The dynamic process of customer psychological contracts in a service context

Abstract

This study aims to extend our understanding of the customer-service team relationship from a new angle, that is, the customer psychological contract. This study adopts the psychological contract theory, proposes and empirically tests a dynamic process of customer psychological contract with the sales teams. In particular, this study examines the relationships between customer psychological contract breach, violation, and satisfaction. In addition, it identifies sales team exhaustion, and customer past positive experience as the conditions which moderate the link between customer psychological contract breach and violation. Using multisource data collection from matched 263 sales team members with 1,003 customers nested in 88 sales teams, the results from multilevel modeling show that customer psychological contract breach leads to a high level of perceived violation, which in turn reduces customer satisfaction. Although sales team exhaustion amplifies the positive impact of customer psychological contract breach on violation, customer past positive experience diminishes such impact. Overall, this study provides a unique contribution to existing literature on the service organization, psychological contract, and the management of customer and service team interactions.

The effects of a psychological brand contract breach on customers' dysfunctional behavior toward a brand

“…We argue that a breach is a customer's cognitive evaluation that the brand has failed to fulfill its obligations and the perception that there is a discrepancy between what was promised and what was actually delivered, whereas a psychological brand contract violation is the affective state that follows from the perception of a psychological brand contract breach. Thus, we suggest that a psychological brand contract violation is an outcome of a psychological brand contract breach (Morrison and Robinson, 1997;Robinson and Morrison, 2000;Zhao et al, 2020). Bordia et al (2008) argue that violation mediates the relationship between perceptions of breach and behavioral outcomes such as workplace deviance.…”

“…Similarly, Bi (2019) argues that a psychological contract helps to better understand the customer-company relationship building process and substantially impacts customer behavior. Zhao et al (2020) note that a psychological contract provides an alternative perspective on customer relationship management.…”

“…A psychological brand contract can be broken from the customer's perspective when a customer notices that the brand is unsuccessful in fulfilling its promised obligations ( TurnleyCustomers' dysfunctional behavior toward a brand and Feldman, 1999). A psychological brand contract breach is defined as a customer's cognition that the brand has failed to meet the promised obligations within the psychological contract [2] (Eckerd et al, 2013;Malhotra et al, 2017;Zhao et al, 2020). Following the psychological brand contract breach, customers experience strong emotional suffering, such as feelings of betrayal, deeper psychological distress, a sense of injustice, resentment and wrongful harm (Coyle-Shapiro et al, 2019;Morrison and Robinson, 1997;Zhao et al, 2020).…”

“…A psychological brand contract breach is defined as a customer's cognition that the brand has failed to meet the promised obligations within the psychological contract [2] (Eckerd et al, 2013;Malhotra et al, 2017;Zhao et al, 2020). Following the psychological brand contract breach, customers experience strong emotional suffering, such as feelings of betrayal, deeper psychological distress, a sense of injustice, resentment and wrongful harm (Coyle-Shapiro et al, 2019;Morrison and Robinson, 1997;Zhao et al, 2020). Therefore, we define psychological brand contract violation as an intense reaction of outrage, shock, resentment and anger (Coyle-Shapiro et al, 2019).…”

“…perceptions about the promises that the brand has made to customers in return for their patronage), thereby extending the literature on the outcome of psychological contract breaches and violations. Most psychological contract research in customer service settings has focused on the effects of psychological contract breaches on customer satisfaction (Malhotra et al, 2017;Zhao et al, 2020), customer trust (Goles et al, 2009;Hill et al, 2009;Malhotra et al, 2017), customer commitment (Kingshott, 2006), customer loyalty (Bi, 2019;Malhotra et al, 2017;Pavlou and Gefen, 2005) and customer citizenship behavior (Liu et al, 2020).…”