Tags:blame attributions, C2C interactions, customer misbehavior and services marketing
Abstract:
Today’s service encounters are increasingly characterized by customer-to-customer (C2C) interactions in which customers regularly become targets of other customers’ misbehavior. Previous research provides initial evidence of the contagiousness of customer misbehavior in access-based settings, yet it remains unclear whether this contagiousness likewise translates to other contexts and forms of misbehavior, and what service providers can do to effectively curb its spread. Three online experiments in the context of Airbnb, gym and transportation services reveal that provider-directed blame attributions mediate the contagiousness of C2C misbehavior. That is, C2C misbehavior spreads because customers blame the service provider for the wrongdoings of other customers; regardless of whether this misbehavior is targeted towards another customer’s personal belongings or at other customers directly. Moreover, our results indicate that preventative and interventive service provider measures can effectively reduce blame attributions which, in turn, attenuate negative customer attitudes towards the firm while simultaneously curbing subsequent C2C misbehavior. By explicating the central role blame attributions play in the spread of C2C misbehavior, this study extends previous research on customer misbehavior and misbehavior contagiousness. Managerially, this research provides firms with explicit guidance on how to tackle the spread of C2C misbehavior and reduce negative firm evaluations with targeted measures.
Stopping the Spread: the Role of Blame Attributions and Service Provider Measures in Curbing C2C Misbehavior Contagion