An Equity Model of Consumer Responses to Waiting Time

Abstract

Consumer research on waiting time tends to be presented atheoretically. This paper suggests that consumer responses to waiting time are influenced by distributive, procedural and interactional fairness perceptions. This perspective simplifies theoretical explanations of waiting time phenomena reported in a variety of settings, with implications for both researchers and practitioners. The proposed framework incorporates insights from literature on time consumption as well as sociological discussions regarding the symbolic aspects of waiting time.