IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/touman/v50y2015icp59-68.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

You got a free upgrade? What about me? The consequences of unearned preferential treatment

Author

Listed:
  • Park, Jeong-Yeol
  • Jang, SooCheong (Shawn)

Abstract

Airline companies often spontaneously provide unexpected upgrades to please their customers. However, this practice may have negative outcomes for customers nearby who do not receive an upgrade. This study was designed to understand the impact of unexpected upgrades on potential travelers in terms of envy and perceptions of unfairness by focusing on individuals who did not receive an unexpected upgrade. By utilizing a scenario method, this study found practical results for airline companies, as well as other tourism and hospitality industries. Providing another traveler with a high-value upgrade, such as a move from economy to first class, significantly increased participants' envy. More specifically, participants with high social comparison orientations had higher levels of envy and perceived unfairness than individuals with low social comparison orientations. Furthermore, the influence of the level or value of the upgrade on envy differed based on the closeness of the relationship between the participant and the recipient of the unexpected upgrade. Participants' feelings of envy were consistently high when a stranger received an unexpected upgrade, regardless of its value. Comparably, when a friend received a high-value upgrade, participants showed as high a level of envy as when a stranger received such an upgrade. However, when a friend received a low-value upgrade, they did not report feeling envious. Further discussion and implications are provided in the main body of this paper.

Suggested Citation

  • Park, Jeong-Yeol & Jang, SooCheong (Shawn), 2015. "You got a free upgrade? What about me? The consequences of unearned preferential treatment," Tourism Management, Elsevier, vol. 50(C), pages 59-68.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:touman:v:50:y:2015:i:c:p:59-68
    DOI: 10.1016/j.tourman.2015.01.003
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0261517715000060
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.tourman.2015.01.003?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Oliver, Richard L & Swan, John E, 1989. "Equity and Disconfirmation Perceptions as Influences on Merchant and Product Satisfaction," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 16(3), pages 372-383, December.
    2. Niels Van de Ven & Marcel Zeelenberg & Rik Pieters, 2011. "The Envy Premium in Product Evaluation," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 37(6), pages 984-998.
    3. Lan Jiang & JoAndrea Hoegg & Darren W. Dahl, 2013. "Consumer Reaction to Unearned Preferential Treatment," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 40(3), pages 412-427.
    4. Greene, David L., 2012. "Rebound 2007: Analysis of U.S. light-duty vehicle travel statistics," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 41(C), pages 14-28.
    5. Corneo, Giacomo & Jeanne, Olivier, 1997. "On relative wealth effects and the optimality of growth," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 54(1), pages 87-92, January.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Olk, Stephan & Lindenmeier, Jörg & Tscheulin, Dieter K. & Zogaj, Adnan, 2021. "Emotional labor in a non-isolated service encounter - The impact of customer observation on perceived authenticity and perceived fairness," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 58(C).
    2. Chang, Woojung & Song, Ji Hee & Lee, Sungho, 2020. "Observation of other's preferential treatment as a constructive catalyst for improved repatronize intentions," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 57(C).
    3. Pillai, Kishore Gopalakrishna & Nair, Smitha R., 2021. "The effect of social comparison orientation on luxury purchase intentions," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 134(C), pages 89-100.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Pizzi, Gabriele & Vannucci, Virginia & Shukla, Yupal & Aiello, Gaetano, 2022. "Privacy concerns and justice perceptions with the disclosure of biometric versus behavioral data for personalized pricing tell me who you are, I’ll tell you how much you pay. Consumers’ fairness and p," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 148(C), pages 420-432.
    2. Thomas, Brinda A. & Azevedo, Inês L., 2013. "Estimating direct and indirect rebound effects for U.S. households with input–output analysis. Part 2: Simulation," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 86(C), pages 188-198.
    3. De Borger, Bruno & Mulalic, Ismir & Rouwendal, Jan, 2016. "Measuring the rebound effect with micro data: A first difference approach," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 79(C), pages 1-17.
    4. Yoo, Sunbin & Koh, Kyung Woong & Yoshida, Yoshikuni & Wakamori, Naoki, 2019. "Revisiting Jevons's paradox of energy rebound: Policy implications and empirical evidence in consumer-oriented financial incentives from the Japanese automobile market, 2006–2016," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 133(C).
    5. Wang, Le & Luo, Xin (Robert) & Li, Han, 2022. "Envy or conformity? An empirical investigation of peer influence on the purchase of non-functional items in mobile free-to-play games," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 147(C), pages 308-324.
    6. Schünemann, Johannes & Trimborn, Timo, 2023. "Boosting taxes for boasting about houses? Status concerns in the housing market," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 205(C), pages 120-143.
    7. Gaurav Khatwani & Gopal Das, 2016. "Evaluating combination of individual pre-purchase internet information channels using hybrid fuzzy MCDM technique: demographics as moderators," International Journal of Indian Culture and Business Management, Inderscience Enterprises Ltd, vol. 12(1), pages 28-49.
    8. Ouyang, Xiaoling & Gao, Beiying & Du, Kerui & Du, Gang, 2018. "Industrial sectors' energy rebound effect: An empirical study of Yangtze River Delta urban agglomeration," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 145(C), pages 408-416.
    9. Walter H. Fisher, 2005. "Current Account Dynamics in a Small Open‐Economy Model of Status Seeking," Review of International Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 13(2), pages 262-282, May.
    10. Kosuke Hirose & Toshihiro Matsumura, 2016. "Payoff interdependence and the multi-store paradox," Asia-Pacific Journal of Accounting & Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 23(3), pages 256-267, July.
    11. Ed Hopkins, 2008. "Inequality, happiness and relative concerns: What actually is their relationship?," The Journal of Economic Inequality, Springer;Society for the Study of Economic Inequality, vol. 6(4), pages 351-372, December.
    12. González, Rosa Marina & Marrero, Gustavo A. & Rodríguez-López, Jesús & Marrero, Ángel S., 2019. "Analyzing CO2 emissions from passenger cars in Europe: A dynamic panel data approach," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 129(C), pages 1271-1281.
    13. Babin, Barry J. & Griffin, Mitch, 1998. "The nature of satisfaction: An updated examination and analysis," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 41(2), pages 127-136, February.
    14. Hopkins, Ed & Kornienko, Tatiana, 2009. "Status, affluence, and inequality: Rank-based comparisons in games of status," Games and Economic Behavior, Elsevier, vol. 67(2), pages 552-568, November.
    15. Schaefers, Tobias & Leban, Marina & Vogt, Florian, 2022. "On-demand features: Consumer reactions to tangibility and pricing structure," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 139(C), pages 751-761.
    16. Balabanis, George & Stathopoulou, Anastasia, 2021. "The price of social status desire and public self-consciousness in luxury consumption," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 123(C), pages 463-475.
    17. Jellal, Mohamed, 2014. "Culture values and economic growth," MPRA Paper 57178, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    18. Taekyoung Lim, 2020. "Using of Nudge Approaches for Sustainable Energy," International Journal of Environmental Sciences & Natural Resources, Juniper Publishers Inc., vol. 25(4), pages 193-198, September.
    19. M. S. Balaji & Subhash Jha & Marla B. Royne, 2015. "Customer e-complaining behaviours using social media," The Service Industries Journal, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 35(11-12), pages 633-654, August.
    20. Ryu‐ichiro Murota & Yoshiyasu Ono, 2011. "Growth, Stagnation And Status Preference," Metroeconomica, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 62(1), pages 122-149, February.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:touman:v:50:y:2015:i:c:p:59-68. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.journals.elsevier.com/tourism-management .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.