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The unintended sustainable consequences of free upgrade: How unearned preferential treatment reduces sustainable behavior

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  • Hu, Jihao
  • Xu, Zhengzheng
  • Wan, Lisa C.
  • Wu, Wei

Abstract

The prior research on unearned preferential treatment has merely focused on its impact on consumer reactions or firms' performance (e.g., customer satisfaction, repurchase intention), with its sustainable consequences underexplored. In addition, holding the resource abundance account, past work on promotion tools (e.g., price discounts) has mainly examined positive social outcomes. Through a series of studies (N = 8402), combining field and experimental data with actual behavior measures (e.g., actual towel usage, click-through rate), this research demonstrates that, due to its unique exclusive nature, receiving unearned preferential treatment can situationally enhance consumers' psychological entitlement, which, in turn, renders consumers' decreased sustainable behavior. Intriguingly, marketers can reverse this negative effect by strategically harnessing a status-signaling appeal of sustainable behavior.

Suggested Citation

  • Hu, Jihao & Xu, Zhengzheng & Wan, Lisa C. & Wu, Wei, 2025. "The unintended sustainable consequences of free upgrade: How unearned preferential treatment reduces sustainable behavior," Annals of Tourism Research, Elsevier, vol. 110(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:anture:v:110:y:2025:i:c:s016073832400149x
    DOI: 10.1016/j.annals.2024.103872
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    References listed on IDEAS

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