The relationship between tipping and service quality: A comment on Bodvarsson and Gibson's article

Numerous studies have found that tip size is only weakly related to service quality. Bodvarsson and Gibson recently challenged this finding-criticizing previous research and reporting that consumers say they would tip substantially different amounts with different levels of service quality. This paper presents a critical response to Bodvarsson and Gibson's article. Contrary to Bodvarsson and Gibson's claims, the weakness of the tipping-service relationship in the existing literature is not just a reflection of restricted variability in service ratings. Nor is it attributable to other methodological problems with service ratings. Furthermore, the data from Bodvarsson and Gibson's role-playing survey is suspect, because what people say they would do in a given situation is often different from what they actually do in that situation.