Treat for affection? Customers’ differentiated responses to pro-customer deviance

Abstract

Pro-customer deviance (PCD), which is featured with two-sided moral concerns (altruistic motivation vs. deviating from organizational norms), has been widely witnessed in the hospitality industry. However, few studies have taken the moral perspective to examine how customers respond to PCD. Based on the social exchange theory and cognitive appraisal theory, this study empirically regards PCD as a double-edged sword and proposes a dual-pathway model to examine differentiated responses to PCD from the perspective of both focal and observing customers. The results of three experiments showed that PCD could increase (reduce) focal customers’ (observing customers’) citizenship behavior through perceived preferential treatment (psychological contract violation) and gratitude (disgust). Additionally, the relationships between PCD and customer citizenship behavior were moderated by relationship norms (communal relationship vs. exchange relationship). This study enriches the literature on the consequences of PCD and provides managerial insights into how hospitality enterprises should manage employees who engage in PCD. • This study focuses on two-sided moral concerns of pro-customer deviance. • Pro-customer deviance impacts customer citizenship behavior. • Pro-customer deviance impacts differently on focal customers and observing customers. • The mediating effects of moral cognitions and moral emotions are examined. • Relationship norms moderate customers’ responses to pro-customer deviance.