Not always co-creating brand: effects of perceived justice on employee brand sabotage behaviours in the hotel industry

Abstract

PurposeThis study aims to explore the concept of frontline employee’s brand sabotage behaviour (BSB) and the influencing factors of BSB in the hotels and their partner travel agencies from the perspective of perceived justice and establishes a moderating mechanism based on emotional resource supplementation.Design/methodology/approachThis paper developed a measurement scale of BSB through interviews with hotel employees and multiple rounds of questionnaire surveys in Study 1 and tested the research model and hypotheses using a structural equation model analysis in Study 2.FindingsThe results of multiple rounds of surveys indicate that a positive perception of procedural justice helps to restrain employees from implementing BSB but the employee’s perceived customer injustice can directly stimulate not only the BSB but also reduce employees’ perception of the level of procedural justice. However, when employees’ self-efficacy for emotional regulation is higher, the positive relationship between customer injustice and BSB and the negative impact on procedural justice is weakened.Practical implicationsThe findings suggest that managers should implement practices to suppress BSB by actively managing the service interaction process and reduce the instances of unjust customer behaviours, while preventing employees from sabotaging brands at both organizational and employee levels by promoting organizational procedural justice and employees’ self-efficacy for emotional regulation.Originality/valueThe research results enrich the discussion on the integration of resources in the process of value co-creation and the common sabotage of brand value caused by resource abuse. Further, this study also supplements and perfects the theory of service brand management.