The role of preconsumption affect in postpurchase evaluation of services

Abstract

The primary objective of this article is to examine the impact of preconsumption affect on consumers’ postpurchase evaluations. More specifically, we wanted to investigate how the two basic dimensions of affect — pleasure and arousal — contribute to customer evaluations of different types of services. To test our hypotheses, four service settings reflecting the quadrants in Russell’s Circumplex Model of Affect were chosen. Data were collected at two points of time: at the preprocess stage and immediately after the core service delivery. The results of this study suggest that pleasure and arousal, the two dimensions of emotional responses to the preprocess service environment, may interact in determining postpurchase evaluations. The interaction effect was observed for global satisfaction judgments and for repeat purchase behavior, thus suggesting that the combined effects of arousal and pleasure need to be considered in the design of preconsumption service settings. 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.