Gaming the System: Inequality Beliefs and Consumer Opportunism

Consumers often behave opportunistically (e.g., excessive sampling, returning used items), taking more than what fair marketplace exchanges warrant. While each individual transgression may be minor, cumulatively, they can undermine firm profitability. Thus, addressing consumer opportunism is an important managerial concern. We identify a novel antecedent of consumer opportunism: power distance beliefs (PDB), or consumers’ acknowledgment and acceptance of societal hierarchy, including the salience that firms are higher in it. We find the salience of firms’ higher position in the societal hierarchy during consumer-firm interactions cues a need to feel clever—a self-directed need to feel smart and knowledgeable vis-à-vis firms among such consumers. Opportunistic consumer behaviors that exploit policy loopholes can serve this need, as these behaviors allow consumers to feel clever without explicitly defying firm authority. Higher-status consumers, who may experience greater self-worth threat in marketplace interactions, experience this need more, leading to greater opportunism. Reminders of surveillance reduce opportunism, but brand relationship reminders, paradoxically, license it. Nine studies (plus four supplementary studies) employing archival, correlational, and experimental data provide converging evidence. This research offers novel theoretical insights into consumer opportunism along with substantive managerial implications. (190 words).