As frontline employees (FLEs) positions top the list of the unhappiest customer-facing jobs (Forbes, 2017), the services marketing literature identifies a wide range of customer misbehaviour episodes that FLEs face on a regular basis. Such episodes put FLEs’ mental and physical well-being at risk, making it harder for service providers to retain them and encourage their participation in customer-oriented behaviors. Service researchers have long explored the drivers of customer misbehaviour episodes, various forms of customer misbehaviour as well as their adverse effects on FLEs’ psychological wellbeing and work-related behaviour. However, service providers still lack insights as to how they can support FLEs coping with customer misbehaviour. In this vein, recent studies have begun to investigate the effectiveness of managerial interventions, such as supervisor support, leadership styles and empowerment in coping with the adverse effects of customer misbehaviour on FLEs in such episodes. However, this works fails to recognize that, while FLEs are indeed among the organizational actors who predominantly witness customer misbehaviour episodes, such episodes may instead target their organization as a whole. Although mapping the target of customer misbehaviours (i.e., FLEs or the organization) is difficult, identity theory suggests that individuals possess multiple identity levels that they tend to value and protect (e.g., personal, group identity). Depending on the level of identity that is under threat, varied behavioural responses can be engendered. Pertinent research has yet to assess whether different types of customer misbehaviour are threats to different FLEs’ identity levels. This is important as a strong professional identity can be a source of job satisfaction and sense of accomplishment for employees and shape their social interactions with others in their role capacity.
The current work views customer misbehaviour through the lens of identity threat literature) and empirically assesses whether customer misbehaviour directed at different FLE identity levels generates differential FLE responses. Drawing from the identity threat literature and identity control theory, we draw on a sample of 282 FLEs, through two experimental studies. Study 1 findings show that customer misbehaviour directed at FLEs’ individual self has a more adverse effect on their wellbeing than their citizenship behaviour whereas the opposite is the case when customer misbehaviour is directed at FLEs’ collective self. Study 2’s findings show that non-monetary rewards are more effective at reducing the adverse effects of customer misbehaviour on FLEs’ wellbeing than monetary rewards, with the latter being more effective at reducing the adverse effects of customer misbehaviour on FLEs’ citizenship behaviour. Our findings demonstrate that customer misbehaviour constitutes a dual identity threat for frontline employees (FLEs) (i.e., threat towards their individual or collective identity). Also, we confirm the role of a novel mediating mechanism between customer misbehaviour and FLE outcomes—namely, FLEs’ identity, and offers managers evidence-based directions on the impact of rewards on their staff after customer misbehaviour incidents and highlights the effectiveness of reward choice for FLEs experiencing such incidents.

This study focuses on the intensity of practices (Warde, 2014), and more specifically of collective consumption practices in service brand communities (Schau et al., 2009, 31). While much research in practice theory allude to the fact that practices have an intensity (Schau et al., 2009; Southerton, 2012), practice studies offer little understanding of the notion of intensity. This paper aims to address this conceptual weakness, as intensity may affect the way consumers experience consumption, their relation to the self (Southerton, 2012), the community, and the service brand (McAlexander and Schouten, 2002). Further, some service brands purposely use complexity and intensity as core selling points (Powers and Greenwell, 2016) and research also shows that some consumer look for intensity, and even pain (Scott et al., 2017). The objectives of this study are thus to propose a first conceptualization of the intensity of collective consumption practices, as well as understand how intensity affects the way people relate to the community, the service brand and themselves. We use the theoretical lens of practice theory, as well as brand community and brand relationship literature to frame our understanding and analysis of practices, and collect interview and participant observation data in different countries.

Research proposes that intensity of practices might be characterized by various dimensions, contingent on certain aspects of consumption (Holt, 1995). The complexity of the service, or task at hand also seems to be a constituent to the existence of intensity (Benedetty and Neely, 2012). The notion of intensity of collective consumption practices also finds echo in the context of brand communities, as they offer ground to the emerge of collective practices around the consumption of a brand (Hartmann et al., 2015).

As a result, we focus our exploratory work on the service brand Crossfit and its community. Crossfit is considered a form of extreme branded fitness, which are sports that happen inside branded places, and where members often adopt a specific way of life around the brand and its ethos and values (Powers and Greenwell, 2017). Participants push themselves beyond recommended exercise requirements, testing the limits of human strength, endurance, and tolerance (Powers and Greenwell, 2017).

The authors have been practicing Crossfit and engaged in participant observation for over 10 years, across various countries and continents. 21 interviews were also conducted with different types of Crossfit community members. The qualitative data were analysed using Nvivo12 software by three researchers.

The results allow us to define intensity of collective consumption practices as practices as a multi-dimensional concept referring to the way a consumption practice of a service is enacted behaviorally, cognitively and emotionally. Intensity of collective consumption practices is an individual-specific, subjective and time-specific phenomenon, and it is composed of 4 dimensions: complexity, frequency, length and focus. The paper evidences how intensity plays a significant role in shaping consumers’ relationship to their self, to the community and to the service brand, through their practices. Intensity impacts self-perceptions (Holt, 1995) and contributes to identity projects (Dessart and Cova, 2021).

References upon request.

Purpose and Motivation

Due to forgone profits, competitive showrooming of consumers (i.e., consumers purposefully switching from offline to online channels of competing retailers) is harmful for physical retailers (e.g., Rapp et al. 2015). Current preventive strategies focus mainly on meeting lower online prices to offset the economic benefits consumers gain from showrooming. Such strategies are detrimental to retailers' margins and are restricted in their applicability due to different cost structures that make higher offline prices reasonable (e.g., Chiou et al. 2012). Therefore, the question arises what alternative strategies physical retailers can apply to prevent competitive showrooming and how contextual factors affect the effectiveness of those strategies? Alternative strategies have not yet received adequate scholarly attention. We assess novel communication appeals to decrease the detrimental effect of higher prices in physical retail stores and thereby respond to recent research calls on strategies against showrooming (e.g., Fassnacht et al. 2019). Specifically, the goal of our research is to investigate boundary conditions of the economic showrooming benefits – showrooming intention effect and to provide evidence for their contextual effectiveness.

Methodology and Findings

To achieve our goals, we develop communication-based strategies (i.e., appeals). As communication is relational per se, we draw on Fiske’s (1992) theory of social relations, which posits that people use four elementary models (i.e., market pricing, equality matching, communal sharing, authority ranking) to interpret, act, and communicate about social relations. With a series of experiments, we test whether these appeals can prevent showrooming. Specifically, we show that the impact of showrooming benefits on the showrooming decision is attenuated by retailers’ relational model appeals. In additional studies, this research also investigates contextual boundary conditions (e.g., communicator type) of these effects. We will present detailed empirical results at the conference.

Implications for research

This research entails several contributions to the omnichannel and showrooming literature. This research is the first to investigate relational model appeals as a boundary condition of the relationship between showrooming benefits and the showrooming decision. In additional studies, this research also explicates contextual boundary conditions (e.g., retailer type) of the effectiveness of specific relational model appeals.

Implications for practice

Physical retailers have invested heavily to prevent consumers from engaging in competitive showrooming, and many believe that aligning offline prices with lower online prices is the key to success. Physical retailers can benefit from our results as this research provides practitioners with the required understanding and knowledge to deduce hands-on solutions to prevent consumers’ competitive showrooming. Our research offers strategies for decreasing competitive showrooming by appealing to relational models rather than aligning prices and provides evidence for their effectiveness in different contexts.

Conclusion

Retailing practice is lacking strategies against showrooming that are not grounded on price-related considerations. To provide guidance in facing this problem, we evaluate novel communication appeals against showrooming and therefore respond to recent research calls on this topic (e.g., Fassnacht et al. 2019). Drawing on Fiske’s (1992) theory of social interactions, we are the first to investigate the moderating roles of relational model appeals and their contextual effectiveness.