Testing airline passengers' responses to flight attendants' expressive displays: The effects of positive affect

Much of the marketing and management literature is concerned with the relationship between service providers' positive affective displays, the consumers' perception of authentic service delivery and their reported satisfaction [Grandey AA. When "The Show Must Go On": surface acting and deep acting as determinants of emotional exhaustion and peer-rated service delivery. Acad Manage J 2003;46(1):86-96; Tsai WC, Huang YM. Mechanisms linking employee affective delivery and customer behavioural intentions. J Appl Psychol 2002;87(5):1001-8. Pugh SD. Service with a smile: emotional contagion in the service encounter. Acad Manage J 2001;44(5):1018-1927; Price L, Arnould E, Tierney P. Going to extremes: managing service encounters and assessing provider performance. In: Bateson J, Hoffman, Douglas K. (Eds.), Managing Services Marketing, 1999, Orlando, FL: Dryden Press (pp. 249-266)]. This paper responds to the need for further research in the relationship between service providers' positive affective displays and consumers' perception of authentic service delivery; and the relationship between these and reported satisfaction [Price L, Arnould E, Tierney P. Going to extremes: managing service encounters and assessing provider performance. In: Bateson J, Hoffman, Douglas K. (Eds.), Managing Services Marketing, 1999, Orlando, FL: Dryden Press (pp. 249-266); Pugh SD. Service with a smile: emotional contagion in the service encounter. Acad Manage J 2001;44(5):1018-1927; Grandey AA. When "The Show Must Go On": surface acting and deep acting as determinants of emotional exhaustion and peer-rated service delivery. Acad Manage J 2003;46(1):86-96] . Research conducted with a national airline in 2003 is analysed to measure the influence of service providers' positive expressive displays on life satisfaction, overall consumption satisfaction and intention to repurchase. The findings indicate a strong positive relationship between, and within affective displays, overall service satisfaction and life satisfaction. A path model tests the direct, indirect and total effects of expressive display on overall service satisfaction, life satisfaction and likelihood of repurchase. Finally, we discuss implications for industry and academic research. © 2006 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.