Publication Type

PhD Dissertation

Version

publishedVersion

Publication Date

4-2025

Abstract

The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has fundamentally disrupted business operations, causing widespread financial strain and uncertainty for employees, and research shows that financial vulnerability – the sense of insecurity regarding one’s economic resources – has reached unprecedented levels among workers. But while conventional wisdom might suggest that financial stress leads to decreased work performance, a critical gap exists in understanding how financial vulnerability influences employee behavior in service-oriented environments.

Therefore, this study investigated the relationship between financial vulnerability and employee behavior within the context of pet hospitals in China, examining how organizational factors moderate this relationship. Data were collected from 163 employees across 42 chain pet clinics in nine Chinese regions, focusing on the moderating effects of perceived service climate and customer-oriented culture. The findings revealed that, contrary to expectations, employees experiencing financial vulnerability demonstrated increased prosociality and communion striving, particularly in environments with strong service climates. Specifically, when employees perceived a robust service climate, their prosocial behavior and communion striving intensified in response to financial vulnerability, leading to enhanced extra-role customer service and organizational citizenship behaviors.

However, these positive effects were not observed in environments with weak service climates, where the relationship between financial vulnerability and prosocial behaviors became insignificant. These results suggest that organizations can leverage

service climate to channel employee financial stress into positive behavioral outcomes, offering important implications for management practices during periods of economic uncertainty.

Keywords

Financial vulnerability, prosociality, communion striving, extra-role customer service, organizational citizenship behavior, perceived service climate, perceived customer-oriented culture

Degree Awarded

SMU-SJTU Doctor of Business Administration

Discipline

Finance and Financial Management | Organizational Behavior and Theory

Supervisor(s)

TAI, Tze Suen Kenneth

First Page

1

Last Page

100

Publisher

Singapore Management University

City or Country

Singapore

Copyright Owner and License

Author

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