Dimensions of total product knowledge in a service environment Karin Braunsberger College of Business Administration, University of South Florida St Petersburg, St Petersburg, Florida, USA R. Brian Buckler School of Business, Avila University, Kansas City, Missouri, USA, and Michael Luckett College of Business Administration, University of South Florida St Petersburg, St Petersburg, Florida, USA Abstract Purpose – The purpose of the paper is to compare measures of subjective and objective knowledge as well as usage/experience measures in a credence service environment for two different samples, namely college students and non-student adults. Design/methodology/approach – Data were collected from two independent samples using self-administered questionnaires and were analyzed using correlation and reliability analyses, factor analysis, discriminant analysis and one-way ANOVA. Findings – For the student sample, the results show that even though measures of subjective product knowledge, objective product knowledge, and product usage are correlated with one another, each represents one unique dimension of total product knowledge. The results for the non-student sample show that subjective and objective knowledge converge into one dimension, product usage is a second dimension, and vicarious product knowledge a third dimension. Research limitations/implications – One limitation of the present study is that its results are anchored in the context of hospitals and might thus be most relevant to this particular choice of service. In terms of implications, the “vicarious” component of total product knowledge the study uncovers for non-students is a promising field for future studies because it is identified as one of the dimensions of total knowledge for those non-student consumers who have a fairly low degree of objective knowledge and direct product experience. Practical implications – Marketing managers should to take into account that, for adults, subjective knowledge is a better indicator of their objective knowledge than for students (or perhaps similar segments). Originality/value – The present study is one of the first studies to investigate simultaneously the three dimensions of consumer product knowledge in a credence service environment. Keywords Knowledge management, Health services, User studies, Focus groups, Knowledge mapping Paper type Research paper An executive summary for managers and executive readers can be found at the end of this article. Introduction A service can be defined as a performance (Rathmell, 1966), and customers have been found to view services as being riskier than goods and more variable in nature (Murray and Schlacter, 1990). If a service requires the customer’s presence and participation, it is further likely that both have an impact on the perceived quality of the service, and thus customer satisfaction (Bateson, 2002; Lovelock, 1983). In addition, it has been suggested that both services and goods feature search, experience, and credence qualities, and that depending on which of these qualities is perceived to be prevalent in a service or good determines where it can be placed on the continuum that ranges from easy to evaluate to difficult to evaluate (Zeithaml and Bitner, 2000). Since services are generally higher in experience and credence qualities than goods, they are often more difficult to evaluate than goods. Moreover, in the case of services that are high in credence qualities, it has been found that customers have a difficult time assessing the service even after product trial or consumption (Hsieh and Chaing, 2004). However, it has been suggested that the internet has changed the informational environment for many services. That is, argue Laing et al. (2005, p. 675), “the internet, with its unprecedented breadth of interconnected information, offers consumers access to specialist product and market information which has conventionally been confined to organizations and professionals operating within that market”. In other words, the internet aids consumers in their information search and thus helps remedy the informational asymmetries that have traditionally been prevalent in professional services that are high in credence qualities. It is expected that this development will translate The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available at www.emeraldinsight.com/0887-6045.htm Journal of Services Marketing 22/7 (2008) 505–519 q Emerald Group Publishing Limited [ISSN 0887-6045] [DOI 10.1108/08876040810909640] Received: January 2006 Revised: September 2006 Accepted: October 2006 505