Gdp of Usa
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Services industry has become a worldwide trend in todays market. This can be seen from the increasing contribution of services industry in the countrys total GDP (Gross Domestic Product). According to the Central Intelligence Agency (2010), the contribution of services industry in the total GDP of United States is 76.7%, Australia is 71.2%, United Kingdom is 77.1 % and Hong Kong is 92.3% in 2010. The figures show that the world market has moved into a services industry trends.
Service is product that is intangible which is unable to be touched or seen. When a consumer purchases a service, we can say that he or she is actually purchasing an experience and there have no transfer of ownership of the products to the customer (Lovelock, Wirtz and Chew 2009). The examples of service include accounting, banking, cleaning, consultancy, education, insurance, transportation and many others.
In the process of purchasing service, consumers may have gone through stages include pre-purchase stage, consumption stage and post-purchase stage. In the pre-purchase stage, consumers will recognize the need for the services, search for information regarding the services and evaluate the alternatives. After deciding the types of services to be purchase, consumers will purchase as well as consume the purchased services and this is the consumption stage. In the post-purchase or post- choice stage, consumers evaluate the services that have been used. If the consumers are satisfied with the services, there will be repeat purchases and vice versa. In the purchase of service, there are some special considerations that consumers may undertake in the three stages which are different from the purchases of goods. One of the special considerations of service purchases is the perceived risk of the services which will be discussed in this paper. The intangibility of services makes them more problematic than goods to be evaluated; therefore, the purchase of services may evoke higher levels of perceived risk compare to goods. The perceived risks will be illustrated using two types of services that are high in more than one perceived risk for many customers. Ways to alleviate the risks will also be addressed.