A aceitabilidade do comportamento disfuncional do consumidor : a relação entre o tamanho do dano e o tamanho da vítima

Abstract

The dysfunctional customer behavior (DCB) has been a frequent theme among studies in the marketing and ethics field in the last decades. The phenomenon analysis involves since the main types, motivators, inhibitors and other variables that influence its occurrence. Two important variables in the study of the dysfunctional behaviors are its severity and the victim of de DCB. Severity, or gravity, can be represented by the type of behavior and also by the size of the injury; the victim can be represented by a firm, brand, employees or even by other clients. Few studies have analyzed, jointly, the size of the injury and the size of the victim; however, it is known that big firms are the most frequent victims of the DCB. In this research, severity was represented by the size of the injuries caused by two different types of DCB, and the victim refers to the firm that suffers the prejudice caused by the customer. Two studies were performed in order to analyze the effects of the size of the injuries and the size of the victim on the acceptability of the dysfunctional behavior. Study 1 analyzed these effects based on a passive behavior scenario, where the customer takes advantage of a firm’s mistake, while study 2 were based on an active behavior, with the clear intention of the customer to commit DCB, but the prejudice to the retailer are not clear. Results have indicated that the dysfunctional behavior acceptability varies according to the type of DCB and the size of of the injuries and that when it is practiced against big firms it is considered more acceptable than when practiced against small firms. These outcomes corroborate other studies findings and what is proposed by the social distance theory and the Robin Hood Effect.