Feeling good and doing more: How does the customer respond to pro-customer deviance in the context of hospitality

Guided by the service-dominant logic, hospitality employees have to occasionally engage in pro-customer deviance to offer customized service. While pro-customer deviance has been linked with several customer attitudinal outcomes, the different customers' emotional and behavioral responses have not yet been clarified. This study explored customers' responses toward customer-contact employees and enterprises. In addition, to investigate the emotional and cognitive mechanisms underlying those response processes, this study introduced gratitude toward employee and customer-company identification as mediators in the relationship between pro-customer deviance and a series of customer extra-role behaviors. A multisource field study was conducted to test a two-stage structural equation model. The results showed that pro-customer deviance is positively related to customers' positive feedback and service friendship toward employees via gratitude. Also, the customer-company identification is found to play a mediation role between pro-customer deviance and customers' advocacy and prohibitive voice toward an organization. Theoretical and managerial contributions are also discussed at the end.