Personality Antecedents of Customer Citizenship Behaviors in Online Shopping Situations

This study examines the psychological process used in predicting customer citizenship behaviors. Hypotheses are proposed to test the effects of personality traits on customer satisfaction, and customer citizenship behaviors in an online shopping context. Two broader elemental traits-agreeableness and extraversion-are posited to lead to specific state-based traits; namely, perspective taking and empathic concern. In turn, empathic reactions are expected to affect customer satisfaction as well as customer citizenship behaviors. Study results demonstrate that individuals high on empathic concern feel greater satisfaction with the service provider, and display a greater propensity to help other online shoppers.