Research On Cognitive-Emotional Model Of Customer Satisfaction

In recent years, western scholars have found that the traditional cognitive model couldn't fully explain customer satisfaction. Several researchers began to introduce consumption emotions into cognitive model and formed cognitive-emotional model of customer satisfaction. Though the domestic research on consumption emotions has just started, several scholars have proved the effect of consumption emotions on customer satisfaction.Though many researchers have reach a consensus that consumption emotions have effect on satisfaction, the literature review shows two dissimilar approaches for modelling the customer satisfaction process and the main difference lies in the conceptualization of the relationship between disconfirmation and consumption emotions. One perspective suggests that disconformation have no effect on consumption emotions, and consumption emotions act as an independent factor between disconformation and customer satisfaction. Another perspective suggests that disconformation have a direct effect on consumption emotions, and consumption emotions act as a mediator between disconformation and customer satisfaction.According to above-mentioned difference, this thesis forms two different cognitive-emotional models of customer satisfaction, and chooses two kinds of service consumption to study the two competing models:hedonic service and utilitarian service. Based on the results of SEM analysis and the literature review, this thesis conclude that in most settings, consumption emotions should act as a mediator between disconformation and customer satisfaction except some special ones, such as sports, in which, the consumption emotions mainly come from the situation or the customers, not the product or service.The result of this study shows that in the ocean world and supermarket samples, though disconformation and pleasure emotions are important for determining customer satisfaction, they just have indirect effects on satisfaction through arousal emotions, and arousal emotions was the key affective factor that determines customer satisfaction.