Working for 'The Man' Without Pay: An Initial Investigation of Consumer Perceptions of Effort

摘要

Self-service is a common way for firms to provide faster, lower-priced, and convenient services. Additionally, customer collaboration is utilized in a variety of marketing activities. In these examples, firms are extracting (sometimes offering, sometimes demanding) effort from the consumer. Lambert (2015) describes these tasks as "shadow work" which include the unpaid tasks consumers do on behalf of businesses. Importantly, effort is defined as the amount of time and energy (mental, emotional and/or physical) an individual expends (c.f., Berry, Seiders and Grew 2002; Jaramillo and Mulki 2008). Effort can be "voluntary," such as when a consumer freely engages in completing the task him/herself as opposed to having a service provider complete the task. Alternatively, effort can be "involuntary," such as when s/he has no choice but to "do-it-yourself." Of specific interest in the current research are the effects of involuntary effort on consumers' perceptions and behavioral outcomes for maintenance-related self-service goals (Berry et al. 2002). Involuntary effort may be perceived by consumers as a violation of distributive justice. When a consumer engages in involuntary effort to maintain the status quo, s/he may believe that effort has been expended without personal benefit; however, the firm has exerted no effort and is reaping the benefits of the consumer's time and energy. Therefore, the consumer may evaluate the situation as unfair and the firm as untrustworthy. As trust leads to cooperation-enhancing, long-term relationships (c.f., Kim and Maugorng 2003), the negative effect of involuntary effort on trust should also negatively influence consumers' cognitions and behavior. Here, we examine cognitive outcomes (e.g., trust in the company, fairness and price perceptions) and behavioral outcomes (e.g., choice and intentions to "troll"-publically and anonymously posting negative comments). We also explore how skepticism (a context-specific belief or attribution that an actor is motivated by its own self-interest; Mohr, Eroglu and Ellen 1998) moderates our hypothesized effects.