Company Cost-Cutting Effects on Customers

What it measures

This scale measures how much a consumer believes a company is reducing costs or service quality to boost its own profits at customers' expense. Castelo, Boegershausen, Hildebrand, and Henkel (2023) used it across four studies on consumer reactions to service bots.

Response format

7-point scale (strongly disagree to strongly agree)

Scale items

• This company is cutting costs at the customers' expense.
• This company is trying to increase its profits by reducing service quality.
• This company is prioritizing its own financial interests over the best interests of its customers.

Full scale items shown. Always cite the original source when using this scale in research.

Usage notes & scoring

Reliability was strong and consistent, with alphas ranging from .85 to .91 across the four studies (Castelo et al. 2023, pp. 854, 855, 857, 859). The scale appears to have been created by the authors for this research program.

Citation

Castelo, Noah, Johannes Boegershausen, Christian Hildebrand, and Alexander P. Henkel (2023), "Understanding and Improving Consumer Reactions to Service Bots," Journal of Consumer Research, 50 (4), 848-863.

Keywords

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