Consumer delight and outrage: scale development and validation

Abstract

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to develop and validate measurement scales for consumer delight and outrage. Design/methodology/approach – The paper used both qualitative, survey, and experiment methodology. Findings – First, develop and validate the scale of customer delight, second, conceptualize the construct of customer outrage, as well as develop and validate its scale; third, explore the differential behavioral results of delight vs satisfaction, and outrage vs dissatisfaction; and fourth, further our understanding of the satisfaction-dissatisfaction continuum. Originality/value – While researchers increasingly recognize that delight and outrage are distinct from satisfaction and dissatisfaction, it is important to have scales that differentiate between these constructs. To this end, this paper develops and validates scales to measure consumer delight and outrage, respectively. These scales will be useful to other researchers interested in measuring consumer delight and outrage in various research contexts.