into how domestic service customers are likely to respond to domestic inter‐cultural service encounters.

Domestic intercultural service encounters have special practical implications for staffing policy and training requirements in service organizations (e.g. there may be ethical and legal challenges for service organizations that refuse to hire service providers unless they can demonstrate competence in the domestic language, customs, etc., or because of visible salient cultural identity cues).

Existing service encounter frameworks do not address the role that cultural identity plays in service exchange relationships. The value of this paper is that it uses cultural identity theory to extend an existing model that examines the nature and determinants of customer expectations of service. This extension enhances managers' understanding of service exchange relationships.