Psychological Contract Breach and Customer Satisfaction: A Study of Online Shopping |
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| Authors: | Hua Chang Lingling Zhang |
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| Institution: | 1. Department of Marketing, College of Business &2. Economics, Towson University, Towson, Maryland, USA;3. Department of Mass Communication, College of Fine Arts &4. Communication, Towson University, Towson, Maryland, USA |
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| Abstract: | Relying on customer attribution theory and psychological contract model, we find that customers perceive a psychological contract breach more severe and experience more intense emotions when they attribute the service failure to external factors rather than internal factors (Experiment 1), and message construal level (Experiment 2) moderates the effect of psychological contract breach on the formation of their intense affective reactions. The study demonstrates that the way a firm communicates to customers about the unfulfilled promises affects their interpretation of the breach and thus the intensity of the emotional reactions. |
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| Keywords: | Online shopping service failure psychological contract attribution construal level |
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