Despite the tremendous growth of Airbnb, various media have reported ethical misconduct occurring within the Airbnb context by both hosts and users. The current research seeks to examine the interactive effects of power (high vs. low) and psychological distance (close vs. distant) to explain individual tolerance of unethical behavior across two experimental studies for the case of Airbnb. Specifically, we propose that when an individual (i.e., an Airbnb host or user) feels powerless (vs. powerful), that individual will show a low level of tolerance to unethical behavior and tend to judge the ethical behavior more harshly. However, the effect of power will only emerge in the psychologically close condition (e.g., a host judging a host's unethical behavior), but not in the psychologically distant condition (e.g., a host judging a user's unethical behavior). Further, we establish that this interactive effect is mediated by feelings of empathy.
BabakusE., Bettina CornwellT., MitchellV., & SchlegelmilchB. (2004). Reactions to unethical consumer behavior across six countries. J. Consum. Mark., 21(4), 254–263.
2.
BaileyW., & SpicerA. (2007). When does national identity matter? Convergence and divergence in international business ethics. Acad. Manag. J., 50(6), 1462–1480.
3.
BakanD. (1966). The Duality of Human Existence: An Essay on Psychology and Religion. Oxford, England: Rand Mcnally.
4.
BlauP. (1964). Power and Exchange in Social Life. New York: Wiley & Sons.
5.
BrownJ.D. (1986). Evaluations of self and others: self-enhancement biases in social judgments. Soc. Cogn., 4(4), 353–376.
CojuharencoI., & SgueraF. (2015). When empathic concern and perspective taking matter for ethical judgment: the role of time hurriedness. J. Bus. Ethics, 130(3), 717–725.
DavisM.H. (1983). Measuring individual differences in empathy: evidence for a multidimensional approach. J. Pers. Soc. Psychol., 44(1), 113–126.
10.
DellandeS., GillyM.C., & GrahamJ.L. (2004). Gaining compliance and losing weight: the role of the service provider in health care services. J. Mark., 68(3), 78–91.
11.
Denegri-KnottJ., ZwickD., & SchroederJ.E. (2006). Mapping consumer power: an integrative framework for marketing and consumer research. Eur. J. Mark., 40(9/10), 950–971.
12.
Denegri‐KnottJ. (2006). Consumers behaving badly: deviation or innovation? Power struggles on the web. J. Consum. Behav.: Int. Res. Rev., 5(1), 82–94.
13.
DuboisD., RuckerD.D., & GalinskyA.D. (2010). The accentuation bias: money literally looms larger (and sometimes smaller) to the powerless. Soc. Psychol. Personal Sci., 1(3), 199–205.
14.
DuboisD., RuckerD.D., & GalinskyA.D. (2015). Social class, power, and selfishness: when and why upper and lower class individuals behave unethically. J. Pers. Soc. Psychol., 108(3), 436.
EyalT., LibermanN., & TropeY. (2008). Judging near and distant virtue and vice. J. Exp. Soc. Psychol., 44(4), 1204–1209.
17.
GalinskyA.D., MageeJ.C., InesiM.E., & GruenfeldD.H. (2006). Power and perspectives not taken. Psychol. Sci., 17(12), 1068–1074.
18.
GreenacreL., & AkbarS. (2019). The impact of payment method on shopping behaviour among low income consumers. J. Retail. Consum. Serv., 47, 87–93.
19.
GruenfeldD.H., InesiM.E., MageeJ.C., & GalinskyA.D. (2008). Power and the objectification of social targets. J. Pers. Soc. Psychol., 95(1), 111–127.
20.
GuinoteA. (2007). Power and goal pursuit. Personal. Soc. Psychol. Bull., 33(8), 1076–1087.
21.
HaidtJ. (2001). The emotional dog and its rational tail: A social intuitionist approach to moral judgment. Psychol. Review, 108, 814–834.
22.
HanS., LernerJ.S., & KeltnerD. (2007). Feelings and consumer decision making: the appraisal-tendency framework. J. Consum. Psychol., 17(3), 158–168.
23.
HayesA.F. (2017). Introduction to Mediation, Moderation, and Conditional Process Analysis: A Regression-Based Approach, 2nd ed.New York: Guilford Press.
24.
HayesA.F., MontoyaA.K., & RockwoodN.J. (2017). The analysis of mechanisms and their contingencies: process versus structural equation modeling. Australas. Mark. J., 25(1), 76–81.
25.
HseeC.K. (1999). Value seeking and prediction-decision inconsistency: why don't people take what they predict they'll like the most? Psychon. Bull. Rev., 6(4), 555–561.
26.
HuntS.D., & VitellS. (1986). A general theory of marketing ethics. J. Macromarket., 6(1), 5–16.
LammersJ., StapelD.A., & GalinskyA.D. (2010). Power increases hypocrisy: moralizing in reasoning, immorality in behavior. Psychol. Sci., 21(5), 737–744.
33.
LehnertK., ParkY.-h., & SinghN. (2015). Research note and review of the empirical ethical decision-making literature: boundary conditions and extensions. J. Bus. Ethics, 129(1), 195–219.
34.
LibermanN., TropeY., & WakslakC. (2007). Construal level theory and consumer behavior. J. Consum. Psychol., 17(2), 113–117.
35.
LiuS.Q., & MattilaA.S. (2017). Airbnb: online targeted advertising, sense of power, and consumer decisions. Int. J. Hosp. Manag., 60, 33–41.
36.
LoewensteinG. (1996). Out of control: visceral influences on behavior. Organ. Behav. Hum. Decis. Process., 65(3), 272–292.
37.
McBaneD.A. (1995). Empathy and the salesperson: a multidimensional perspective. Psychol. Mark., 12(4), 349–370.
38.
MenclJ., & MayD.R. (2009). The effects of proximity and empathy on ethical decision-making: an exploratory investigation. J. Bus. Ethics, 85(2), 201–226.
39.
MooresT.T., & ChangJ.C.-J. (2006). Ethical decision making in software piracy: initial development and test of a four-component model. MIS Q., 30(1), 167–180.
40.
ParkerS.K., & AxtellC.M. (2001). Seeing another viewpoint: antecedents and outcomes of employee perspective taking. Acad. Manag. J., 44(6), 1085–1100.
41.
PitesaM., & ThauS. (2013). Compliant sinners, obstinate saints: how power and self-focus determine the effectiveness of social influences in ethical decision making. Acad. Manag. J., 56(3), 635–658.
42.
PohlingR., BzdokD., EigenstetterM., StumpfS., & StrobelA. (2016). What is ethical competence? The role of empathy, personal values, and the five-factor model of personality in ethical decision-making. J. Bus. Ethics, 137(3), 449–474.
RestJ.R. (1986). Moral Development: Advances in Research and Theory. New York: Praeg.
45.
RuckerD.D., DuboisD., & GalinskyA.D. (2010). Generous paupers and stingy princes: power drives consumer spending on self versus others. J. Consum. Res., 37(6), 1015–1029.
46.
RuckerD.D., & GalinskyA.D. (2008). Desire to acquire: powerlessness and compensatory consumption. J. Consum. Res., 35(2), 257–267.
47.
RuckerD.D., & GalinskyA.D. (2016). The agentic-communal model of power: implications for consumer behavior. Curr. Opin. Psychol., 10, 1–5.
48.
RuckerD.D., GalinskyA.D., & DuboisD. (2012). Power and consumer behavior: how power shapes who and what consumers value. J. Consum. Psychol., 22(3), 352–368.
49.
RuckerD.D., HuM., & GalinskyA.D. (2014). The experience versus the expectations of power: a recipe for altering the effects of power on behavior. J. Consum. Res., 41(2), 381–396.
50.
SeptiantoF., & PratiwiL. (2016). The moderating role of construal level on the evaluation of emotional appeal vs. cognitive appeal advertisements. Mark. Lett., 27(1), 171–181.
51.
SinghJ.J., GargN., GovindR., & VitellS.J. (2018). Anger strays, fear refrains: the differential effect of negative emotions on consumers’ ethical judgments. J. Bus. Ethics, 151(1), 235–248.
52.
SonensheinS. (2007). The role of construction, intuition, and justification in responding to ethical issues at work: the sensemaking-intuition model. Acad. Manag. Rev., 32(4), 1022–1040.
53.
SunsteinC. R. (2005). Moral heuristics. Behav. Brain Sci., 28, 531–573.
54.
TropeY., & LibermanN. (2010). Construal-level theory of psychological distance. Psychol Rev, 117(2), 440.
55.
TumasjanA., StrobelM., & WelpeI. (2011). Ethical leadership evaluations after moral transgression: social distance makes the difference. J. Bus. Ethics, 99(4), 609–622.
Van KleefG.A., OveisC., Van Der LöweI., LuoKoganA., GoetzJ., & KeltnerD. (2008). Power, distress, and compassion: turning a blind eye to the suffering of others. Psychol. Sci., 19(12), 1315–1322.
58.
VerhaertG.A., & Van den PoelD. (2011). Empathy as added value in predicting donation behavior. J. Bus. Res.64(12), 1288–1295.
59.
VitellS.J., SinghapakdiA., & ThomasJ. (2001). Consumer ethics: an application and empirical testing of the Hunt-Vitell theory of ethics. J. Consum. Mark., 18(2), 153–178.
WinterichK.P., & HawsK.L. (2011). Helpful hopefulness: the effect of future positive emotions on consumption. J. Consum. Res., 38(3), 505–524.
64.
WondraJ.D., & EllsworthP.C. (2015). An appraisal theory of empathy and other vicarious emotional experiences. Psychol. Rev., 122(3), 411.
65.
WongS.C.K. (1998). Staff job-related ethics of hotel employees in Hong Kong. Int. J.f Contemp. Hosp. Manag., 10(3), 107–115.
66.
WrightS.A., DinsmoreJ.B., & KellarisJ.J. (2013). How group loyalties shape ethical judgment and punishment preferences. Psychol. Mark., 30(3), 203–210.
67.
YapA.J., WazlawekA.S., LucasB.J., CuddyA.J., & CarneyD.R. (2013). The ergonomics of dishonesty: the effect of incidental posture on stealing, cheating, and traffic violations. Psychol. Sci., 24(11), 2281–2289.
68.
YoonD., ChoiS.M., & SohnD. (2008). Building customer relationships in an electronic age: the role of interactivity of E‐commerce web sites. Psychol. Mark., 25(7), 602–618.
69.
ZervasG., ProserpioD., & ByersJ.W. (2017). The rise of the sharing economy: estimating the impact of airbnb on the hotel industry. J. Mark. Res.54(5), 687–705.
