Marketplace stigma: customers’ stigmatization of employees with hepatitis C virus

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to develop and validate the first instrument to measure the source of customers’ stigmatization of employees with hepatitis C virus (HCV) in Egypt. Design/methodology/approach The development and validation processes unfolded as follows: an item pool was generated from focus groups and previous studies on stigma; the initial instrument was evaluated by three experts and pilot-tested; the instrument was used to collect data from 500 Egyptian consumers to determine its dimensionality; to test this structure, confirmatory factor analysis was conducted on a new sample of 300 Egyptian consumers. Findings Exploratory factor analysis showed that the instrument captures three factors: devaluation, avoidance and pity. Results confirmed that customers’ stigmatization of employees with HCV is a multidimensional construct that is manifested in these three dimensions. Originality/value Despite the importance of disease stigma, management scholars have not given it sufficient attention. This paper offers new insights into the study of a particular type of workplace discrimination and ways of measuring it.