Discrepancies of positive and negative consumption expectations in high risk drinking experiences

Abstract

To date, customer satisfaction and service quality studies have only focused on disconfirmation of expectations in terms of product/service attributes. This study applies the disconfirmation of expectations paradigm to explain what makes the consumption of sin products (high risk alcohol consumption) a satisfactory or unsatisfactory experience. In doing so, it illustrates that disconfirmation of expectations should focus on consumption outcomes as they motivate customers to consume products and services. Furthermore, both positive and negative outcome expectancies should be included. The alcohol expectancy literature offers operational definitions of positive and negative outcome expectancies. However, alcohol expectancy studies do not use the disconfirmation paradigm to explain high risk drinking behaviours. This is a serious omission as disconfirmation of expectations have been shown to be a better predictor of customer satisfaction and behavioural intentions than customer expectations This study concludes with data gained from a university setting testing the hypotheses proposed, showing distinct differences between positive and negative disconfirmation of outcome expectations.