ISSN 1671-3710
CN 11-4766/R
主办:中国科学院心理研究所
出版:科学出版社

Advances in Psychological Science ›› 2021, Vol. 29 ›› Issue (12): 2119-2130.doi: 10.3724/SP.J.1042.2021.02119

• Conceptual Framework • Previous Articles     Next Articles

Customer response to pro-customer deviance behavior: A theoretical model based on moral emotion

HU Jiajing1, ZHANG Meng2(), MA Xiuli1, LIU Yan1()   

  1. 1College of Tourism, Sichuan Agricultural University, Dujiangyan 611830, China
    2School of Business Administration, Southwestern University of Finance and Economics, Chengdu 611130, China
  • Received:2021-02-01 Published:2021-10-26
  • Contact: ZHANG Meng,LIU Yan E-mail:zhangm707@swufe.edu.cn;liuyan@sicau.edu.cn

Abstract:

The acts of pro-customer deviance (PCD), which occurs in the service encounters where employees consciously deviate from the formal regulations of enterprises to help customers or safeguard the interests of customers have been widely observed. However, barely no divergent results were found on the impact of PCD on the customer's response. Therefore, utilizing the Stimulus-Organism-Response paradigm and taking dual moral attributes of PCD (e.g., altruistic motivation, deviation from the norms of organization) as the logical origin, this study develops a model examining the relationship among PCD, customer moral emotions and re-patronage intention. Specifically, according to the Cognitive Appraisal Theory, this study explores customers' moral cognitive evaluation of PCD as well as their complex moral emotional response to PCD. Moreover, based on the Differential Emotions Theory, this study examines the interaction effect among different types of moral emotions, the mediating effect of moral emotions on the relationship between PCD and re-patronage intention, and the moderating effect of customer's attribution of responsibility and service context on the PCD-moral emotions-re-patronage intention linkage. The present study not only provides new theoretical insights into PCD and moral emotions, but also offers valuable practical implications for service enterprises to take advantage of the positive effect of PCD.

Key words: pro-customer deviance, dual moral attributes, moral emotion, crowding-in effect, crowding-out effect

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