• Journal of Service Research and Studies
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• v.13 no.2
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• pp.146-160
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• 2023

The spread of non-face-to-face services due to the COVID-19 pandemic has brought many changes in consumers' purchasing behavior and attracted much attention to new services. Could trying new services caused by this sudden environmental change alter consumers's choice patterns? This study proposes the research question of whether these new service experiences can change consumers' existing choice behavior, especially for risk-averse consumers who maintain their existing choice behavior or prefer safe alternatives. In this study, we examined whether trying out an unmanned payment services, one of innovative services that emerged after the pandemic crisis, can change the existing choice behavior of risk-averse consumers, i.e., make them more likely to prefer risky alternatives to safe alternatives. To accomplish these research goals, this research conducted one pilot survey and one study. The results of pilot survey showed that the stronger the prevention-focus tendency, the lower the self-efficacy to use the innovative service, with a negative relationship between them. Based on these findings, the study used an experimental method to examine the interaction effects between the use of innovation services and consumers' regulatory focus in a choice behavior and to explore the psychological mechanisms behind them. According to the results, it is found that prevention-focused consumers were more likely to choose risky alternatives and dissimilar extended brands following a trial of an unmanned payment service compared to not using that service. In contrast, promotion-focused consumers did not show different choice patterns regardless of following a trial of an innovative service. Furthermore, these results for prevention-focused consumers confirm the role of self-efficacy as a psychological mechanism. These findings shed light on the role of self-efficacy which has discussed in positive psychology into marketing area. Moreover, practical and academic implications are suggested by the finding that behavioral change occurs in risk-averse consumers, who are known to be hesitant to try new behaviors, indicating market expansion related to potential consumers for the use of the innovation services.