Can customer gratitude expression backfire? The roles of customer status and employee psychological entitlement

Purpose This study aims to examine whether customer status shapes employees’ responses to customer gratitude expression, thereby addressing overlooked within-role differences among expressers and revealing a less-examined dark side of gratitude expression. Design/methodology/approach The authors used a multimethod design comprising a vignette-based experiment (Study 1, n = 153), a critical-incident-based experiment (Study 2, n = 221) and a multiwave survey (Study 3, n = 221) to test the proposed model. Findings Challenging the implicit assumption in prior research that recipients interpret gratitude expression similarly across expressers within the same role, the authors found that employees responded to customer gratitude expression differently depending on customer status. Specifically, gratitude expression from higher-status customers was associated with greater psychological entitlement among employees and, indirectly, with greater workplace deviance, whereas this positive indirect effect did not emerge for lower-status customers. These findings qualify the predominantly positive view of gratitude expression by revealing hidden costs. Originality/value This research contributes to gratitude expression research by reframing customer gratitude expression as a status-contingent social signal rather than a uniformly positive interpersonal cue. It extends this research by identifying psychological entitlement as a pathway through which positive social exchanges can create unintended managerial risks. Practically, it cautions tourism and hospitality organizations against overvaluing gratitude expression from higher-status customers and highlights the need to manage employees’ entitlement-inducing interpretations.