• Journal of Distribution Science
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• v.15 no.8
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• pp.37-46
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• 2017

Purpose - Many studies have shown the effects of the external images of female flight attendants on the customers' satisfaction. Recently, the perception of male flight attendants has become more important and positive, and airlines are hiring a significant number of male flight attendants every year. Due to the lack of research on the male flight attendant, however, the images of male flight attendants were investigated for this study. Research, design, data and methodology - Using survey techniques with 204 respondents, this study used analytical data based their resulting analysis. Results - The study examined whether the image of the male flight attendant affects the cognitive and emotional perceptions of customers. The focus of the present study is the external image of the male flight attendant, and the following image-component divisions were formed: hairstyle, body type, uniform, speech, and facial expression. Conclusions - The study purpose sought to determine whether the image of the male flight attendant exert effects on the emotional and cognitive images of airlines, and if these images have a positive effect on the customers' satisfaction and loyalty for an airline, so that airlines can use the external image of the male flight attendant to help with its own image reinforcement.