After COVID-19, the service sector has expanded significantly, accelerating the Service Economy. Recently, services ranging from meal kits, grocery shopping, schedule management, to OTT, work tools, and AI services have become integral to various aspects of daily life. For some, these services are a lifesaver, promoting greater well-being in a variety of ways. For others, services turn out to be a waste of time and money. There is an assumption that consumers are capable of seeking, using, and evaluating services to maximize the benefit or well-being achieved through the selected services. However, it's challenging to find academic indicators that capture this phenomenon. We argue that service literacy is an important construct in a consumer’s ability to search for, select and use services in ways that promote greater well-being. We further argue that service literacy is an important reason that a consumer’s use of services leads to well-being. In this study, we develop and validate a measure of service literacy and then explore its mediating role in the relationship between use of services and well-being.

Accepted Poster Presentation