Summary
The authors report the results of an experiment in which the discontinued expectations theory of consumer satisfaction is tested under conditions that facilitate the separation of empirical effects involving the consumer satisfaction model (i.e., theoretically meaningful effects) from empirical effects resulting from the measurement context. The experiment was designed to examine predictors and consequences of consumer satisfaction and to examine the degree to which expectations produce effects independent of measurement context effects. The findings extend previous research, providing further strong support for the strategic implications of the disconfirmed expectations theory, particularly with respect to the complex processes that link consumer expectations with product choice behavior.
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Extract
An Examination of Measurement Context and Representational Effects of Consumer Expectations
INTRODUCTION
The disconfirmed expectations theory of consumer satisfaction (hereafter referred to as the disconfirmed expectations theory) is a frequently studied theory with commonly accepted managerial implications (for a review see Teas and Palan, 2003). For example, some managers may choose to decrease consumers' expectations in order to increase their satisfaction, assuming that doing so will result in increased purchases. Until recently, however, very little research has examined whether or not the effects of consumers' expectations on the disconfirmation process was the result of representational effects, wherein the consumers' actual opinions about objects are affected by the comparison of expectations to performance, or the result of the measurement context response language effects, wherein the process of measurement inflates the associative variation among the measures of concepts specified in a model. More specifically, response language effects involve "...how context-invariant representations are mapped onto response scales provided by researchers..." (Lynch, Chakravarti and Mitra, 1991, p. 285). To the degree to which associative variation among variables specified in a theoretical model is produced by response language effects, misleading empirical support for the theory is produced. This is an important question because the managerial implications derived from the theory are based on the assumption of representational effects-that is, the consumers' actual opinions resulting from the comparison process correspond to parallel changes in their purchase behavior (Lynch et. al., 1991). In contrast, if the comparative process is the result of response language effects resulting from the process of measuring expectations, then consumers' ratings of disconfirmation and satisfaction would not be expected to carry over to purchase behaviors, in effect nullifying the value of the theory.In a test of the disconfirmed expectations theory, Teas and Palan (2003) designed an experiment making it possible to separate resu...See the full content of this document
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