When Good Consumers Turn Bad: Psychological Contract Breach in Committed Brand Relationships
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Abstract
To better understand the conditions under which committed consumers continue to support their preferred brand after a transgression versus turn against the brand and the underlying theoretical process, we study the interplay between brand commitment and specific types of transgressions. Across three scenario‐based and field studies, we show that consumers have psychological contracts with brands, which dictate the terms of the relationship, and for committed consumers, violations of any aspect in (out of) the contract results in a negative (indifferent) response. Furthermore, we demonstrate that consumer trust is the underlying mechanism: committed consumers exhibit more negative responses to in‐contract transgressions as a result of their lower trust in the brand.
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This accepted article is published as Nicole Montgomery, Sekar Raju, Kalpesh Desai, and H. Rao Unnava (2018), “When Good Consumers Turn Bad: Psychological Contract Breach in Committed Brand Relationships” Journal of Consumer Psychology, 28(3), 437-449. Doi.10.1002/jcpy.1015. Posted with permission.