Studies on the Influence of Customer Trait Psychological Reactance on Customer Behaviour in the Context of Green Loyalty Programs

Huang, Jingxi and Daryanto, Ahmad and Hogg, Margaret (2023) Studies on the Influence of Customer Trait Psychological Reactance on Customer Behaviour in the Context of Green Loyalty Programs. PhD thesis, Lancaster University.

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Abstract

Trait reactance, which refers to the individual differences in how customers value their freedom of choice and react to being restricted, is an important influence on customers’ responses towards marketing tactics. This thesis investigates the impact of customer trait reactance on customer behaviour in the context of green loyalty programs (LPs), focusing on (1) empirically assessing the boundary conditions of the impact of trait reactance on customer behaviour, (2) proposing and testing a new concept (i.e., goal-reward congruity hypothesis) that captures the influence of trait reactance on customer behaviour, and (3) empirically examining a situation where trait reactance might not necessarily be the key issue for marketing managers to address in order to influence customer behaviour. Three papers address each of these points in order to advance the current understanding of the effect of trait reactance on customer behaviour: Paper 1: The first paper examines a three-way interaction effect among customers’ trait reactance, customers’ anticipated guilt about not joining the green LP, and frontline service employees’ physical attractiveness. This paper provides insights into how to change the impact of the influence of trait reactance on customer behaviour. Paper 2: The second paper develops and examines a goal-reward congruity hypothesis, which can explain how and why customers, especially those high in trait reactance, choose a preferred green LP reward. This paper provides a novel way to capture, firstly, customers’ choices when influenced by their different levels of trait reactance and, secondly, the role of pro-environmental goals in their decision-making. Paper 3: The third paper examines how a gain-framed message, when combined with a guilt appeal inducing the greatest level of experienced regret, can increase customers’ future intentions to join a hotel’s green LP. The above-mentioned effect still holds even when taking into consideration the influence of trait reactance. This paper contributes to the existing literature by supporting the view that when customers experience regret, their trait reactance is not necessarily the key factor in influencing their future intentions.