Abstract
The study of consumers’ satisfaction has generated empirical research in the last few decades, with new challenges, such as a specific lens on online consumers’ satisfaction. During the last decades, two well-differentiated research traditions can be observed: cognitive and affective. A wide range of antecedents of consumers’ satisfaction has been proposed. The present contribution empirical research conducted under these two perspectives to determine which variables are related to satisfaction, the direction of these relationships, and the differences between the two dominant approaches. We conducted a systematic review of 104 empirical studies on consumers’ satisfaction published between 1975 and 2017. The findings showed that both the cognitive and the affective tradition yield statistically significant precursors of satisfaction. A comparison between empirical studies exploring consumers’ satisfaction in traditional versus by Internet purchasing behavior showed an increasing relevance of cognitive facets in traditional consumer behavior. Empirical evidence exploring differences between consumers’ satisfaction with purchasing goods versus hiring services showed that both cognitive and affective predictors strongly impact when services are hired versus consuming goods. This article concludes with a discussion of these results and their implications.
Highlights
The old assumptions about consumers’ satisfaction no longer seem useful, because people today can choose between online and face-to-face purchasing for almost all goods and services
The present contribution empirical research conducted under these two perspectives to determine which variables are related to satisfaction, the direction of these relationships, and the differences between the two dominant approaches
Empirical evidence exploring differences between consumers’ satisfaction with purchasing goods versus hiring services showed that both cognitive and affective predictors strongly impact when services are hired versus consuming goods
Summary
The old assumptions about consumers’ satisfaction no longer seem useful, because people today can choose between online and face-to-face purchasing for almost all goods and services. This rapid and constant change in consuming trends puts retailers under high pressure to satisfy their consumers. Consumers are considered more autonomous, reflective, and critical [1], at the same time, they seem to be demanding lower costs and high-quality goods and services [2]. A plethora of studies highlighted that consumers are immersed in their social context, and their thinking and emotion could be partly due to social influences [3] but can be affected by their knowledge, previous attitudes, personality traits [4], and other variables. Consumers’ satisfaction and other affects associated to consumers’ experiences should be deeper analyzed in order to explore them as predictors of consumption behavior [5]
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