Arguably, two conflicting norms may have been activated simultaneously for communal consumers in a service failure. The first norm focuses on self-obligation, that is, because s/he is my good friend, I have to tolerate his/her mistakes. The second norm focuses on other-obligation, that is, because s/he is my good friend, s/he has to provide me with good services. The relative salience of these two conflicting norms may influence communal consumers' dissatisfaction level to be different from exchange consumers. Building on the psychological contract theory (Rousseau 1989), it is proposed that promise breach type would reconcile the original prediction and the reverse finding in study 1. Specifically, communal (vs. exchange) consumers would be less dissatisfied in an implicit promise breach, but the reverse pattern would occur in an explicit promise breach. Moreover, self-construal would moderate the interactive relationship between relationship type and promise breach type on consumer dissatisfaction. In particular, the discrepancy in dissatisfaction between communal and exchange consumers would be larger for interdependents (vs. independents) in both implicit and explicit promise breach conditions. Two additional experimental studies with different consumption contexts provide convergent evidence of the proposed hypotheses. These results have broad implications for theory and practice, and point to fruitful opportunities for future research. / This dissertation examines the impact of relationship type on consumer dissatisfaction in service failures. According to the communal-exchange relationship framework (Clark and Mills 1979), whereas the central norm of communal relationships is to demonstrate a concern for others, that of exchange relationships is to give benefits to others with an expectation of immediate return. It follows that communal (vs. exchange) consumers would be less dissatisfied in service failures because enduring mistakes made by a service provider is more compatible with the communal (vs. exchange) central norm. Surprisingly, this argument was not supported and a reverse result was found in study 1. / Wan, Chun Ying. / Adviser: Hui King Man. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 70-09, Section: A, page: . / Thesis submitted in: December 2008. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2009. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 137-144). / Electronic reproduction. Hong Kong : Chinese University of Hong Kong, [2012] System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Available via World Wide Web. / Electronic reproduction. [Ann Arbor, MI] : ProQuest Information and Learning, [200-] System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Available via World Wide Web. / Electronic reproduction. Ann Arbor, MI : ProQuest dissertations and theses, [201-] System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Available via World Wide Web. / Abstracts in English and Chinese. / School code: 1307.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:cuhk.edu.hk/oai:cuhk-dr:cuhk_344425 |
| Date | January 2009 |
| Contributors | Wan, Chun Ying Lisa., Chinese University of Hong Kong Graduate School. Division of Business Administration. |
| Source Sets | The Chinese University of Hong Kong |
| Language | English, Chinese |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Text, theses |
| Format | electronic resource, microform, microfiche, 1 online resource (xi, 144 leaves : ill.) |
| Rights | Use of this resource is governed by the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons “Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International” License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/) |
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