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This paper aims to explore the impact of corporate social responsibility and hypocrisy on the relationship among psychological contract violation, trust and perceived betrayal.

This study used purposive sampling and selected students in Taiwan as the research participants. The theory of psychological contract violation and consumer awareness process in violation hypocrisy on psychological contract violation were used to investigate the effect of its impact on trust and perceived betrayal. Then, the moderating effect of social responsibility and hypocritical on trust, and the mediating effect of trust between psychological contract violation and perceived betrayal were analyzed.

The results indicated that hypocrisy had a significant and negative impact on psychological contract violation toward trust; hypocrisy had a significantly positive impact on psychological contract violation toward perceived betrayal; trust had a significantly negative impact on perceived betrayal; perceived betrayal had a significantly positive impact on both direct and indirect revenges; trust had a mediating effect between hypocrisy toward psychological contract violation and perceived betrayal; and higher hypocrisy would produce a stronger effect through trust on the relationships between hypocrisy toward psychological contract violation and perceived betrayal.

Perception of consumers would differ whenever there were failures of service recovery occurred; especially, stronger betrayal feeling would be perceived with the companies who emphasized social responsibility and did not carry out what they should do. Research results could be references for companies whom advertising and praising social responsibility.

The purpose of this research is to survey whether consumer ethnocentrism and animosity will affect consumers' perceived betrayal and cause negative word-of-mouth (NWOM).

This study conducted a 2 (consumer ethnocentrism) × 3 (consumer animosity) between-subject experiment design to test the hypotheses. Comprised of 380 respondents, this study used ANOVA to examine the data.

The results showed that if a brand violates the perception of fairness, ethnocentrism and animosity will have a positive effect on perceived betrayal. In addition, low consumer animosity revealed a significant consumer ethnocentrism effect and low ethnocentrism revealed a significant animosity effect, while the relationship between perceived betrayal and word of mouth is negative.

The current research adds to the understanding about how the reaction to a domestic brand's marketing strategies that are viewed as unfair and hurt the domestic consumers' expectations.

This paper empirically examines the direct and indirect effects of perceived termination severity on customers' behavioral reactions via betrayal and justice. It also examines the moderating effects of attitude toward complaining (ATC).

This paper employs a quantitative method approach using a scenario-based experiment in a banking setting.

The results show that a more severe termination approach results in higher customer negative reactions. Betrayal is shown to be a key driver of customers' behavioral reactions, and ATC moderates these effects.

Future studies should examine the effects of different termination strategies in markedly different cultures and should also examine other boundary conditions such as prior warning, relationship quality and service importance in influencing customers' negative behavioral responses.

This paper contributes to the service termination literature by shedding light on the impact of termination severity on customers' reactions. It also unveils the mechanism that explains customers' reactions to service termination. Further, it reveals that ATC moderates customers' public (but not private) complaining behaviors.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the relationship between friendship and betrayal. Both are perceived to involve dynamics that can have a major impact in organizations, but both have tended to be under researched.

The paper brings together ideas from psychoanalysis (object relations theory), archetypal psychology, and the history of ideas (the friendship tradition). It also uses a case study to explore how the emerging framework applies in reality.

The exploration led to the conclusion that betrayal may have its roots at the same deep level of the psyche as friendship and they may, therefore, be equally fundamental developmentally.

The paper opens up an important area for further study and application. It is intended to give status to two experiences that are of great importance to managers and managed, leaders and led, consultants and students.

There are numerous studies on satisfaction, but not enough on dissatisfaction when its consequences can be harmful. This study aims to examine different unsatisfactory situations during customer–supplier relationships in industrial markets combining the appraisal theory with the critical incident technique to identify potential problems and strategies to minimize their effect.

This research follows an exploratory qualitative approach based on 18 in-depth interviews with managers from business-to-business firms. The information obtained was object of a textual and conceptual analysis using the analytical software ATLAS TI 9.0.

The results show that negative cognitions have greater influence than negative emotions, and those dissatisfied customers may respond by expressing complaints, ending transactional relationships, reporting the other party legally, asking for explanations or continuing commercial relationships, even though they are dissatisfied. This will depend on the severity of the critical incident and the negative cognitions and emotions perceived. Proactivity and understanding of this situation will allow for understanding what specific actions to take to resolve conflicts and mitigate the negative effects among the parties.

This paper focuses on dissatisfaction, instead of satisfaction, in industrial markets through the appraisal theory. Furthermore, it applies the critical incident technique to understand the cognitions and emotions related with dissatisfaction in the commercial relationships. Finally, it provides ideas on what are the main source of dissatisfaction and how to manage them to anticipate and better manage those incidents.

The purpose of this paper is to extend research on customer loyalty status and customer demotion by investigating if the effect of demotion on customer attitudinal and behavioral responses is the same for top-tier and low-tier customers in the context of airlines.

A survey was conducted with travelers intercepted at large airport terminals in Australia. Multivariate analyses examined group differences across status change (no change vs demoted) and status level (high status vs low status). Multi-group moderation structural equation modeling (SEM) analysis tested the moderating role of status (high status vs low status) on the effects of demotion on the relationship between customers’ attitudes and loyalty intention, and between loyalty intention and share of wallet.

This study shows that the detrimental effects of demotion on the relationship between customer satisfaction/commitment/perceived betrayal on loyalty intentions, and on the relationship between loyalty intentions and share of wallet are stronger for “high status” than “low status” customers.

A cross-sectional design was employed to investigate customer demotion in the airline industry. Future studies could investigate different types of demotions in other industries by employing a longitudinal design.

The study provides new insight about the effects of status demotion and highlights that service firms could be jeopardizing the loyalty of numerous valuable customers, especially among the “high status” customer group.

This study reveals loyalty status moderates the effect of demotion on customer attitudinal responses and loyalty behaviors. It draws on social identity, social comparison, emotion and equity theories to explain the different effects of demotion on customers from different status level groups.

This paper aims to draw on Latour’s (1991) conceptual “performative” framework to investigate the role of management control systems (MCSs) in the establishment of post-acquisition integration. The study adopts a qualitative case study approach, where data are collected and analysed from an Australian company which had recently completed a number of acquisitions. Findings demonstrate the performative powers and effects of MCSs, which contribute to shaping customer and sales integration activities, including the forms some resistance may take. In this case, a bitter betrayal was perceived to have occurred in an early stage of the merger, and this paper argues that the use of a performative theoretical framework has enabled subsequent post-acquisition integration strategies to be rendered more visible and thus actionable.

The study adopts a qualitative approach where data are collected and analysed from an Australian case study company which had recently completed a number of acquisitions. Research methods used include semi-structured interviews, a review of archival documents and observations to capture daily integration activities and practices of actors operating in the company.

Findings demonstrate the performative powers and effects of MCSs, which structure customer and sales integration activities and make post-acquisition integration relations strategy visible and actionable.

Findings are only on one case study, and there is a need to undertake further detailed case studies across a range of industries and timeframes, plus, where possible, revisit such studies post hoc to assess the stability of success of the integration.

Integration strategy and strategic change may be constituted by non-human actants such as MCSs. Practitioners who are engaged in acquisitions and making integration decisions need to recognise that MCSs do not merely play a subordinate role to integration strategies, but rather is an important moderating variable that play an active role in their formulation, configuration and enactment.

A performative approach is taken to provide a broader analytical framework for analysing the construction and sustaining of post‐acquisition integration relations, where there is no distinction between technical and social dimensions of action but, rather, the two are merged. This makes it possible to overcome the limitations inherent in existing theoretical frameworks. Using this approach, integration relations involve construction of a network of entities that are enrolled to support, create and sustain the integration.

This paper aims to understand how strong brand attachment can intensify the feeling of perceived betrayal, leading to brand hate after a negative experience with the brand. The study further investigates how consumers make causal attributions for negative experiences when strong brand attachment exists. The moderating effect of a narcissistic personality in the dissemination of negative electronic word of mouth (eWOM) following brand hate is also tested.

The study uses a within-the-subject repeated measures experimental design. A total of 202 college students were exposed to two treatments (high versus no brand attachment), involving a situation of product failure of a smart phone brand. A total of 135 responses were used to compare the outcomes of the two treatments using multivariate analysis. The data of high brand attachment treatment (N = 202) were used to test the proposed research model using partial least square-structural equation modelling.

The results suggest that having a strong positive relationship with the brand can generate stronger feelings of perceived betrayal and brand hate after the brand transgresses the consumer’s expectations. The results indicate that resentful customers can resort to eWOM after feeling betrayed, even though the prior relationship with the brand was strong.

This paper extends the work on perceived betrayal to study brand hate and proposes that brand hate can arise even if there is a strong brand attachment. It contributes to the growing body of literature on brand hate and its possible antecedents. Additionally, the study poses some crucial managerial implications for the brand managers by suggesting that strong brand relationships not always ensure loyalty or commitment and can lead to consequences that are damaging for the brand equity.

This study aims to explain customer reactions to a double deviation by examining the moderating role of prior trust in peer-to-peer (P2P) accommodation platforms on the relationship between perceived betrayal and negative outcomes such as negative word-of-mouth (NWOM), vindictive complaining and patronage reduction.

An online survey was used to obtain a sample of 246 respondents familiar with P2P accommodation platforms. The model was tested using SmartPLS.

The results showed a positive correlation between perceived betrayal and NWOM, vindictive complaining and patronage reduction. Unexpectedly, prior trust had positive moderating effects. High levels of prior trust caused more negative customer reactions than low levels of prior trust.

The findings of this study caution firms about the potential risks to rely on the forgiveness and tolerance of highly trusted customers who may retaliate fiercely to double deviations.

This research unveils the prior trust paradox. Customers' prior trust magnified the negative impact of double-deviation experiences. This study contributes to the service-recovery literature by questioning the buffer effect of prior trust in the context of a double deviation.

Mergers and acquisitions (M&As) are typical corporate strategies that provide hospitality business competitiveness. However, some recent evidence shows that when the merged and acquired (M&Aed) restaurants have strong local characteristics, consumers feel betrayed and perceive the M&As, legitimate business activities, as immoral actions. Building upon expectancy violation theory and moral foundation theory, this study aims to examine the moderating role of locavorism on the indirect effects of preexisting relationship quality on desire for avoidance and psychological loss through brand betrayal and moral judgment.

This study used the M&A of Whataburger chain restaurant as the scenario and recruited 399 Texas Whataburger consumers. A moderated mediation model was developed to examine the mechanisms through which preexisting relationship quality on negative responses to M&A of local restaurants.

The results showed preexisting relationship quality influences desire for avoidance and psychological loss negatively through brand betrayal and moral judgment. The indirect effects of relationship quality on the desire for avoidance and psychological loss become more accentuated among locavores.

The results implied that merging and acquiring (M&Aing) companies should closely monitor consumer dialogues to promptly respond to post-M&A uncertainties when M&Aed company has a strong local identity.

The unique contribution of this study is showing why consumers have extreme negative emotions and judgment of immorality when M&A decisions are made for local hospitality brands through the lens of brand betrayal and moral foundation theory. The results can help M&Aing companies mitigate consumers’ negative responses to M&A of local restaurants.