Toward a Better Understanding of C2C Misbehavior: Typology and Thresholds: An Abstract

Abstract

Fueled by technological advances and the rise of the collaborative economy, service encounters today are increasingly characterized by a high degree of customer-to-customer (C2C) interactions. C2C interactions are crucial to customers’ overall perception of service quality as they may positively or negatively influence their satisfaction. However, C2C interactions are oftentimes outside the direct control of the service provider. In such service settings customer misbehaviors targeted at other customers (C2C misbehavior) is particularly problematic, not only because it is contagious, but also because it can potentially damage the service provider, frontline employees, and other bystanding customers.Prior definitions and typologies primarily focus on general customer misbehavior and do not take sufficient account of the particularities of C2C misbehavior such as customers’ perceived severity of the experienced incivility of other customers and their expectations towards the service provider to intervene or prevent such behavior. In contrast to previous customer misbehavior typologies, this study aims at providing a typology specifically geared towards customer misbehavior that is directed at other customers or their property. It represents the first attempt in service literature to define C2C misbehavior from a norm-based perspective while emphasizing the importance of how norm deviances are interpreted by those customers who – directly or indirectly – have become the target of other customers’ misbehavior. We further demarcate C2C misbehavior from related concepts and systematically delineate different types of C2C misbehavior in relation to their perceived severity. Drawing on over 25 in-depth interviews, we use the repertory grid technique and employ comparative questioning to derive constructs that underpin customers’ complex perceptions of C2C misbehavior severity across various service settings. Based on these constructs, we aim to provide a comprehensive typology of C2C misbehavior according to its perceived severity that is applicable across service contexts. Thus, we provide the necessary theoretical scaffolding for further empirical research and theory development in this domain. We further explore what constitutes customers’ individual thresholds that mark the line between perceived tolerable vs. intolerable C2C misbehavior or when customers expect the service provider to intervene.Managerially, our typology will allow service providers to better categorize C2C misbehavior according to its severity. This differentiation is critical as it will support service providers in designing more targeted prevention and intervention measures, thus helping to reduce the occurrence and the spread of C2C misbehavior in service settings.KeywordsCustomer-to-customer misbehaviorCustomer-to-customer interactionsService experienceSocial norm deviance