Antecedents of consumer misbehaviour on Black Friday: A social responsibility view

Consumer misbehaviour is non-normative behaviour in consumption situations and is a form of socially irresponsible behaviour motivated by self interest. Consumer misbehaviours have been widely reported on Black Friday (BF), the day after Thanksgiving in the US when retailers offer ‘doorbuster’ deals. Based on the exchange paradigm and the General Aggression Model (GAM), five hypotheses were developed and tested with structural equation modelling using data from BF shoppers (N=260). Results found that the presence of unpleasant fellow customers positively influenced perceptions of inequity, while crowding negatively influenced perceptions of inequity. Perceptions of crowding negatively affected consumer misbehaviour on BF, while the presence of unpleasant customers inflated consumer misbehaviour on BF. A positive relationship was found for perceptions of inequity on BF consumer misbehaviour. Both presence of unpleasant fellow customers and perceived crowding had significant indirect effects on BF consumer misbehaviour via perceptions of inequity. We show how BF misbehaviour is socially irresponsible and use a social responsibility framework to interpret results and suggest solutions that fairly balance the needs of all stakeholders.