Factors promoting customer citizenship behaviours and the moderating role of self-monitoring: a study of ride-hailing services

Abstract

Purpose This study aims to broaden understanding of why customers engage in helping and feedback citizenship behaviours. Beyond traditional attitude–behaviour relationships, limited insight is available on the additional role of symbolic factors, such as self-congruence perceptions, in motivating citizenship behaviours. Literature further suggests self-monitoring affects social behaviours, yet extant research has not accounted for this personality trait’s moderating influence on customer helping and feedback citizenship behaviours. Accordingly, a research model is developed, providing novel insight into factors promoting helping and feedback citizenship behaviours and the moderating role of self-monitoring in a ride-hailing service context. Design/methodology/approach The research is guided by self-monitoring literature and the social exchange and similarity-attraction theories. Survey data from 609 ride-hailing customers in an emerging market country is analysed using multi-group confirmatory factor analysis and structural equation modelling, and the chi-square difference test. Findings This study shows that perceived justice (a cognitive attitudinal factor) influences helping citizenship intention in the low self-monitoring group, while self-congruity (a symbolic factor) affects helping and feedback citizenship intention in the high self-monitoring group. Affective commitment towards the ride-hailing brand (an affective attitudinal factor) does not impact customer citizenship intentions. Research limitations/implications Although customers may be interested in brands’ functional and symbolic benefits, positive attitudes about the service experienced motivate low self-monitors, while a symbolic-driven factor like self-congruence is more successful in motivating high self-monitors to engage in customer citizenship behaviours. Originality/value Novel insight is obtained into the additional influence of self-congruity on customer citizenship behaviours, a neglected factor in extant research involving customer citizenship behaviours that is explained by the similarity-attraction theory. Furthermore, this study provides a pioneering view of the relevance of the self-monitoring theory in moderating customer citizenship behaviours, specifically in ride-hailing services.

The Impact of Perceived Procedural Justice on Dimensions of Customer Citizenship Behaviours: The Mediating Effect of Customer Perceived Support

“…More specifically, Moorman et al (1998) and Dominic et al (2021) have revealed that POS mediates the relationship between procedural justice and organisational citizenship behaviour. However, prior studies have not investigated the role of CPS in the PPJ-CCBs relationship in the customer context, although the marketing literature shows that customer perceived justice positively affects CPS (Choi & Lotz, 2018) and CCBs (Tonder & Petzer, 2022) and that CPS positively affects CCBs (Ning & Hu, 2022). Consequently, both PPJ and CPS are vital elements for enhancing CCBs.…”

“…On the other hand, a growing number of studies have investigated the effect of PPJ on employee citizenship behaviour (Lim & Loosemore, 2017;Rahman & Karim, 2022;Seth et al, 2022;Song et al, 2012;Van Dijke et al, 2012), relying on theories of social exchange (Blau, 1964) and equity (Adams, 1965). However, few studies have examined the effect of customer perceived justice (CPJ) on customer citizenship behaviours (CCBs) (Choi & Lotz, 2018;Cintamür, 2022;Kim et al, 2018;Tonder & Petzer, 2022;Yi & Gong, 2006). Although prior studies of CPJ and CCBs are valuable, they have numerous significant limitations.…”

“…First, there is still debate over the direct effect of PPJ on the various dimensions of CCBs. For example, most studies of CPJ and CCBs (Kim et al, 2018;Tonder & Petzer, 2022;Yi & Gong, 2006) address overall CCB. Yi and Gong (2013) propose that the fundamental dimensions of CCB are helping, advocacy, tolerance, and feedback.…”