Embarrassment in consumer help-seeking: how power distance belief shapes service experiences

Consumer help seeking occurs every day. Prior researchers have primarily examined help seeking in non-routine service encounters, such as in the education, working organization, and mental health fields, yet remain largely underexamined in daily routine consumption encounters. This research filled this gap by investigating consumers' daily help-seeking behavior from a cultural perspective, that is, how consumers' power distance belief (PDB) influences their intentions to seek assistance from service employees.

We conducted three between-subject experiments with two groups of subjects from different cultural background (Asia and the United States) and three types of distinct help-seeking scenarios in daily service encounters to verify our conceptual model. ANOVA and PROCESS macro employing the bootstrapping method were used to analyze the data.

In study 1 we found a negative relationship between PDB and consumers' help-seeking intention using a gym equipment usage setting. In study 2 we examined the mediating role of anticipated embarrassment using a Western dinner etiquette context. In study 3 we further established the moderating role of self-confidence using an ordering wine scenario. When high-PDB consumers are high in self-confidence, they perceive weaker embarrassment, which further increases their intention to seek help from service providers compared to those with low self-confidence, and thus the negative effect of PDB on help-seeking intention decreases.

This research helps companies better understand consumers' help-seeking behavior from a cultural perspective and enables them to more accurately design service strategies during consumer-employee interactions.