Abstract
Since consumers’ post-purchase behaviors directly indicate the extent of customer satisfaction (CS), these behaviors are relatively objective and can signal consumers’ attitudes toward the purchased product or service. Based on the basic expectation–disconfirmation paradigm, this article proposes a generalized model in evaluating CS by integrating equity, regret, and disappointment. Within this conceptual framework, CS can be assessed in a global manner so that different marketing mixes and strategies may take to meet consumers’ expectations effectively. In addition, by adopting weight and cluster to classify behaviors signaling-defined post-purchase emotional responses, this disappointment–regret–inequity disconfirmation framework and the post-purchase signal model is expected to compromise variables of chosen and forgone options with social exchange comparisons. One major benefit of this proposed post-purchase signal model is that it may partly overcome the shortcomings and reliability issues of self-report method with the measurement of CS in decomposed dimensions based on the occurred purchasing outcomes.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Adams, S.J. 1963. Toward an understanding of inequity. Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology 67 (5): 422–436.
Anderson, E.W., and M.W. Sullivan. 1993. The antecedents and consequences of customer satisfaction for firms. Marketing Science 12 (2): 125–143.
Anderson, R.E. 1973. Consumer dissatisfaction: The effect of disconfirmed expectancy on perceived product performance. Journal of Marketing Research 10 (1): 38–44.
Bagozzi, R.P. 1975. Marketing as exchange. Journal of Marketing 39 (4): 77–81.
Bearden, W.O., and J.E. Teel. 1983. Selected determinants of consumer satisfaction and complaint reports. Journal of Marketing Research 20 (1): 21–28.
Bell, D.E. 1985. Disappointment in decision making under uncertainty. Operations Research 33 (1): 1–27.
Bolton, R.N., and J.H. Drew. 1991. A multistage model of customers’ assessments of service quality and value. Journal of Consumer Research 17 (4): 375–384.
Bower, A.B., and J.G. Maxham III. 2012. Return shipping policies of online retailers: normative assumptions and the long-term consequences of fee and free returns. Journal of Marketing 76 (5): 110–124.
Brown, R. 1986. Social Psychology, 2nd ed. New York, NY: The Free Press.
Cadotte, E.R., R.B. Woodruff, and R.L. Jenkins. 1987. Expectations and norms in models of consumer satisfaction. Journal of Marketing Research 24 (3): 305–314.
Cardozo, R.N. 1965. An experimental study of customer effort, expectation, and satisfaction. Journal of Marketing Research 2 (3): 244–249.
Churchill Jr., G.A., and C. Surprenant. 1982. An investigation into the determinants of customer satisfaction. Journal of Marketing Research 19 (4): 491–504.
Folkes, V.S., S. Koletsky, and J. Graham. 1987. A field study of causal inferences and consumer reaction: The view from the airport. Journal of Consumer Research 13 (4): 534–539.
Gardial, S.F., D.S. Clemons, R.B. Woodruff, D.W. Schumann, and M.J. Burns. 1994. Comparing consumers’ recall of prepurchase and postpurchase product evaluation experiences. Journal of Consumer Research 20 (4): 548–560.
Giese, J., and J. Cote. 2000. Defining consumer satisfaction. Academy of Marketing Science Review 20 (1): 1–24.
Guenzi, P., and K. Storbacka. 2015. The organizational implications of implementing key account management: A case-based examination. Industrial Marketing Management 45 (1): 84–97.
Houston, D.A., and S.J. Sherman. 1991. Feature matching, unique feature, and the dynamics of the choice process: Predecision conflict and postdecision satisfaction. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology 27 (5): 411–430.
Huppertz, J.W. 2014. The effort model of consumer complaining behavior: An update and new research directions. Journal of Consumer Satisfaction, Dissatisfaction and Complaining Behavior 27: 2–5.
Iacobucci, D., A.L. Ostrom, B.M. Braig, and A. Bezjian-Avery. 1996. A canonical model of consumer evaluations and theoretical bases of expectations. Advances in Services Marketing and Management 5: 1–44.
Inman, J.J., J.S. Dyer, and J. Jia. 1997. A generalized utility model of disappointment and regret effects on post-choice valuation. Marketing Science 16 (2): 97–111.
Jasso, G. 2015. Thinking, saying, doing in the world of distributive Justice. Social Justice Research 28 (4): 435–478.
Kahneman, D., and D.T. Miller. 1986. Norm theory: Comparing reality to its alternatives. Psychological Review 93 (2): 136–153.
Kivetz, R., and I. Simonson. 2002. Earning the right to indulge: Effort as a determinant of customer preferences toward frequency program rewards. Journal of Marketing Research 39 (2): 155–170.
Lang, B., and K.F. Hyde. 2013. Word-of-mouth: What we know and what we have yet to learn. Journal of Consumer Satisfaction, Dissatisfaction and Complaining Behavior 26: 1–18.
Lapidus, R.S., and L. Pinkerton. 1995. Customer complaint situations: An equity theory perspective. Psychology and Marketing 12 (2): 105–122.
Larivière, B., T.L. Keiningham, L. Aksoy, A. Yalçin, F.V. Morgeson III, and S. Mithas. 2016. Modeling heterogeneity in the satisfaction, loyalty intention, and shareholder value linkage: A cross-industry analysis at the customer and firm levels. Journal of Marketing Research 53 (1): 91–109.
Lee, D.H. 2015. An alternative explanation of consumer product returns from the postpurchase dissonance and ecological marketing perspectives. Psychology and Marketing 32 (1): 49–64.
Lee, J.Y., I.V. Kozlenkova, and R.W. Palmatier. 2015. Structural marketing: Using organizational structure to achieve marketing objectives. Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science 43 (1): 73–99.
Looms, G., and R. Sugden. 1982. Regret theory: An alternative theory of rational choice under uncertainty. The Economic Journal 92 (368): 805–824.
Looms, G., and R. Sugden. 1986. Disappointment and dynamic consistency in choice under uncertainty. Review of Economic Studies 53 (2): 271–282.
Looms, G., C. Starmer, and R. Sudgen. 1989. Preference reversal: Information-processing effect or rational nontransitive choice? The Economic Journal 99 (395): 140–151.
Malshe, A., and M.K. Agarwal. 2015. From finance to marketing: The impact of financial leverage on customer satisfaction. Journal of Marketing 79 (5): 21–38.
Mellers, B., A. Schwartz, and I. Ritov. 1999. Emotion-based choice. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General 128 (3): 332–345.
Oliver, R.L. 1980. A cognitive model of the antecedents and consequences of satisfaction decisions. Journal of Marketing Research 17 (4): 460–469.
Oliver, R.L. 1981. Measurement and evaluation of satisfaction processes in retail settings. Journal of Retailing 57 (3): 25–48.
Oliver, R.L. 1989. Processing of the satisfaction response in consumption: A suggested framework and research propositions. Journal of Consumer Satisfaction and Complaining Behavior 2: 1–16.
Oliver, R.L. 1993. Cognitive, affective, and attribute bases of the satisfaction response. Journal of Consumer Research 20 (3): 418–430.
Oliver, R.L. 1997. Satisfaction: A behavioural perspective on the consumer. New York: McGraw Hill.
Oliver, R.L., and W.S. DeSarbo. 1988. Response determinants in satisfaction judgments. Journal of Consumer Research 14 (4): 495–507.
Oliver, R.L., and J.E. Swan. 1989. Consumer perceptions of interpersonal equity and satisfaction in transactions: A field survey approach. Journal of Marketing 53 (2): 21–35.
Pulligadda, S., F.R. Kardes, and M.L. Cronley. 2015. Positive affectivity as a predictor of consumers’ propensity to be brand loyal. Journal of Brand Management 23 (2): 216–228.
Reichers, A.E. 1986. Conflict and organizational commitments. Journal of Applied Psychology 71 (3): 508–514.
Richins, M.L. 1983. Negative word-of-mouth by dissatisfied customers: A pilot study. Journal of Marketing 47 (1): 68–78.
Simonson, I. 1992. The influence of anticipating regret and responsibility on purchase decisions. Journal of Consumer Research 19 (1): 105–118.
Spreng, R.A., S.B. MacKenzie, and R.W. Olshavsky. 1996. A reexamination of the determinants of consumer satisfaction. Journal of Marketing 60 (3): 15–32.
Taylor, K.A. 1997. A regret theory approach to assessing consumer Satisfaction. Marketing Letters 8 (2): 229–238.
Tax, S.S., S.W. Brown, and M. Chandrashekaran. 1998. Customer evaluations of service complaint experiences: Implications for relationship marketing. Journal of Marketing 62 (2): 60–76.
Tsiros, M., and V. Mittal. 2000. Regret: A model of its antecedents and consequences in consumer decision making. Journal of Consumer Research 26 (4): 401–417.
Walster, E., E. Berscheid, and G.W. Walster. 1973. New directions in equity research. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 25 (2): 151–176.
Westbrook, R.A. 1987. Product/Consumption-based affective responses and postpurchase processes. Journal of Marketing Research 24 (3): 258–270.
Woodruff, R.B., E.R. Cadotte, and R.L. Jenkins. 1983. Modeling consumer satisfaction processes using experience-based norms. Journal of Marketing Research 20 (3): 296–304.
Yi, Y. 1990. A critical review of customer satisfaction. In Review of Marketing, ed. V.A. Zeithaml, 68–123. Chicago: American Marketing Association.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Huang, L. Birds of a feather: a normative model of assessing consumers’ satisfaction in a generalized expectation–disconfirmation paradigm. J Market Anal 5, 5–13 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1057/s41270-017-0012-8
Revised:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/s41270-017-0012-8