The Power of Power - An observational study on how power affects the service encounter:

Sammanfattning: Abstract - Researchers in most areas agree upon the fact that power influences in all interpersonal relations; when two parties interact, some sort of balance of power will always be formed, which in turn will affect the parties' emotions. From a consumer marketing perspective, this may be applied to the service encounter, causing emotions affecting the store's overall result. Power has been studied to a limited extent in marketing; instead it is often substituted with perceived control. By doing an observational study of 206 customers in five The Phone House stores, with complementary surveys in 81 cases, we found however that perceived control and power cannot fully substitute each other, but they are both of importance to the service encounter. The findings imply that the customer has more positive emotions, if either the customer or the sales clerk possesses more power than the other. Furthermore, the customer is more satisfied the more dominance she takes in the interaction. Hence, one can argue it is in the interest of all stakeholders that the sales clerk tries to influence the interaction in the way that one part will possess more power than the other. Thus, if the customer does not act dominant, the sales clerk should step in and take a dominant role in the interaction.