5. Discussion
5.1. Theoretical implications This research makes substantial contributions by exploring both cognitive and affective mechanisms by which service customization operates. The current research demonstrates that customization elicits customer emotions that, in turn, generate trust in the FLE, and subsequently loyalty. Study 1 tested this proposition, confirming the primary influence of customer gratitude. Study 2 further supported gratitude and delight's positive effect on trust, and also offered evidence for the positive effect of pride and negative effect of anger. These findings are interesting since these emotions differ in regards to the agency appraisal. Gratitude and anger are elicited by an other-agency appraisal, pride is elicited by a self-agency appraisal, and delight has not been linked to a particular agency appraisal. Given that customization is provided by another agency (i.e., the employee), one may conjecture that gratitude may play a primary role generating trust, yet research shows that individuals often attribute themselves as responsible for positive outcomes (Weiner, 1985). The current findings show that gratitude plays a critical role, as gratitude mediates the effect of interpersonal behavior on trust at both high and low levels of service offering customization. However, pride, delight and anger are also influential, as these emotions mediate the effect of interpersonal adaptive behavior on trust at high levels of service offering adaptation. Thus, not only does customization make customers feel good about employee actions, but customization also makes customers feel good about themselves, further demonstrating that customization works through affective and cognitive mechanisms, which is a departure from much work in this area.
