Measuring Perceptions of Fairness of Loyalty Program Members

This research develops a measure of perceptions of fairness (POF) toward loyalty programs. Grounded in the Theory of Justice (TOJ), the POF scale connects principles of distributive, procedural, and interactive justice to the process, value, and communication components of the loyalty circle (Shoemaker, 2003). Following the recommended multi-method, the multistage scale development process, the 14-item, two-factor POF scale is constructed and validated with four samples of loyalty program members. The data support two dimensions: value-based fairness and communication-based fairness. The scale can serve as a dependent variable in future research to explain how program features, structures, and changes affect members from the fairness perspective. The scale can serve as an antecedent to behavioral intentions and outcomes, thereby providing insight into the influence of marketing initiatives on loyalty program effectiveness.