Effect of employee incivility on customer retaliation through psychological contract breach: The moderating role of moral identity

Abstract

This study investigates the effect of employee incivility on customer retaliation through psychological contract breach in the context of upscale restaurants. Results of our study (N=2014) show that psychological contract breach mediates the positive relationship between employee incivility and three forms of customer retaliatory behaviors. Further, drawing upon the moral identity perspective, we found that customers who are high in moral identity tend to be more likely to seek revenge by engaging in vindictive complaining (but not third party complaining or negative word of mouth) subsequent to their experience of psychological contract breach. Our study yielded both theoretical contributions and practical implications.