Customer reciprocity in greening: the role of service quality
International Journal of Quality and Service Sciences
ISSN: 1756-669X
Article publication date: 14 December 2021
Issue publication date: 3 May 2022
Abstract
Purpose
Firms are increasingly making customers key stakeholders in their greening processes, requiring them to voluntarily use their resources to benefit the firm. In this context, this paper develops a new construct – tangible customer citizenship behaviour (CCB), i.e. voluntary participation of customer in operational processes of the company beyond normal requirements of exchange. This requires more involvement than the already documented intangible CCB. The purpose of the paper is to then explore whether service quality (SQ) (online and offline) influences such voluntary customer reciprocity in greening.
Design/methodology/approach
This study used a virtual survey among 400 customers of e-commerce firms that have adopted greening practices requiring customer engagement and regressions were used to test the hypotheses.
Findings
The authors find that both online and offline SQ positively impact intangible CCB but have no impact on customer greening reciprocity (tangible CCB). Additionally, the authors find that offline SQ positively impacts customer greening awareness. However, in spite of the presence of greening awareness and display of intangible CCB, SQ does not have any impact on greening reciprocity.
Originality/value
This study introduces to literature a more tangible form of voluntary behaviour on the part of the customer, i.e. tangible CCB or reciprocity. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, it is also one of the first to study the customer as an important stakeholder and participant in a business-to-consumer firm’s operating processes, particularly in greening which has no direct impact on the firm’s core offering. The focus on greening in the Indian context is also novel given the greening costs and requirements and the price competition are very different in emerging market contexts where e-commerce firms are experiencing the maximum growth.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
The Authors are grateful to A Parasuraman, Jay Kandampully, Nirali Shah, and participants of Convergence 2020 (where it won an honourable mention) for helpful comments and suggestions. All remaining errors are solely ours.
Citation
Basu, D., Chakraborty, K., Mitra, S. and Verma, N.K. (2022), "Customer reciprocity in greening: the role of service quality", International Journal of Quality and Service Sciences, Vol. 14 No. 2, pp. 238-257. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJQSS-08-2021-0116
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
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