Indebtedness to Service Provider

What it measures

A five-item likert scale designed to measure the degree to which a person believes a service provider is owed patronage because of the special treatment received from the business in the past.

Response format

5-point Likert (1=strongly disagree, 5=strongly agree)

Scale items

• I owe my service provider my patronage because of the favors/special treats I used to receive.
• I feel obliged to do business with my service provider because of the favors/special treats I used to receive.
• I have a give and take relationship with my service provider.
• I feel indebted to my service provider due to the favors/special treatment I receive.
• I feel a need to repay my service provider for the way it treated me.

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

Usage notes & scoring

Internal consistency (alpha = .87) was reported in the primary study. Conceptually grounded in Coleman's social capital theory — specifically: Coleman, J. S. (1988). Social capital in the creation of human capital. American Journal of Sociology, 94, S95–S120, and Coleman (1990) Foundations of Social Theory — which established the sociological basis for obligations, "credit slips," and reciprocity as forms of social capital. Also draws on Frenzen & Davis (1990) on embedded markets. Captures the "dark side" of relationship marketing: loyalty driven by normative social debt rather than genuine affection. α = .87 reported in primary study. Originally attributed to Coleman (1990, book); correct scale source confirmed as Tokman, Davis & Lemon (2007).

Citation

Tokman, M., Davis, L. M., & Lemon, K. N. (2007). The WOW factor: Creating value through win-back offers to reacquire lost customers. Journal of Retailing, 83(1), 47–64.

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