IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/jbrese/v204y2026ics0148296325006265.html

Customers’ tales: Special-request motives and responses to frontline employees’ denials

Author

Listed:
  • Wang, Sijun
  • Bove, Liliana L.
  • Beatty, Sharon E.
  • Lu, Fang-Chi

Abstract

This research investigates customers’ motivations for making special requests and their reactions to frontline employees’ (FLEs’) denials within the frameworks of service-dominant (S-D) logic, the service triad, and value co-creation. While prior research has investigated FLEs’ perspectives on this topic, little is known about why customers make special requests (i.e., motives) and how they react to FLEs’ denials, which can lead to value co-destruction. Using 400 critical incidents in Study 1 and 596 customer responses in Study 2, a scenario-based experiment, we find that customers make special requests not just to solve problems, as previous research suggests, but also to fulfill personal preferences or simply to test FLEs’ boundaries. Guided by cognitive appraisal theory and S-D logic, we propose and confirm that customers’ motives for making special requests are aligned with their subsequent emotional and behavioral responses when FLEs deny their requests. Furthermore, customer entitlement moderates these relationships.

Suggested Citation

  • Wang, Sijun & Bove, Liliana L. & Beatty, Sharon E. & Lu, Fang-Chi, 2026. "Customers’ tales: Special-request motives and responses to frontline employees’ denials," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 204(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:jbrese:v:204:y:2026:i:c:s0148296325006265
    DOI: 10.1016/j.jbusres.2025.115803
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0148296325006265
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.jbusres.2025.115803?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
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to

    for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Melissa Archpru Akaka & Kaisa Koskela-Huotari & Stephen L. Vargo, 2021. "Formalizing service-dominant logic as a general theory of markets: taking stock and moving forward," AMS Review, Springer;Academy of Marketing Science, vol. 11(3), pages 375-389, December.
    2. Friestad, Marian & Wright, Peter, 1994. "The Persuasion Knowledge Model: How People Cope with Persuasion Attempts," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 21(1), pages 1-31, June.
    3. Nobuyuki Fukawa & Sunil Erevelles, 2014. "Perceived Reasonableness and Morals in Service Encounters," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 125(3), pages 381-400, December.
    4. Habel, Johannes & Alavi, Sascha & Pick, Doreén, 2017. "When serving customers includes correcting them: Understanding the ambivalent effects of enforcing service rules," International Journal of Research in Marketing, Elsevier, vol. 34(4), pages 919-941.
    5. Li, Xiaodong & Liu, Zibing & Ren, Ai & Gong, Bengang, 2022. "What fuzzy requests bring to frontline employees: An absorptive capacity theory perspective," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 67(C).
    6. Zhou, Lanlan & Gao, Min & Kou, Yan & Yang, Jianchun, 2021. "Service with improper requests: How fellow customers interpret Employee's judgment call," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 62(C).
    7. Collier, Joel E. & Barnes, Donald C. & Abney, Alexandra K. & Pelletier, Mark J., 2018. "Idiosyncratic service experiences: When customers desire the extraordinary in a service encounter," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 84(C), pages 150-161.
    8. Li, Xiaodong & Wang, Chuang & Hamari, Juho, 2021. "Frontline employees’ compliance with fuzzy requests: A request–appraisal–behavior perspective," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 131(C), pages 55-68.
    9. Michael K Hui & Kevin Au & Henry Fock, 2004. "Empowerment effects across cultures," Journal of International Business Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Academy of International Business, vol. 35(1), pages 46-60, January.
    10. L. Plé & R. Chumpitaz, 2010. "Not always co-creation: introducing interactional co-destruction of value in service-dominant logic," Post-Print halshs-00588239, HAL.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    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. Li, Xiaodong & Liu, Zibing & Ren, Ai & Gong, Bengang, 2022. "What fuzzy requests bring to frontline employees: An absorptive capacity theory perspective," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 67(C).
    2. Jones, Michael A. & Taylor, Valerie A., 2018. "Marketer requests for positive post-purchase satisfaction evaluations: Consumer depth interview findings," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 41(C), pages 218-226.
    3. Zhang, Yun & Li, Xia & Liu, Rongqin & Shuai, Qinghong & Huang, Caiyan, 2025. "How facial cues of streamers drive purchase intention in live streaming commerce: Based on a lens model," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 190(C).
    4. Dhrithi Mahadevan & G. Shainesh, 2024. "Conceptualizing customer experience in multi-actor platforms," AMS Review, Springer;Academy of Marketing Science, vol. 14(1), pages 83-103, June.
    5. Lee, Alice J. & Ames, Daniel R., 2017. "“I can’t pay more” versus “It’s not worth more”: Divergent effects of constraint and disparagement rationales in negotiations," Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, Elsevier, vol. 141(C), pages 16-28.
    6. Vegas-Macias, Jordi, 2025. "Social contact and value co-creation practices. Tourist–resident encounters and urban cycling in Copenhagen," Annals of Tourism Research, Elsevier, vol. 110(C).
    7. Suwelack, Thomas & Hogreve, Jens & Hoyer, Wayne D., 2011. "Understanding Money-Back Guarantees: Cognitive, Affective, and Behavioral Outcomes," Journal of Retailing, Elsevier, vol. 87(4), pages 462-478.
    8. Cagla Pinar Utkutug & Erkan Yildiz, 2026. "Gaining Positive E-WOM Through Reputation Depending on Information Privacy Concerns in Banking Services: Moderation Roles of Boycott Participation and Boycott Frequency," Corporate Reputation Review, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 29(1), pages 4-23, February.
    9. Jong Yoon Lee & Jae Hee Park & Jong Woo Jun, 2019. "Brand Webtoon as Sustainable Advertising in Korean Consumers: A Focus on Hierarchical Relationships," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(5), pages 1-10, March.
    10. Skarmeas, Dionysis & Leonidou, Constantinos N., 2013. "When consumers doubt, Watch out! The role of CSR skepticism," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 66(10), pages 1831-1838.
    11. Fayyaz, Muhammad Shahzeb & Abbasi, Amir Zaib & Kumar, Sanjeev & Qureshi, Ammar & Hussain, Khalil & Muhammad, Lakhi, 2025. "Integrating digital influencer persuasion model and theory of planned behavior: The mediating role of consumer involvement in endorsed brands," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 85(C).
    12. Mark Groza & Mya Pronschinske & Matthew Walker, 2011. "Perceived Organizational Motives and Consumer Responses to Proactive and Reactive CSR," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 102(4), pages 639-652, September.
    13. Aaker, Jennifer L. & Brumbaugh, Anne M. & Grier, Sonya A., 2000. "Non-target Markets and Viewer Distinctiveness: The Impact of Target Marketing on Advertising Attitudes," Research Papers 1578, Stanford University, Graduate School of Business.
    14. Simonson, Itamar & Drolet, Aimee L., 2003. "Anchoring Effects on Consumers' Willingness-to-Pay and Willingness-to-Accept," Research Papers 1787, Stanford University, Graduate School of Business.
    15. Román, Sergio & Riquelme, Isabel P. & Iacobucci, Dawn, 2023. "Fake or credible? Antecedents and consequences of perceived credibility in exaggerated online reviews," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 156(C).
    16. Rosbergen, Edward & Wedel, Michel & Pieters, Rik, 1997. "Analyzing visual attention tot repeated print advertising using scanpath theory," Research Report 97B32, University of Groningen, Research Institute SOM (Systems, Organisations and Management).
    17. Li, Tian-Ge & Zhang, Chu-Bing & Chang, Ying & Zheng, Wei, 2024. "The impact of AI identity disclosure on consumer unethical behavior: A social judgment perspective," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 76(C).
    18. Ryan W. Buell & Michael I. Norton, 2011. "The Labor Illusion: How Operational Transparency Increases Perceived Value," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 57(9), pages 1564-1579, February.
    19. repec:bcp:journl:v:9:y:2025:i:12:p:2937-2955 is not listed on IDEAS
    20. Caldieraro, Fabio & Cunha, Marcus, 2022. "Consumers’ response to weak unique selling propositions: Implications for optimal product recommendation strategy," International Journal of Research in Marketing, Elsevier, vol. 39(3), pages 724-744.
    21. Fennell, Patrick B. & Coleman, Joshua T. & Kuo, Andrew, 2020. "The moderating role of donation quantifiers on price fairness judgments," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 110(C), pages 464-473.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    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:jbrese:v:204:y:2026:i:c:s0148296325006265. 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: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/jbusres .

    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.