Fads Phenomenon Operation through Cascade-Based Service Innovation Design

Abstract

People have a tendency to mimic the actions of the larger group. Herd behavior is one of the most common phenomena in our daily life. Previous studies criticized that homogeneity of herd behavior and blind conformity will cause the bubble to burst. Crowd psychology plays an important role in service marketing. However, is it possible for service operation to thrive in service industry by manipulating the herd behavior? In this study, we proposed and validated that the Cascade-based service innovation (CSI) design which utilizes the attraction effect that highlights the service value and meaning interpretation enable service innovation opportunities. The cascade-based innovation design uses service meaning interpretation as the decoy and applies the attraction effect to drive the cascade-based service innovations. The result indicates that the CSI design could facilitate service providers to manipulate and reshape their service design to achieve sustainable development of service marketing. This study applied hybrid research methodologies that combine empirical research to examine the CSI design for fads operation and qualitative case study, and explore the criteria that enables service providers to operate and manipulate fads phenomenon successfully.