The Impact of Cognitive versus Affective Aspects on Consumer Usage of Financial Service Delivery Channels

Burger and Cooper (1979) introduced the notion of ‘desire for control’ as a stable
personality trait reflecting the extent to which individuals, generally, are motivated to control
the events in their lives. More control in events means more responsibility for the outcomes
of consumers’ choices. When that happens, people are more likely to attribute success to self,
especially in services where the consumer co-participates in the production of the service.

Consumers’ enjoyment with control, and consequent desire for control, will contribute
to their attraction to some delivery channels and avoidance of others. Usually, self-service
delivery channels evoke higher perceived control of the service production and delivery,
because customers have their co-producing role enhanced and a higher content of the service
depends on their inputs and efforts. The more a customer enjoys being in control, the more
he/she will be attracted to a more frequent usage of technology-based (i.e., self-service
delivery) channels.

H3: A consumer’s desire for control will influence the likelihood of that consumer
using more frequently technology-based service deliveries.

Enjoyment with participation

Service participation refers to the degree to which a customer is involved in producing and
delivering the service (Dabholkar, 1990) or, in other words, participation is the consumer’s
ability to exercise options, which affect the sequence and substance of service delivery
throughout the service experience (Goodwin and Radford, 1993). The ‘enjoyment with
participation’ variable refers to the affective compensation that the customer obtains from
being involved and participating in the events in his/her life. Consumers differ in their
willingness to participate in the service encounter.

Bateson’s findings (1985a) revealed that propensity to participate might transcend
particular services, and that for certain individuals ‘doing it themselves’ would be attractive
even when monetary or time-saving incentives were not present. Research results show that
some people find participation intrinsically attractive, while others find more participative
behaviors inherently unattractive (Langeard et al., 1981; Dabholkar, 1996; Bitner et al.,
1997).

H4: A consumer’s enjoyment with participation will influence the likelihood of that
consumer using more frequently technology-based service deliveries.

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