This exploratory study conceptualizes psychological ownership (PO)—a state in which individuals feel as though the target of ownership is theirs—and investigates how customers form PO toward a company. Considering the PO is a new concept to hospitality research, the study develops and empirically validates a conceptual model of PO and a PO measurement scale in the context of the restaurant industry. The model incorporates fundamental human relationship variables, such as sense of belonging, identification, and perceived control, as the antecedents of PO. The model also relates PO to several practically important consequences, such as relationship intentions, word-of-mouth communications, competitive resistance, and willingness to pay. The results generally support the proposed mediating role of PO between the antecedents and consequences, consistent with the initial conceptualizations. This study discusses the potential that PO may play in enhancing loyalty and relationship marketing research in the hospitality and tourism industry.
Ajzen, I., & Fishbein, M. (1970). The prediction of behavior from attitudinal and normative variables. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology , 6, 466-487.
2.
Anderson, J.C., & Gerbing, D.W. (1988). Structural equation modeling in practice: A review and recommended two-step approach. Psychological Bulletin , 103, 411-423.
3.
Ardrey, R. (1966). The territorial imperative: A personal inquiry into the animal origins of property and nations. New York : Dell.
4.
Aron, A., Aron, E.N., & Smollan, D. (1992). Inclusion of other in the self-scale and the structure of interpersonal closeness. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 63, 596-612.
5.
Ashforth, B.E., & Mael, F. (1989). Social identity theory and the organization. Academy of Management Review, 14, 20-39.
6.
Bagozzi, R.P. (1995). Reflections on relationship marketing in consumer markets. Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, 23, 272-277.
7.
Baker, D.A., & Crompton, J.L. (2000). Quality, satisfaction, and behavioral intentions. Annals of Tourism Research, 27, 785-804.
8.
Beggan, J.K. (1992). On the social nature of nonsocial perception: The mere ownership effect. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 62, 229-237.
9.
Bergami, M., & Bagozzi, R.P. (2000). Self-categorization, affective commitment, and group self-esteem as distinct aspects of social identity in the organization . British Journal of Social Psychology, 39, 555-577.
10.
Bhattacharya, C.B., & Sen, S. (2003). Customer-company identification: A framework for understanding customers' relationships with companies. Journal of Marketing, 67, 76-88.
11.
Bitner, M., Faranda, W.T., Hubbert, A.R., & Zeithaml, V.A. (1997). Customer contributions and roles in service delivery. International Journal of Service Industry Management, 8, 193-205.
12.
Bowen, J.T. (1990). Development of a taxonomy of services to gain strategic marketing insights. Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, 18, 43-49.
13.
Bowen, J.T., & Shoemaker, S. (2003). Loyalty: A strategic commitment. Cornell Hotel and Restaurant Administration Quarterly, 44, 31-46.
14.
Brown, T.J., Barry, T.E., Dacin, P.A., & Gunst, R.F. (2005). Spreading the word: Investigating antecedents of consumers' positive word-of-mouth intentions and behaviors in a retailing context. Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, 33, 122-138.
15.
Byrne, B.M. (1998). Structural equation modeling with LISREL, PRELIS, and SIMPLIS: Basic concepts, applications, and programming. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.
16.
Calder, B.J., Philips, L.W., & Tybout, A.M. (1981). Designing research for application. Journal of Consumer Research, 8, 197-207.
17.
Churchill, G.A., Jr. (1979). A paradigm for developing better measures of marketing constructs. Journal of Marketing Research, 16, 64-73.
18.
Dabholkar, P. (1990). How to improve perceived service quality by improving customer participation. In B. Dunlap (Ed.), Developments in marketing science (pp. 483-487). Cullowhee, NC: Academy of Marketing Science.
19.
Dichter, E. (1966). How word-of-mouth advertising works. Harvard Business Review, 44, 147-157.
20.
Dirks, K.T., Cummings, L.L., & Pierce, J.L. (1996). Psychological ownership in organizations: Conditions under which individuals promote and resist change. Research in Organizational Change and Development, 9, 1-23.
21.
Dittmar, H. (1992). Social psychology of material possessions: To have is to be. New York: St. Martin's Press.
22.
Dreyfus, H.L. (1991). Being-in-the-world: A commentary on Heidegger's being and time, Division I. Cambridge: MIT Press.
23.
Duncan, N.G. (1981). Home ownership and social theory. In J. S. Duncan (Ed.), Housing and identity: Cross-cultural perspectives (pp. 98-134). London: Croom Helm.
24.
Dutton, J.E., Dukerich, J.M., & Harquail, C.V. (1994). Organizational images and member identification. Administrative Science Quarterly, 39, 239-263.
25.
Faranda, W. (2001). A scale to measure the cognitive form of perceived control: Construction and preliminary assessment. Psychology and Marketing, 18, 1259-1281.
Fletcher, G.P. (1993). Loyalty: An essay on the morality of relationships . New York: Oxford University Press .
28.
Ford, R.C., & Heaton, C.P. (2001). Managing your guest as a quasi-employee. Cornell Hotel & Restaurant Administrative Quarterly, 42, 46-55.
29.
Fornell, C., & Larcker, D.F. (1981). Evaluating structural equation models with unobservable variables and measurement error. Journal of Marketing Research , 18, 39-50.
30.
Fournier, S., & Yao, J.L. (1997). Reviving brand loyalty: A reconceptualization within the framework of consumer-brand relationships. International Journal of Research in Marketing, 14, 451-472.
31.
Fullerton, G. (2003). When does commitment lead to loyalty? Journal of Service Research, 5, 333-344.
32.
Furby, L. (1978). Possessions: Toward a theory of their meaning and function throughout the life cycle. In P. B. Baltes (Ed.), Life span development and behavior (pp. 297-336). New York: Academic Press.
33.
Ganesh, J., Arnold, M.J., & Reynolds, K.E. (2000). Understanding the customer base of service providers: An examination of differences between switchers and stayers. Journal of Marketing, 64, 65-87.
34.
Greenberg, J., Gordon, M.E., Slade, L.A., & Schmitt, N. (1987). The college sophomore as guinea pig: Setting the record straight. Academy of Management Review, 12, 157-195.
35.
Harker, M.J. (1999). Relationship marketing defined? An examination of current relationship marketing definitions. Marketing Intelligence and Planning, 17, 13-20.
Hui, M.K., & Bateson, J.E.G. (1991). Perceived control and the effects of crowding and consumer choice on the service experience. Journal of Consumer Research, 18, 174-184.
38.
Hulland, J. (1999). Use of partial least squares (PLS) in strategic management research: A review of four recent studies. Strategic Management Journal, 20, 195-204.
39.
Iacobucci, D., & Ostrom, A. (1996). Commercial and interpersonal relationships: Using the structure of interpersonal relationships to understand individual-to-individual, individual-to-firm, and firm-to-firm relationships in commerce. International Journal of Research in Marketing, 13, 53-72.
40.
Issacs, S. (1933). Social development in young children. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul.
Jones, C.D., Patterson, M.E., & Hammitt, W.E. (2000). Evaluating the construct validity of sense of belonging as a measure of landscape perception. Journal of Leisure Research, 32, 383-395.
Jun, J.S., & Baloglu, S. (2003). The role of emotional commitment in relationship marketing: An empirical investigation of a loyalty model for casinos. Journal of Hospitality & Tourism Research, 27, 470-489.
45.
Kim, W.G., & Cha, Y. (2002). Antecedents and consequences of relationship quality in hotel industry. International Journal of Hospitality Management , 21, 321-338.
46.
Kline, R.B. (1998). Principles and practice of structural equation modeling. New York: Guilford Press .
47.
Kumar,V., Bohling, T.R., & Ladda, R.N. (2003). Antecedents and consequences of relationship intention: Implications for transaction and relationship marketing. Industrial Marketing Management, 32, 667-676.
48.
Ladd, J. (1967). Loyalty. In The encyclopedia of philosophy (Vol. 5, pp. 97-98). New York: Macmillan.
49.
Lalli, M. (1992). Urban-related identity: Theory, measurement, and empirical findings. Journal of Environmental Psychology, 12, 285-303.
50.
Lengnick-Hall, C. (1996). Customer contributions to quality: A different view of customer-oriented firm. Academy of Management Review , 21, 791-824.
51.
Mattila, A. (2001). Emotional bonding and restaurant loyalty. Cornell Hotel and Restaurant Administration Quarterly, 42, 73-79.
52.
Medin, C., Roy, S., & Ann, T. (1999). World Wide Web versus mail surveys: A comparison and report. Paper presented at ANZMAC99 Conference, Marketing in the Third Millennium, Sydney, Australia. Retrieved July 10, 2000, from http://www.anzmac99.unsw.edu.au/anzmacfiles/papers.htm.
53.
Mills, P., Chase, R., & Marguiles, N. (1983). Motivating the client/employee system as a service production strategy. Academy of Management Review, 8, 301-310.
54.
Morgan, R.M., & Hunt, S.D. (1994). The commitment-trust theory of relationship marketing . Journal of Marketing, 58, 20-38.
55.
Morling, B.A., & Fiske, S.T. (1994). Control. In Encyclopedia of human behavior (p. 719). San Diego, CA: Academic Press.
56.
Namasivayam, K. (2004). Action control, proxy control, and customers' evaluations of the service exchange. Psychology & Marketing , 21, 463-480.
57.
Nataraajan, R., & Angur, M.G. (1998). Perceived control in customer choice: A closer look. In B. G. Englis & A. Olofsson (Eds.), European advances in consumer research (Vol. 3, pp. 288-292). Provo, UT: Association for Consumer Research.
58.
Nozar, R.A. (1999, January). Luxury market focuses on customer loyalty . Hotel & Motel Management, 214, 29.
59.
O'Driscoll, M.P., Pierce, J.L., & Coghlan, A.-M. (2006). The psychology of ownership: Work environment structure, organizational commitment, and citizenship behaviors . Group & Organization Management, 31, 388-416.
60.
Oh, H. (1999). Service quality, customer satisfaction, and customer value: A holistic perspective. Hospitality Management, 18, 67-82.
61.
Oh, H. (2002). Transaction evaluations and relationship intentions . Journal of Hospitality & Tourism Research, 26, 278-305.
Pierce, J.L., Kostova, T., & Dirks, K. (2001). Toward a theory of psychological ownership in organizations. Academy of Management Review, 26, 298-310.
64.
Pierce, J.L., Kostova, T., & Dirks, K. (2003). The state of psychological ownership: Integrating and extending a century of research. Review of General Psychology , 7, 84-107.
65.
Pierce, J.L., & Rogers, L. (2004). The psychology of ownership and worker-owner productivity . Group & Organization Management, 29, 588-613.
Pratt, M.G. (1998). To be or not to be: Central questions in organizational identification. In D. A. Whetten & P. C. Godfrey (Eds.), Identity in organizations: Building theory through conversations (pp. 171-207).Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
68.
Rao, S., & Perry, C. (2002). Thinking about relationship marketing: Where are we now? Journal of Business & Industrial Marketing, 17, 598-614.
69.
Reichheld, F.F., & Kenny, D.W. (1990). The hidden advantage of customer retention. Journal of Retail Banking, 4, 19-23.
70.
Reynolds, K.E., & Arnold, M.J. (2000). Customer loyalty to the salesperson and the store: Examining relationship customers in an upscale retail context. Journal of Personal Selling & Sales Management, 20, 89-98.
71.
Reynolds, N.L., Simintiras, A.C., & Diamantopoulos, A. (2002). Theoretical justification of sampling choices in international marketing research: Key issues and guidelines for researchers. Journal of International Business Studies , 34, 80-89.
72.
Rudmin, F.W., & Berry, J.W. (1987). Semantics of ownership: A free-recall study of property. Psychological Record, 37, 257-268.
73.
Seamon, D. (1979). A geography of the life-world. London: Crook & Helm.
74.
Sheth, J.N., & Parvatiyar, A. (1995). Relationship marketing in consumer markets: Antecedents and consequences. Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, 23, 255-271.
75.
Shoemaker, S., & Lewis, R.C. (1999). Customer loyalty: The future of hospitality marketing . International Journal of Hospitality Management, 18, 345-370.
76.
Vandewalle, D., Van Dyne, L., & Kostova, T. (1995). Psychological ownership: An empirical examination of its consequences. Group & Organization Management, 20, 210-226.
77.
Van Dyne, L., Cummings, L.L., & McLean Parks, J. (1995). Extra-role behaviors: In pursuit of construct and definitional clarity. In L. L. Cummings & B. M. Staw (Eds.), Research in organizational behavior (pp. 215-285). Greenwich, CT: JAI Press.
78.
Van Dyne, L., & Pierce, J.L. (2004). Psychological ownership and feelings of possession: Three field studies predicting employee attitudes and organizational citizenship behavior. Journal of Organizational Behavior, 25, 439-459.
79.
Westbrook, R.A. (1987). Product/consumption-based affective responses and postpurchase process. Journal of Marketing Research, 24, 258-270.
80.
White, R.W. (1959). Motivation reconsidered: The concept of competence . Psychological Review, 66, 297-330.
81.
Yen, H.J.R., & Gwinner, K.P. (2003). Internet retail customer loyalty: The mediating role of relational benefits. International Journal of Service Industry Management, 14, 483-500.
82.
Zeithaml, V.A., Berry, L., & Parasuraman, A. (1996). The behavioral consequences of service quality. Journal of Marketing, 60, 31-46.
83.
Zeithaml, V.A., & Bitner, M.J. (1996). Services marketing. New York : McGraw-Hill.
