The Moderating Role of Confidence in Expectation and Asymmetric Influence of Disconfirmation on Consumer Satisfaction
Year
2003
Author(s)
Youjae Yi, Suna La
Journal
Service Industries Journal
Volume
23(5)
Pages
20-47
This article examines the way in which confidence in expectations moderates the process of customer satisfaction formation, and whether positive disconfirmation and negative disconfirmation have asymmetric influences on satisfaction. Using structural equation analysis, the proposed model was tested with 256 Korean customers of family restaurants. The results indicate that confidence in expectations plays a significant role in the customer satisfaction formation process. The indirect effects of expectations via performance on customer satisfaction are stronger for customers with high confidence in expectations. The results also indicate that the influence of disconfirmation on customer satisfaction can be asymmetric. The asymmetric influence occurs especially when customers have high confidence in expectations.