Relational Norm Violation Scale

What it measures

Four items capture the extent to which a person perceives an exchange partner's behaviour in a particular event as surprising, unexpected, and outside what the relationship would normally predict. The items reflect violations of relational expectations -- the implicit scripts and norms that develop between exchange partners over time -- rather than product or service disconfirmations. The scale was developed to identify and study transformational relationship events: moments that dramatically reshape a relationship's trajectory.

Scale items

• I did not expect this from my relationship with _____.
• _____'s behavior was very unexpected.
• I did not think _____ would do something like this.
• This event was outside of what I would have expected from the norms of our relationship.

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

Usage notes & scoring

Developed through a rigorous multi-stage process including 22 in-depth expert interviews, item generation, content and face validity review, and CFA-based purification, as described in the web appendix of Harmeling et al. (2015). The scale was validated under both positive and negative relational disconfirmation conditions, with AVEs of .74 (negative) and .83 (positive) and alphas of .92 and .95 respectively. A blank appears in each item and the instructions and should be filled with the name of the focal person, group, or company in the relationship (e.g., 'supplier', 'salesperson'). The scale was also used in a B2B context (Study 3) with slightly revised phrasing; researchers adapting to B2B settings should verify item phrasing appropriateness. Excellent convergent and discriminant validity were demonstrated against related scales including trust, satisfaction, and relationship velocity.

Citation

Harmeling, C. M., Palmatier, R. W., Houston, M. B., Arnold, M. J., & Samaha, S. A. (2015). Transformational relationship events. Journal of Marketing, 79(5), 39-62.

Keywords