Consumers' Emotional Responses and Emotion Regulation Strategies During Multistage Waiting in Restaurants

Service consumption often involves waiting during the different stages of the delivery process. This research examines the effect of multistage waiting on consumers' emotional responses and emotion regulation strategies. The study is conducted at a virtual restaurant in Second Life, an online simulation website. The results show that there is a significant interaction effect between consumption stage and the type of emotional responses. Although both anxiety and anger are the most intense emotions felt during preprocess waiting, anxiety is the strongest emotion felt during in-process waiting, and anger is the most salient emotional reaction during postprocess waiting. Results also indicate that there is a significant interaction effect between consumption stage and the type of emotion regulation strategies used by consumers. Attentional deployment and reappraisal are dominant emotion regulation strategies used by consumers during preprocess waiting; in addition, reappraisal and attentional deployment are the predominant strategies used during in-process waiting and postprocess waiting, respectively. The theoretical, methodological, and managerial contributions of the results are also discussed.