International Journal of Hospitality Management 93 (2021) 102773

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International Journal of Hospitality Management

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/ijhm

Antecedents and consequences of hotel customers’ psychological ownership

Shuhao Li a, Hailin Qu a, b, Min Wei a, *
a
School of Management, Xiamen University, 422 South Siming Road, Xiamen, 361005, China
b
School of Hospitality and Tourism Management, Spears School of Business, Oklahoma State University, Stillwater, OK, 74078, USA

A R T I C L E I N F O A B S T R A C T

Keywords: This study aims to broaden the current knowledge on the antecedents and consequences of customers’ psy­
Customers’ psychological ownership chological ownership (CPO) from new perspectives in the hotel context. Specifically, this study investigates how
Self-image congruity self-image congruity and functional congruity affect CPO through impression in memory based on self-congruity
Functional congruity
theory and also examines two types of customer engagement—customers’ social influence engagement and
Impression in memory
Customer engagement
knowledge-sharing engagement—as new CPO outcomes. Using survey data collected from 433 Chinese hotel
customers, this study finds that self-image congruity positively predicts CPO partially through impression in
memory, whereas functional congruity positively influences CPO fully through impression in memory. Moreover,
the findings indicate that CPO significantly drives customers’ social influence engagement and knowledge-
sharing engagement. This study contributes theoretically to the CPO literature by further developing its link­
ages with congruity perceptions and customer engagement. Practical implications of the findings can help hotel
managers effectively promote CPO and customer engagement.

1. Introduction
Psychological ownership, defined as “that state in which individuals
feel as though the target of ownership (material or immaterial in nature)
or a piece of it is ‘theirs’” (Pierce et al., 2001, p. 299), has emerged in
recent years as an increasingly hot topic in customer behavior research
(Béal and Sabadie, 2018; Deng et al., 2020; Joo, 2020; Kumar and
Nayak, 2019). However, existing studies conducted in the hotel context
have mainly focused on employees’ psychological ownership (e.g.,
Chang et al., 2012; Lin et al., 2019; Xiong et al., 2019), but not on
customers’ psychological ownership (CPO) (Lee and Kim, 2020). Choi
and Chu (2001) suggested that hotels are supposed to meet and even
exceed customers’ diverse needs in the competitive marketplace. Thus,
it is crucial to attach much importance to CPO to satisfy customers’
needs for efficacy, self-identity, and sense of belonging rooted in this
construct (Pierce et al., 2001).
Against this background, previous studies have examined various
variables, such as customer participation, perceived control, empower­
ment, value co-creation, and place attachment, as potential factors
influencing the formation mechanism of CPO (Asatryan and Oh, 2008;
Deng et al., 2020; Fuchs et al., 2010; Joo, 2020). However, existing
research has seldom explored the drivers of CPO from self-congruity
perspective; in other words, the effects of self-image congruity and
functional congruity on CPO have not been thoroughly investigated (Li
et al., 2020; Tseng and Hsieh, 2019). According to self-congruity theory,
customers tend to develop close psychological connections with
firms/brands when they perceive self-image congruity and functional
congruity (Li et al., 2020; Sirgy and Johar, 1999). On that basis, this
study attempts to examine self-image congruity and functional congru­
ity as new predictors of CPO to enrich the antecedents of the latter.
In addition to the direct effects, this study also pays attention to the
indirect effects of self-image congruity and functional congruity on CPO
through impression in memory. Impression in memory, which stresses
that firms/brands can leave a positive impression in customers’ mem­
ory, is a mediator linking brand authenticity and brand love (Manthiou
et al., 2018). This study proposes that customers’ unique and positive
experiences of self-image congruity and functional congruity can greatly
impress them in memory, and such impression in memory can positively
affect CPO. On that basis, this study attempts to examine the mediating
role of impression in memory to clearly understand how self-image
congruity and functional congruity indirectly influence CPO through
enhancement of customers’ memorable impression.
Concerning the consequences of CPO, existing research has identi­
fied several important variables, such as customer commitment,
perceived value, word-of-mouth, willingness to pay more, and voice
behaviors (Asatryan and Oh, 2008; Béal and Sabadie, 2018; Deng et al.,

* Corresponding author at: School of Management, Xiamen University, No. 422, South Siming Road, Xiamen, 361005, China.
E-mail addresses: xmlsh2018@126.com (S. Li), h.qu@okstate.edu (H. Qu), xiada2000@126.com (M. Wei).

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijhm.2020.102773
Received 14 February 2020; Received in revised form 28 October 2020; Accepted 10 November 2020
Available online 26 November 2020
0278-4319/© 2020 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
S. Li et al.
2020). However, limited studies have investigated the role of CPO in
predicting customer engagement (Gong, 2018; Guo et al., 2016; Kumar
and Nayak, 2019), especially customers’ social influence engagement
and knowledge-sharing engagement. As suggested by Itani et al. (2019),
customers’ power in today’s market is fairly strong; thus, firms are urged
to build an engagement-based market to encourage their customers to
act as value co-creators. In this context, this study attempts to explore
the effects of CPO on the two types of customer engagement to broaden
the consequences of the former from the perspective of customers’
non-transactional behaviors.
In sum, the purpose of the present study is to explore how self-image
congruity and functional congruity, directly and indirectly, influence
CPO and how CPO predicts customers’ social influence engagement and
knowledge-sharing engagement in the hotel context to broaden the
existing knowledge on the antecedents and outcomes of CPO from new
perspectives. The objectives of this study are (a) to explore the effects of
self-image congruity and functional congruity on CPO; (b) to examine
the mediating role of impression in memory in the relationship between
self-image congruity and CPO; (c) to test the mediating role of impres­
sion in memory in the relationship between functional congruity and
CPO; and (d) to investigate the influence of CPO on customers’ social
influence engagement and knowledge-sharing engagement.
This study provides some important theoretical and practical impli­
cations. First, this study broadens the antecedents of CPO based on self-
congruity theory. The findings show the important roles of self-image
congruity and functional congruity in affecting CPO, thus inspiring
hotel managers to foster CPO by creating a congruent firm image and
product/service functionality. Second, this study enriches the current
knowledge on the underlying mechanism of CPO by addressing
impression in memory as a mediator. The findings support the partial
(full) mediating role of this mediator in the effect of self-image (func­
tional) congruity on CPO, hence implying that impressing customers
helps stimulate CPO. Finally, this study contributes to the CPO literature
by adding customers’ social influence engagement and knowledge-
sharing engagement as new outcomes. The findings demonstrate the
expected positive effects, therefore providing implications for hotel
managers to promote the two types of customer engagement by
improving CPO.
2. Literature review and hypothesis development
2.1. Psychological ownership
Psychological ownership reflects individuals’ strong sense of
possession toward particular target objects (Pierce et al., 2001).
Different from legal ownership, which indicates that ownership rights
are acknowledged by the society and upheld by the legal system, psy­
chological ownership highlights the cognitive and affective feelings of
individuals that the target objects are “theirs,” and is applied to answer
the following question: “What do I feel is mine?” (Pierce et al., 2003).
Individuals can perceive that they psychologically own something even
though they do not actually possess it, implying that psychological
ownership can exist in the absence of legal ownership (Van Dyne and
Pierce, 2004).
The motives of psychological ownership include three aspects: (a)
self-efficacy, which stresses that individuals can obtain a strong sense of
power to achieve something by controlling, influencing, and altering the
objects of psychological ownership; (b) self-identity, which emphasizes
that the affective connections between the subjects and the objects of
psychological ownership help individuals know themselves, define
themselves, and express their self-identity to others; and (c) sense of
belonging, which highlights that the sense of psychological ownership
helps fulfill individuals’ territorial needs by making them feel safe and
comfortable as though they have a stable and warm “home” to dwell
(Pierce et al., 2001, 2003).
CPO refers to customers’ sense of ownership toward a particular firm
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International Journal of Hospitality Management 93 (2021) 102773
or brand (Asatryan and Oh, 2008; Fuchs et al., 2010). Since the concept
of CPO was developed based on that of employees’ psychological
ownership (Asatryan and Oh, 2008), the latter has been highly
addressed in the tourism and hospitality literature (e.g., Chang et al.,
2012; Lin et al., 2019; Xiong et al., 2019). To the best of the authors’
knowledge, only Lee and Kim (2020) focused on CPO in the hotel
context. However, they paid attention to the moderating role of CPO but
failed to investigate its drivers and outcomes. Therefore, this study was
conducted in the hotel context to enrich the understanding of anteced­
ents and consequences of CPO from the new perspectives of congruity
perceptions and customer engagement, respectively.
A few studies have attempted to explore the predictors of CPO based
on self-congruity theory (e.g., Li et al., 2020; Tseng and Hsieh, 2019).
However, these works focused on the effect of self-image congruity on
CPO but scantly explored the role of functional congruity in predicting
CPO. The scales employed in these studies only measured the actual and
ideal aspects of self-image congruity but neglected the fact that the
construct includes actual, ideal, social, and ideal social components
(Sirgy and Su, 2000). Moreover, previous studies merely explored the
direct effect of self-image congruity on CPO but failed to examine the
potential indirect effect (Li et al., 2020; Tseng and Hsieh, 2019). To fill
these gaps, this study attempts to build a holistic research model to
thoroughly examine the effects of self-image congruity and functional
congruity on CPO.
Some research has also examined the effect of CPO on customer
engagement, such as Gong (2018), Guo et al. (2016), and Kumar and
Nayak (2019). However, Gong (2018) explored the indirect effect of
CPO on customer engagement through brand responsibility and
self-enhancement but neglected the crucial direct effect. Kumar and
Nayak (2019) essentially regarded customer engagement as customers’
psychological state and thus paid little attention to the behavioral as­
pects, as this study did. Guo et al. (2016) defined customer engagement
from the perspective of customers’ behavioral responses, but they
attached little importance to customers’ social influence engagement
and knowledge-sharing engagement, which are two important types of
customer engagement as suggested by Kumar and Pansari (2016).
Hence, this study seeks to link CPO and the above two types of customer
engagement to add new outcomes to the former.
2.2. Self-image congruity and functional congruity as antecedents of CPO
Self-image congruity and functional congruity are two basic ele­
ments of self-congruity theory; the former refers to the consistency be­
tween firm/brand image and customers’ self-concept, whereas the latter
refers to the congruence between functional attributes of products/ser­
vices and consumers’ desired performance specifications (Sirgy and
Johar, 1999; Sirgy et al., 1991). Notably, the aforementioned
self-concept was defined as the overall feelings and perceptions of in­
dividuals when referring to themselves as objects (Rosenberg, 1979).
According to Sirgy and Su’s (2000) suggestions, self-image congruity
comprises actual, ideal, social, and ideal social aspects. Thus, applying
an integrated scale to simultaneously measure the above four compo­
nents is an ideal way to study self-image congruity (Sirgy and Su, 2000).
Compared with self-image congruity, which stresses the
value-expressive features of firms/brands, functional congruity em­
phasizes the utilitarian features of products/services (Sirgy and Johar,
1999).
As proposed by self-congruity theory, customers’ perceptions of self-
image congruity and functional congruity play significant roles in pre­
dicting their psychological, attitudinal, and behavioral responses (Sirgy
and Johar, 1999; Sirgy et al., 1991). Accordingly, this theory has been
extensively applied to describe the underlying mechanism of customers’
various pre- and post-purchase responses in the tourism and hospitality
literature (e.g., Kang et al., 2012; Li et al., 2020; Sirgy and Su, 2000; Su
and Reynolds, 2017). With regard to CPO, previous studies have
explored its underlying mechanism based on some important theories,
S. Li et al.
such as the theories of relationship marketing, value co-creation, and
social identity (Asatryan and Oh, 2008; Deng et al., 2020; Joo, 2020).
This study considers self-congruity theory as a useful theory to study
CPO because it provides new insights into the antecedents of CPO from
the perspective of the match between firm/brand image and customers’
self-concept and that between functional attributes of products/services
and customers’ expectations (Sirgy and Johar, 1999; Sirgy et al., 1991).
This study proposes that self-image congruity and functional con­
gruity are predictors of CPO. One of customers’ motives to purchase
particular products/services is to solidify and express their important
values (Sirgy et al., 1991). Therefore, customers tend to build mean­
ingful psychological connections with firms/brands by matching the
firm/brand image and their self-concept (Kang et al., 2012; Li et al.,
2020). Besides, CPO can be regarded as an important component of
customers’ extended self-concept, and the objects of CPO are experi­
enced as having intimate bonds with this self-concept (Pierce et al.,
2003). Accordingly, when customers consider a hotel image to be
congruent with their self-concept, they are more likely to build close
psychological connections with the hotel and feel that the hotel is
“theirs.” Functional congruity describes the match between the utili­
tarian attributes of products/services and customers’ evaluation criteria
(Sirgy et al., 1991). Customers’ favorable attitudes are easily initiated
when the utilitarian attributes of hotels are equal to or higher than their
desired performance specifications (Kang et al., 2012; Sirgy and Johar,
1999; Su and Reynolds, 2017), and such attitudes promote the estab­
lishment of affective psychological connections between customers and
hotels, thereby making customers feel that the hotel is “theirs” (Jussila
et al., 2015). In addition, some research has argued that the role of
functional congruity in predicting customers’ brand psychology is more
important than that of self-image congruity (Samli and Sirgy, 1981).
Based on these arguments, this study proposes the following:
H1. Self-image congruity is positively related to CPO.
H2. Functional congruity is positively related to CPO.
2.3. Mediating role of impression in memory
In the era of the experience economy, an increasing number of cus­
tomers are eager to seek unique and extraordinary experiences, but not
just to purchase products/services to gain their expected utilitarian at­
tributes (Oh et al., 2007). Therefore, firms are supposed to shift their
focus from the “delivery-focused” service economy to the “staged”
experience economy to provide customers with memorable experiences
(Pine and Gilmore, 1999). Against this background, impression in
memory, which refers to customers’ imaginative reconstruction or
construction toward masses of past events, behaviors, and experiences
(Bartlett, 1995), has received much attention in the tourism and hos­
pitality literature (e.g., Kim, 2010; Manthiou et al., 2018; Oh et al.,
2007). Kim (2010) argued that customers are likely to have an impres­
sion of products/services that can bring them with novel and meaningful
experiences. Manthiou et al. (2018) proposed that impression in mem­
ory can result from customers’ perceived brand authenticity and lead to
customers’ brand love.
This study suggests that self-image congruity and functional con­
gruity can predict impression in memory. Impression in memory, which
reflects customers’ ability to remember particular moments (Bartlett,
1995; Oh et al., 2007), can be created based on customers’ extraordinary
and unique experiences of a particular firm or brand (Kim, 2010; Oh
et al., 2007). Self-image congruity describes customers’ perceptions
about the level to which firms/brands can satisfy customers’ needs for
self-concept maintenance and enhancement, whereas functional con­
gruity describes customers’ feelings about the degree to which they can
satisfy their needs for utilitarian value rooted in products/services (Sirgy
and Johar, 1999; Sirgy et al., 1991). Thus, when customers stay at a
hotel that is congruent with their self-concept or meets the functional
attributes they value, they are inclined to obtain unique and
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International Journal of Hospitality Management 93 (2021) 102773
extraordinary experiences because their needs are satisfied (Su and
Reynolds, 2017). Accordingly, customers are likely to make imaginative
reconstruction or construction toward the hotel because of such unique
and extraordinary experiences. Based on these arguments, this study
proposes the following:
H3. Self-image congruity is positively related to impression in
memory.
H4. Functional congruity is positively related to impression in
memory.
This study also argues that impression in memory can predict CPO.
Impression in memory describes customers’ wonderful memories about
the hotel and emphasizes that customers remember particular experi­
ences at the hotel (Manthiou et al., 2018; Oh et al., 2007). The wonderful
and memorable experiences are the bases for building positive re­
lationships between customers and firms/brands (Tsai, 2016). There­
fore, compared with hotels that cannot provide a good impression,
customers are inclined to build deep emotional bonds with hotels that
can provide them with unique and extraordinary experiences. Besides,
Fuchs et al. (2010) argued that psychological ownership is manifested in
a psychological link between an individual and an object, and the
emotional closeness between the subject and the object appear as the
main features of this construct. Hence, impression in memory in a
particular hotel allows customers to feel that the hotel is “theirs”
because of the positive emotional bonds between them and the hotel.
The positive effects of impression in memory on some important psy­
chological connection-related variables (e.g., place attachment, brand
love, and customer identification) have been demonstrated in the liter­
ature (Manthiou et al., 2018; So et al., 2017; Tsai, 2016). Based on these
arguments, this study proposes the following:
H5. Impression in memory is positively related to CPO.
2.4. Customer engagement as a consequence of CPO
Customer engagement has received considerable attention in the
marketing field over the past decade (So et al., 2020). Nonetheless, there
is no consensus on the definition of this construct. Bowden (2009)
argued that customer engagement is a psychological process in which
new customers develop loyalty and repeated customers maintain loy­
alty. Hollebeek (2011) proposed that customer engagement describes
customers’ cognitive, affective, and behavioral investments toward
firms/brands in the interaction processes. Following van Doorn et al.
(2010), this study conceptualizes customer engagement as customers’
behavioral manifestations beyond transactions. This definition was
advanced based on the fact that the focus of customer management shifts
from customers’ transactional behaviors to non-transactional behaviors
(Verhoef et al., 2010). Thus, understanding customer engagement from
the behavioral manifestation perspective is highly important, which has
been extensively addressed in the literature (e.g., Guo et al., 2016; Itani
et al., 2019; Kumar and Pansari, 2016).
Customers’ social influence engagement and knowledge-sharing
engagement are two crucial types of customer engagement; the former
stresses that customers positively influence others during their social
activities, while the latter emphasizes that customers actively provide
their ideas and feedback to firms to improve products/services (Kumar
and Pansari, 2016). According to Itani et al. (2019), customers’ social
influence engagement generally occurs in customers’ networks and
communities by influencing others through online and offline channels,
whereas customers’ knowledge-sharing engagement is characterized by
customer feedback and suggestions to enhance existing pro­
ducts/services and developing new ones. Extant research has identified
perceived value, relationship quality, employee–customer interactions,
and brand experience as significant drivers of the two types of customer
engagement (Itani et al., 2019, 2020; Prentice et al., 2019). However, no
studies focused on the role of CPO in predicting these two types of
S. Li et al.
customer engagement.
This study argues that CPO can foster customers’ social influence
engagement and knowledge-sharing engagement. According to Van
Dyne and Pierce (2004), individuals’ perceptions of psychological
ownership generally stimulate their sense of responsibility toward a
given entity. Similarly, CPO can activate customers’ sense of re­
sponsibility toward a hotel. Driven by this sense, customers are inclined
to do something beyond transaction (e.g., convincing others to buy,
providing feedback to firms, and helping develop new pro­
ducts/services) to benefit the hotel. Based on Fuchs et al.’s (2010)
suggestions, customers generally regard the hotel as part of their
extended self when they perceive that the hotel is “theirs.” Accordingly,
customers who develop psychological ownership are inclined to help the
hotel achieve success through active actions, as it may feel like their own
success (Chang et al., 2012; Kim and Beehr, 2017). Besides, Harmeling
et al. (2017) indicated that the establishment of CPO and
self-transformation is the key to developing long-term customer
engagement. Guo et al. (2016) found that CPO is conducive to pro­
moting customers’ word-of-mouth and information-sharing behaviors.
Based on these arguments, this study proposes the following:
H6. CPO is positively related to customers’ social influence
engagement.
H7. CPO is positively related to customers’ knowledge-sharing
engagement.
Fig. 1 outlines the model proposed in this study. Self-image congruity
and functional congruity are designated as antecedents of CPO;
impression in memory is proposed as the mediator to link self-image
congruity, functional congruity, and CPO, and customers’ social influ­
ence engagement and knowledge-sharing engagement are set as conse­
quences of CPO.
3. Methodology
3.1. Measures
Multi-item scales modified from previous research were employed to
measure the constructs in this study. In particular, self-image congruity
was assessed using a four-item scale drawn from Sirgy and Su (2000).
This scale can comprehensively measure the actual, ideal, social, and
ideal social aspects of self-image congruity (Sirgy and Su, 2000). Func­
tional congruity was measured with a four-item scale derived from Su
and Reynolds (2017), impression in memory was assessed with a
three-item scale borrowed from Oh et al. (2007), and CPO was evaluated
with a five-item scale adapted from Fuchs et al. (2010). Moreover,
following Kumar and Pansari’s (2016) suggestions, the two types of
customer engagement (i.e., customers’ social influence engagement and
knowledge-sharing engagement) were captured with four-item scales.
All constructs were administered using seven-point Likert scales
Fig. 1. Proposed model.
4
International Journal of Hospitality Management 93 (2021) 102773
ranging from 1 (“Extremely disagree”) to 7 (“Extremely agree”). Given
that all selected scales were developed in English, but the target popu­
lation was Chinese, a translation and back-translation procedure was
strictly conducted following Brislin’s (1980) recommendations to ensure
translation equivalence. Minor modifications were made according to
the suggestions from two researchers and 28 customers in the pretest to
ensure that the scales were suitable for the study context.
Contrary to other constructs, the construct of self-image congruity
was assessed based on a scenario derived from Sirgy and Su (2000). The
modified scenario applied in this study was as follows: Imagine that the
hotel where you stay is a person. Think about the image characteristics of this
person and describe them with some personal adjectives, such as traditional,
classy, stylish, athletic, poor, or other personal adjectives. After reading the
scenario, participants were asked to indicate their agreement or
disagreement with the items regarding self-image congruity.
3.2. Data collection
The target population of this study included tourists aged 18 years
that stayed at hotels during their trips to Xiamen (a well-known tourist
destination in China). A convenience sampling method was applied to
collect survey data in this study. While this method has the weakness of
obtaining non-representative samples, large sample size can alleviate
this problem and enhance the convincingness of the obtained samples
(Etikan et al., 2016). Therefore, the convenience sampling method has
been extensively applied in the tourism and hospitality research in
recent years (Itani et al., 2019; Li et al., 2020; Kim and Qu, 2020).
The field survey was conducted in December 2019 and January
2020. The tourists were conveniently approached in person and asked
whether they had stayed in hotels during their trips to Xiamen and
whether they were willing to complete the self-administered question­
naires. If the participants had once stayed at more than one hotel during
their trips, they were asked to answer the questionnaires according to
their assessments of the first hotel they had stayed. This study had 24
observed variables. Based on Stevens’ (1996) suggestions of 15 obser­
vations per observed variable, the minimum sample size for this study
was 360. A total of 500 questionnaires were distributed and 472 were
received, representing a 94 % response rate. After the screening, 433
valid questionnaires were obtained, representing a valid response rate of
87 %.
3.3. Data analysis
Harman’s single-factor test and common factor analysis were per­
formed to assess the threat of common method variance (CMV) (Pod­
sakoff et al., 2003). The skewness and kurtosis of each item were
computed to judge the data normality (Kline, 2011). Following Ander­
son and Gerbing’s (1988) suggestions, a two-step approach was used to
evaluate the measurement model and examine the structural model. In
S. Li et al. International Journal of Hospitality Management 93 (2021) 102773

the first step, the reliability of each measurement was assessed based on variance, less than the cutoff point of 50.00 % (Podsakoff et al., 2013).
composite reliability and Cronbach’s alpha, and the validity of each The results of common factor analysis indicated that the fit indices
measurement was evaluated based on standard factor loadings, average (X2/df = 4.388, GFI = 0.821, CFI = 0.863, RMR = 0.071, and
variance extracted (AVE) estimates, comparisons between the square RMSEA = 0.089) of the common factor model were considerably worse
root of the AVE estimates and the correlation coefficients between any than those of the measurement model as presented below. The results of
pair of latent constructs. In the second step, structural equation the above two tests showed that CMV was not a pervasive issue in this
modeling was applied to examine the relationships among the variables study.
in the structural model. Moreover, following Preacher and Hayes’
(2008) suggestion, bias-corrected bootstrapping tests were performed to
4.3. Measurement model
conduct mediation analyses. The above analyses were accomplished
using SPSS 24.0 and Amos 24.0.
Skewness and kurtosis of scale items were calculated to check the
data distribution. The skewness varied from –0.665 to 0.060, and the
4. Results
kurtosis varied from –0.631 to 0.449, indicating no violation of the
normality assumption (Kline, 2011). Then, confirmatory factor analysis
4.1. Demographic characteristics of respondents
was performed with all latent constructs (i.e., self-image congruity,
functional congruity, impression in memory, CPO, customers’ social
Table 1 shows the demographic characteristics of the respondents.
influence engagement, and customers’ knowledge-sharing engagement)
The proportion of males (51.0 %) and females (49.0 %) appeared rela­
to test the measurement model, and the fit indices (X2/df = 2.243,
tively balanced. Younger customers characterized the sample (43.9 %
GFI = 0.906, CFI = 0.953, RMR = 0.062, and RMSEA = 0.054) dis­
respondents aged 20–29 and 25.6 % respondents aged 30–39). In terms
played an acceptable fit (Hu and Bentler, 1999).
of educational level, most respondents (51.3 %) obtained an under­
As shown in Table 2, the Cronbach’s alpha (0.791–0.892) and
graduate degree, while no respondents (0.00 %) completed only primary
composite reliability (0.797–0.880) indicated that the selected scales
school or lower. Concerning monthly income, most respondents (28.9
satisfied good reliability (Fornell and Larcker, 1981; Nunnally, 1978).
%) earned CNY 5001 (USD 711) to CNY 7000 (USD 994) per month, and
All standard factor loadings of scale items were higher than 0.60 and
16.2 % earned CNY 7001 (USD 995) to CNY 9000 (USD 1279) per
significant at the 0.001 level, thus indicating satisfactory convergent
month. A total of 21.7 % of the respondents stayed at the hotel for one
validity (Anderson and Gerbing, 1988). The AVE estimates of all mea­
night, 37.2 % stayed for two nights, and 41.1 % stayed for three or more
surements were greater than 0.50, also indicating good convergent
nights.
validity (Fornell and Larcker, 1981).
As shown in Table 3, the square root of the AVE estimates for each
4.2. CMV test
construct (from 0.709 to 0.771) was higher than the correlation between
any pair of latent constructs, thereby suggesting acceptable discriminant
To minimize the likelihood of CMV, the questionnaire was designed
validity (Fornell and Larcker, 1981).
and administrated following Podsakoff et al. (2003). Additionally, this
study performed Harman’s single-factor test and common factor analysis
to statistically assess the severity of CMV. The results of Harman’s 4.4. Structural model
single-factor test showed that four factors with eigenvalues greater than
one emerged, with the first factor explaining only 46.77 % of the total Structural equation modeling was used to examine the structural
model. The results presented an acceptable fit: X2/df = 2.470,
Table 1 GFI = 0.895, CFI = 0.942, RMR = 0.064, and RMSEA = 0.058 (Hu and
Demographic characteristics of respondents. Bentler, 1999). As illustrated in Fig. 2, six out of seven hypotheses were
Profiles Category Number Percent
supported.
(%) Self-image congruity showed a significant positive effect on CPO
(β = 0.164, p < 0.05), but functional congruity did not (β = 0.170, p >
Gender Male 221 51.0
Female 212 49.0 0.05). Hence, H1 was supported, whereas H2 was not. These findings
Age < 20 5 1.2 indicated that the congruity between hotel image and customers’ self-
20–29 190 43.9 concept could directly trigger customers’ sense of psychological
30–39 111 25.6 ownership toward the hotel, but the congruence between hotels’ func­
40–49 75 17.3
50–59 48 11.1
tional attributes and customers’ evaluation criteria could not.
> 59 4 0.9 Self-image congruity (β = 0.423, p < 0.001) and functional con­
Level of Primary school or lower 0 0.0 gruity (β = 0.551, p < 0.001) were significantly positively related to
education impression in memory. Accordingly, H3 and H4 were supported. These
Junior high school 23 5.3
findings implied that the match between the hotel image and customers’
Senior high/Technical secondary 44 10.2
school self-concept and that between hotels’ utilitarian attributes and cus­
Junior college 63 14.5 tomers’ desired performance specifications were conducive to
Undergraduate 222 51.3 improving impression in memory.
Master’s or higher 81 18.7 A significant positive relationship was found between impression in
Monthly CNY 3000 (USD 426) or less 74 17.1
income
memory and CPO (β = 0.628, p < 0.001). Thus, H5 was supported.
CNY 3001 (USD 427) to CNY 5000 54 12.5 These findings indicated that impression in memory could predict their
(USD 710) sense of psychological ownership toward the hotel.
CNY 5001 (USD711) to CNY 7000 125 28.9 CPO was significantly positively associated with customers’ social
(USD 994)
influence engagement (β = 0.896, p < 0.001) and knowledge-sharing
CNY 7001 (USD995) to CNY 9000 104 24.0
(USD 1279) engagement (β = 0.850, p < 0.001). Therefore, H6 and H7 were sup­
CNY 9001 (USD 1280) or more 76 17.5 ported. These findings indicated that when customers perceived that the
Length of stay One night 94 21.7 hotel was “theirs,” they were inclined to positively talk about the hotel
Two nights 161 37.2 during their interactions with others and provide their feedback and
Three or more nights 178 41.1
suggestions to improve the hotel’s products and services.

5
S. Li et al. International Journal of Hospitality Management 93 (2021) 102773

Table 2
Reliability and convergent validity.
Scale items Mean Standard Factor AVE Composite Cronbach’s
deviation loading reliability alpha

Self-image congruity 0.567 0.841 0.833

The image of this hotel is consistent with how I see myself. 4.04 1.253 0.606
The image of this hotel is consistent with how I would like to see myself. 4.39 1.308 0.888
The image of this hotel is consistent with how I believe others see me. 4.30 1.207 0.624
The image of this hotel is consistent with how I would like others to see me. 4.38 1.347 0.873
Functional congruity 0.523 0.812 0.791
This hotel has most of the functions I desire from a hotel. 5.31 1.056 0.752
This hotel performs well on the functional attributes I value the most. 4.69 1.179 0.629
This hotel meets all my functional needs for staying at a hotel. 4.40 1.362 0.658
The functional value provided by this hotel is consistent with what I expect from a 4.79 1.061 0.835
hotel.
Impression in memory 0.567 0.797 0.791
I have wonderful memories about the hotel. 5.44 1.055 0.786
I remember many positive things about the hotel. 5.50 1.050 0.740
I won’t forget my positive experience at the hotel. 5.14 1.206 0.732
CPO 0.594 0.880 0.892
Although I do not legally own this hotel yet, I sense it is “my” hotel. 3.79 1.077 0.784
Although I do not legally own this hotel yet, I feel it belongs to me. 3.79 1.073 0.770
I feel personally connected to this hotel. 4.35 1.139 0.746
I feel a strong sense of closeness with this hotel. 4.36 1.171 0.736
It is easy for me to think of this hotel as mine. 3.57 1.058 0.815
Customers’ social influence engagement 0.516 0.810 0.805
I will talk about my positive experience from this hotel. 5.45 1.026 0.750
I will discuss the benefits that I get from this hotel with others. 4.89 1.092 0.741
I will actively mention this hotel in my conversations. 5.44 1.044 0.704
I will actively discuss this hotel on different media platforms. 5.11 1.195 0.675
Customers’ knowledge-sharing engagement 0.502 0.801 0.801
I am willing to provide feedback about my experience with this hotel. 4.96 1.054 0.638
I am willing to provide suggestions for improving the performance of the hotel’s 4.81 1.093 0.748
products/services.
I am willing to provide suggestions/feedbacks about the new product/services by 4.52 1.108 0.733
this hotel.
I am willing to provide feedback/suggestions for developing new products/ 4.20 1.139 0.711
services for this hotel.

between self-image congruity and CPO as well as between functional

Table 3
congruity and CPO. When the results in Fig. 2 were combined (H1 was
Square root of the AVE estimates and inter-construct correlations.
supported whereas H2 was not), it was logical to infer that impression in
Variables 1 2 3 4 5 6 memory partially mediated the effect of self-image congruity on CPO but
1. Self-image 0.753 fully mediated the effect of functional congruity on CPO.
congruity
2. Functional 0.594** 0.723
5. Conclusions and discussion
congruity
3. Impression 0.680** 0.688** 0.753
in memory This study draws the following conclusions. Self-image congruity has
4. CPO 0.697** 0.622** 0.700** 0.771 a positive effect on CPO directly and indirectly through impression in
5. Customers’ 0.611** 0.648** 0.679** 0.649** 0.718 memory, functional congruity has a positive effect on CPO indirectly
social
through impression in memory, and CPO has positive effects on cus­
influence
engagement tomers’ social influence engagement and knowledge-sharing engage­
6. Customers’ 0.556** 0.553** 0.602** 0.630** 0.699** 0.709 ment. The theoretical contributions and practical implications of the
knowledge- findings are discussed below.
sharing
engagement
5.1. Theoretical contributions
Notes: a. Diagonal data are the square roots of the AVE estimates. b. **p < 0.01.
Theoretical contributions to the body of knowledge from this study
4.5. Mediation analysis can be drawn in several respects. First, the antecedents of CPO are
expanded by the addition of self-image congruity and functional con­
To examine the mediating role of impression in memory in the effects gruity based on self-congruity theory. This extension enables researchers
of self-image congruity and functional congruity on CPO, bootstrapping to understand the predictors of CPO from the perspective of congruity
tests with 95 % bias-corrected confidence intervals and 5000 iterations perceptions. The findings of this study indicate that self-image congruity
were conducted following the suggestions of Preacher and Hayes is positively related to CPO, consistent with Li et al. (2020). Compared
(2008). As shown in Table 4, the indirect effect of self-image congruity with Li et al.’s (2020) study, which only paid attention to the actual and
on CPO via impression in memory was significant (β = 0.180, p < ideal aspects of self-image congruity, this study improves the under­
0.001), with a 95 % bias-corrected confidence interval [0.081, 0.333]. standing of the role of self-image congruity in predicting CPO by
The indirect effect of functional congruity on CPO via impression in comprehensively measuring the former’s actual, ideal, social, and ideal
memory was also significant (β = 0.301, p < 0.001), with a 95 % social components using an integrated scale. Besides, this study is a
bias-corrected confidence interval [0.156, 0.586]. The results indicated pioneering attempt to explore the effect of functional congruity on CPO
that impression in memory played mediating roles in the relationships and finds that functional congruity indirectly drives CPO through

6
S. Li et al.
Fig. 2. Results of structural model.
Notes: ***p < 0.001, **p < 0.01, and *p < 0.05.
Table 4
Results of bias-corrected bootstrapping tests.
Relationships Indirect Standard LL 95 % UL 95
effect error CI % CI
Self-image congruity → 0.180 0.064 0.081 0.333
impression in memory →
CPO
Functional congruity → 0.301 0.110 0.156 0.586
impression in memory →
CPO
Notes: a. LL = lower limit, UL = upper limit. b. CI = confidence interval.
impression in memory, which bridges the gap where no prior study has
explored the role of functional congruity in affecting CPO. These find­
ings imply that customers’ perceptions of the match between their
self-concept and hotel image and that between hotels’ functional attri­
butes and customers’ evaluation criteria play important roles in pre­
dicting CPO, which provide new insights into the influence factors of
CPO.
Second, this study contributes to the body of CPO knowledge by
adding customers’ social influence engagement and knowledge-sharing
engagement as new consequences. The findings show that CPO is posi­
tively associated with the two types of customer engagement, which
respond to the arguments of Guo et al. (2016) and Kumar and Nayak
(2019) that CPO plays a significant role in driving customer engage­
ment. Notably, this research is by no means a simple duplication of these
existing studies because the two types of customer engagement (i.e.,
customers’ social influence engagement and knowledge-sharing
engagement) addressed in this study have received little attention in
the research of Guo et al. (2016) and Kumar and Nayak (2019). The
findings of this study indicate that CPO toward hotels drive customers to
engage with the hotel in social influence activities and feedback- and
suggestion-providing behaviors. These findings considerably answer
Kumar and Pansari’s (2016) appeal to improve the customer engage­
ment framework from the perspective of customers’ feelings of
possession.
Third, this study examined the mediating role of impression in
memory in the relationships among self-image congruity, functional
congruity, and CPO. The findings indicate that impression in memory
plays a partial mediating role in the effect of self-image congruity on
CPO but a full mediating role in the effect of functional congruity on
CPO. Earlier research on the associations between congruity perceptions
and CPO focused on the direct effect of the former on the latter (Li et al.,
2020; Tseng and Hsieh, 2019) but neglected the potential indirect effect
through a certain mediating variable. In comparison with the existing
research, this study attaches much importance to the direct and indirect
influences of self-image congruity and functional congruity on CPO. The
findings imply that self-image congruity drives CPO directly and
7
International Journal of Hospitality Management 93 (2021) 102773
indirectly through the establishment of customers’ deep impression of
hotels, whereas functional congruity promotes CPO indirectly through
the improvement of customers’ imaginative reconstruction or con­
struction toward hotels, which provide a clear understanding of the
underlying mechanism of how self-image congruity and functional
congruity, directly and indirectly, influence CPO.
5.2. Practical implications
This study has significant practical implications for hotel manage­
ment. First, the findings suggest that self-image congruity is effective in
improving CPO. Thus, hotels are supposed to create an image that rep­
resents and fits their target customers’ self-concept. To achieve this goal,
it is necessary to perform sufficient market research to understand the
actual, ideal, social, and ideal social self-concept of their target cus­
tomers. Hotels then need to develop their products, services, and
property designs to express the image based on the results of the market
research to align with the self-concept of their target customers. Today,
hotels are faced with fierce competition, and customers increasingly
seek memorable experiences. Hotels should pay attention not only to the
functional attributes but also to the expressive symbol features. Besides,
when marketing on various social networking sites or advertisements,
hotels need to highlight expressive features to facilitate customers’
feelings of self-image congruity.
Second, improving the target customers’ perceptions of functional
congruity of hotels serves as a potentially valuable tactic to promote the
former’s impression in memory and sense of psychological ownership.
Thus, hotel managers are suggested to invest their efforts in under­
standing the utilitarian attributes of hotels that their target customers
highly address. The utilitarian attributes of hotels include excellent
interior design, high-quality facilities (e.g., beds, showers, and toilets),
clean environments, unique atmospheres, and user-friendly services.
Therefore, hotel managers should focus on these functional features to
satisfy customer expectations. Admittedly, it is quite difficult to satisfy
all functional needs of the target customers. Therefore, in addition to
paying attention to most of functions that the target customers concern,
hotels are expected to attach considerable importance to the functional
attributes that target customers value the most.
Third, the results support the significant role of CPO in driving
customers’ social influence engagement and knowledge-sharing
engagement. Accordingly, improving CPO, by all means, is a useful
approach to promote the two types of customer engagement. The
diversified customers’ needs require hotels to apply new customer
management strategies to pander to customers’ psychological charac­
teristics beyond the traditional frame. Hotels can design various activ­
ities to encourage customers to participate in to enhance the latter’s
sense of control and possession, thereby effectively improving CPO.
Applying strategic advertisements to enhance CPO is another option.
S. Li et al.
Specifically, implied words such as “our” and “my” of the advertising
spokesperson may be employed to strengthen customers’ sense of psy­
chological ownership. Moreover, to foster CPO, high-quality employee-
customer interactions are encouraged.
Finally, this study theoretically highlights the crucial role of CPO by
exploring its antecedents and consequences. In contrast, CPO has
received little attention in hotel management practices. Thus, this study
bridges the gap between theory and practice to some extent. If the
findings of this study are applied to hotel management practice and
industry policymaking, some surprising benefits may be researched. For
hotels, if they can take strategic measures to improve customers’ per­
ceptions of congruity and CPO, hotel competitiveness may be effectively
strengthened, and thus economic and commercial performances of ho­
tels will be enhanced. For customers, if they can experience congruity
perceptions and CPO in a hotel, their intrinsic needs for improving
quality of life may be well satisfied, and thus public attitudes toward the
hotel will become positive.
5.3. Limitations and future research directions
This study has several limitations. First, this study examined the
proposed model with the samples of Chinese hotel customers; thus, the
findings may be limited to the Chinese context. Therefore, one future
research direction is to apply samples of geographically and ethnically
diverse customers (e.g., American and French hotel customers) to re-
examine the research model of this study. Second, this study
employed a convenient sampling approach, a nonrandom sampling
method, to obtain survey data, which may have a weakness in sample
representativeness. Thus, future research should replicate our study
with a rigorous sampling method (e.g., systematic random sampling
approach) to triangulate the findings. Third, we applied a cross-sectional
design for the construct measurement by way of respondents’ self-
reporting at one point in time, which limited its ability to build causal
relationships among the concerned variables. Hence, longitudinal de­
signs with multi-source data are recommended to obtain strong causal
inferences.
Research on CPO is an ongoing topic in tourism and hospitality
literature. Future research is encouraged to pay attention to this
construct and extend its antecedents and consequences from other
diverse perspectives. With regard to the drivers of CPO, future studies
are suggested to take various interesting organization-, customer-, and
employee-related factors into consideration. For example, exploring the
potential effects of verbal and nonverbal employee-to-customer in­
teractions on CPO may be worthy. Concerning the outcomes of CPO,
future research are expected to focus on the possible influences of CPO
on various firm-side consequences. Specifically, it is recommended to
investigate the influence of CPO on firm’s financial performance. In
addition, some moderators, such as self-construal, self-efficacy, and self-
monitoring, are expected to be introduced into the research model
regarding the drivers and outcomes of CPO to enrich the current
literature.
Declaration of Competing Interest
None.
Acknowledgments
The authors would like to express appreciation for the generous
financial supports of the National Social Science Foundation of China
(Project No. 18AGL013).
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