Credit card churning customers, endowed loyalty, and protestant work ethic

There is scant research that examines the effect of credit card churning customers (as a type of endowed loyalty) compared to earned loyalty program customer perceptions. Additionally, this research identifies a critical variable to better understand cross-customer comparisons, protestant work ethic (PWE). Study 1 uses an exploratory qualitative approach to gain insights into this phenomenon, specifically identifying the unique variable of PWE. Study 2 uses a 2 (self: earned vs. endowed) x 2 (other: earned vs. endowed) x 2 (PWE) quasi between-subjects experiment. Results find that anger mediates the three-way interaction effects to attitudinal loyalty intention, but it was only valid among low PWE customers. This study contributes to the social comparison theory and loyalty literature by introducing the impact of loyalty status acquisition methods. Practically, this study results urge credit card companies and associated hospitality firms to be aware of churners and propose implications to minimize the negative effects.