Airline ticket blind box services have emerged as a novel service format in which customers purchase a ticket before the destination is revealed. This research aims to investigate how customers form service evaluations when core outcome information is intentionally withheld. Specifically, it examines how customers rely on utilitarian and hedonic value cues, and how perceived destination uncertainty changes the evaluative weight of these cues.
To test the proposed model, this research adopts a sequential multi-method design consisting of a survey-based study and a follow-up scenario experiment.
Both utilitarian value cues (e.g. monetary savings and choice efficiency) and hedonic value cues (e.g. perceived surprise, perceived enjoyment and social interaction) positively influence customer satisfaction, which in turn enhances repurchase intention. More importantly, perceived destination uncertainty weakens the effects of monetary savings and choice efficiency, while strengthening the effects of perceived enjoyment and social interaction. The experiment further shows that destination uncertainty increases perceived loss of control when utilitarian attributes are emphasized, whereas it enhances excitement when hedonic attributes are emphasized.
This research contributes to service evaluation research by identifying a value-based evaluation process in uncertainty-driven services where core outcome information is intentionally withheld. This research also extends prior work on uncertainty by demonstrating that destination uncertainty asymmetrically changes the evaluative weight of utilitarian and hedonic value cues, highlighting its dual role of uncertainty as both a potential source of risk and a driver of experiential appeal.
