Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Dispositional Approach to Customer Satisfaction and Behavior

  • Published:
Journal of Business and Psychology Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between affective dispositions, positive and negative affectivity, and consumer attitudes and behaviors.

Design/Methodology/Approach

The data were collected from University students regarding perceptions of the University bookstore, dining services, and housing (n = 160).

Findings

Positive affectivity, but not negative affectivity, was generally associated with customer satisfaction and perceptions of service quality. Results also indicated that affectivity was indirectly related to self-reported consumer behaviors, impacting them through their relationship with perceptions of service quality and customer satisfaction.

Implications

The current study suggests that perceptions of service quality do not act in a vacuum in determining customer satisfaction and consumer behaviors. Specifically, affective dispositions accounted for variance above and beyond that explained by perceptions of service quality. Researchers examining customer satisfaction and/or consumer behaviors should take relevant individual difference variables into account.

Originality/Value

This is one of the first studies to examine the role of affective dispositions in the relationship between service quality, customer satisfaction, and consumer behaviors. Future research should continue to examine the role of individual differences in this line of research.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Anderson, E. W., & Sullivan, M. W. (1993). The antecedents and consequences of customer satisfaction for firms. Marketing Science, 12, 125–143.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bagozzi, R. P., & Heatherton, T. F. (1994). A general approach to representing multifaceted personality constructs: Application to state self-esteem. Structural Equation Modeling, 1, 35–67.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bearden, W. O., & Teel, J. E. (1983). Selected determinants of consumer satisfaction and complaint reports. Journal of Marketing Research, 20, 21–28.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Begley, T., & Lee, C. (2005). The role of negative affectivity in pay-at-risk reactions: A longitudinal study. Journal of Applied Psychology, 90, 382–388.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Bentler, P. M., & Bonett, D. G. (1980). Significance tests and goodness of fit in the analysis of covariance structures. Psychological Bulletin, 88, 588–606.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bitner, M. J. (1990). Evaluating service encounters: The effects of physical surroundings and employee responses. Journal of Marketing, 54, 69–82.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bowling, N. A., Hendricks, E. A., & Wagner, S. H. (2008). Positive and negative affectivity and facet satisfaction: A meta-analysis. Journal of Business and Psychology, 23, 115–125.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bushman, B. J. (1993). What’s in a name? The moderating role of public self-consciousness on the relation between brand label and brand preference. Journal of Applied Psychology, 78, 857–861.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Cammann, C., Fichman, M., Jenkins, D., & Klesh, J. (1979). The Michigan organizational assessment questionnaire. Unpublished manuscript, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor.

  • Connolly, J. J., & Viswesvaran, C. (1999). The independence of positive and negative affect: A meta-analysis. Paper presented at the annual meeting of the society for industrial and organizational psychology, Atlanta, GA.

  • Connolly, J. J., & Viswesvaran, C. (2000). The role of affectivity in job satisfaction: A meta-analysis. Personality and Individual Differences, 29, 265–281.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Dormann, C., & Zapf, D. (2001). Job satisfaction: A meta-analysis of stabilities. Journal of Organizational Behavior, 22, 483–504.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Franzoi, S. L., & Brewer, L. C. (1984). The experience of self-awareness and its relations to level of self-consciousness: An experiential sampling study. Journal of Research in Personality, 18, 522–540.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • George, J. M. (1991). State or trait: Effects of positive mood on prosocial behaviors at work. Journal of Applied Psychology, 76, 299–307.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Goode, M. M. H. (2002). Predicting consumer satisfaction from CD players. Journal of Consumer Behaviour, 1, 323–335.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Harter, J. K., Schmidt, F. L., & Hayes, T. L. (2002). Business-unit-level relationship between employee satisfaction, employee engagement, and business outcomes: A meta-analysis. Journal of Applied Psychology, 87, 268–279.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Hu, L., & Bentler, P. M. (1998). Fit indices in covariance structure modeling: Sensitivity to underparameterized model misspecification. Psychological Methods, 3, 424–453.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hunt, H. K. (1977). CS/D overview and future research direction. In H. K. Hunt (Ed.), Conceptualization and measurement of consumer satisfaction and dissatisfaction. Cambridge, MA: Marketing Science Institute.

    Google Scholar 

  • Jöreskog, J., & Sörbom, D. (1989). LISREL 7: A guide to program and applications (2nd ed.). Chicago, IL: SPSSX Inc.

    Google Scholar 

  • Judge, T. A., Bono, J. E., & Locke, E. A. (2000). Personality and job satisfaction: The mediating role of job characteristics. Journal of Applied Psychology, 85, 237–249.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Judge, T. A., & Larsen, R. J. (2001). Dispositional affect and job satisfaction: A review and theoretical extension. Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Process, 86, 67–98.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Judge, T. A., Locke, E. A., Durham, C. C., & Kluger, A. N. (1998). Dispositional effects on job and life satisfaction: The role of core evaluations. Journal of Applied Psychology, 83, 17–34.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Koys, D. J. (2001). The effects of employee satisfaction, organizational citizenship behavior, and turnover on organizational effectiveness: A unit-level, longitudinal study. Personnel Psychology, 54, 101–114.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Marquis, M., & Filiatrault, P. (2002). Understanding complaining responses through consumer’s self-consciousness disposition. Psychology & Marketing, 19, 267–292.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Moyle, P. (1995). The role of negative affectivity in stress processes: Tests of alternative models. Journal of Organizational Behavior, 16, 647–668.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Necowitz, L. B., & Roznowski, M. (1994). Negative affectivity and job satisfaction: Cognitive processes underlying the relationship and effects on employee behaviors. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 45, 270–294.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Oliver, R. L. (1980). A cognitive model of the antecedents and consequences of satisfaction decisions. Journal of Marketing Research, 17, 460–469.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Oliver, R. L. (1993). Cognitive, affective, and attribute bases of the satisfaction response. Journal of Consumer Research, 20, 418–430.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Oliver, R. L. (1997). Satisfaction: A behavioral perspective on the consumer. New York: McGraw-Hill.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ostroff, C. (1992). The relationship between satisfaction, attitudes, and performance: An organizational level analysis. Journal of Applied Psychology, 77, 963–974.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Parasuraman, A., Zeithaml, V. A., & Berry, L. L. (1994). Reassessment of expectations as a comparison standard in measuring service quality: Implications for further research. Journal of Marketing, 58, 111–124.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Piccolo, R. F., Judge, T. A., Takahashi, K., Watanabe, N., & Locke, E. A. (2005). Core self-evaluations in Japan: Relative effects on job satisfaction, life satisfaction, and happiness. Journal of Organizational Behavior, 26, 965–984.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Rahim, M. A., & Magner, N. R. (1995). Confirmatory factor analysis of the styles of handling interpersonal conflict: First-order factor model and its invariance across groups. Journal of Applied Psychology, 80, 122–132.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Spector, P. E. (2006). Method variance in organizational research: Truth or urban legend? Organizational Research Methods, 9, 221–232.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Spector, P. E., Zapf, D., Chen, P. Y., & Frese, M. (2000). Why negative affectivity should not be controlled in job stress research: Don’t throw out the baby with the bathwater. Journal of Organizational Behavior, 21, 79–95.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Szymanski, D. M., & Henard, D. H. (2001). Customer satisfaction: A meta-analysis of the empirical evidence. Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, 29, 16–35.

    Google Scholar 

  • Tepper, B. J., Duffy, M. K., Henle, C. A., & Lambert, L. S. (2006). Procedural injustice, victim precipitation, and abusive supervision. Personnel Psychology, 2006, 101–123.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Thoresen, C. J., Kaplan, S. A., Barsky, A. P., & Warren, C. R. (2003). The affective underpinnings of job perceptions and attitudes: A meta-analytic review and integration, Paper presented at the annual meeting of the society for industrial and organizational psychology, April, Toronto ON.

  • Watson, D., & Clark, L. A. (1984). Negative affectivity: The disposition to experience aversive emotional states. Psychological Bulletin, 96, 465–490.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Watson, D., Clark, L. A., & Tellegen, A. (1988). Development and validation of brief measures of positive and negative affectivity: The PANAS scales. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 54, 1063–1070.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Watson, D., & Tellegen, A. (1985). Toward a consensual structure of mood. Psychological Bulletin, 98, 219–235.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Watson, D., Wiese, D., Vaidya, J., & Tellegen, A. (1999). The two general activation systems of affect: Structural findings, evolutionary considerations, and psychobiological evidence. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 76, 820–838.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Westbrook, R. A. (1987). Product/consumption-based affective responses and postpurchase processes. Journal of Marketing Research, 24, 258–270.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Westbrook, R. A., & Oliver, R. L. (1991). The dimensionality of consumption emotion patterns and consumer satisfaction. Journal of Consumer Research, 18, 84–91.

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgments

The authors wish to thank Terry A. Beehr for providing valuable comments on earlier versions of this manuscript.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychology, University of Wisconsin Oshkosh, 800 Algoma Blvd, Oshkosh, WI, 54901, USA

    Gary N. Burns

  2. Department of Psychology, Wright State University, 3640 Colonel Glenn Highway, Dayton, OH, 45435, USA

    Gary N. Burns & Nathan A. Bowling

Authors
  1. Gary N. Burns
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Nathan A. Bowling
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Gary N. Burns.

Additional information

Received and reviewed by former editor, George Neuman.

G. N. Burns and N. A. Bowling contributed equally to this paper. The order of authorship was randomly determined.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Burns, G.N., Bowling, N.A. Dispositional Approach to Customer Satisfaction and Behavior. J Bus Psychol 25, 99–107 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10869-009-9129-x

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10869-009-9129-x

Keywords

Search

Navigation