The moderating effects of purchase importance in customer satisfaction process: An empirical investigation

Abstract

AbstractCustomer satisfaction continues to draw the interest of researchers and practitioners because it can lead to long term benefits including customer loyalty. Purchase importance plays a role in pre‐purchase process, yet little is known about how it may influence customer satisfaction formation process and loyalty intentions. This study examines the moderating effect of purchase importance in the customer satisfaction formation process and in loyalty intentions. A survey was conducted with customers in a restaurant setting, and structural equation analysis via LISREL was performed. The results show that perceived performance has a stronger influence on satisfaction when purchase importance is low, whereas satisfaction seems to be influenced both by disconfirmation and perceived performance when purchase importance is high. Post‐consumption expectations were found to influence on loyalty intentions under both high and low importance purchase conditions. The implications of these findings are discussed and suggestions for future research are made. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.