Satisfaction: A Behavioral Perspective on the Consumer

It is a pleasure to have on your desk a book like this one. Richard L. Oliver has produced a master piece integrating more than 35 years of his research and academic career devoted to explore the fascinating human quest of satisfying needs, wants, and desires. The book, organized in four parts containing 15 chapters, is at the same presented as an integrated conceptual model nicely organized in three building blocks, with components neatly linked and clearly justified. This model takes the reader into an intense journey to learn what is known about satisfaction and to show methodological and measurement tools useful to capture different facets of this very complex construct. Each of the chapters is carefully structured, extensively documented with existing literature and research findings on the topic which is always referred to its very origins. Chapters are rich in notes and references, ending with a useful conclusion summarizing the core message. In many cases, subjects include measurement scales and examples useful to understand the implications associated with topics explored. Also, the author explains those parts of the contents which are new to this second edition.

The book begins with an introductory chapter, providing useful and interesting information aiming to help readers to understand the meaning of satisfaction. It justifies its study from different perspectives in a consumer context, providing diverse satisfaction definitions, including its formal notion understood as the consumer's fulfillment response. Some distinctions are established, comparing consumer satisfaction in different domains and with related concepts. This is a good starting point for what follows next.

Part I is devoted to basic satisfaction mechanisms. The essential, immediate causes of the satisfaction response are discussed. Chapter 2 starts the discussion by critically highlighting the amount of attention that had been given over the years to physical aspects, attributes and actions of products and services to satisfy consumers. The imperfections of attribute‐performance analysis are identified to emphasize the need to also pay attention to the intangible: customer thinking. Chapter 3 goes beyond the physical aspects and gets into the psychological events related to the satisfaction response. It explores the background of the so‐called expectancy disconfirmation model, which is based on expectations and related comparative standards. An important message given in this part of the book is that without standards to which consumers could compare against, satisfaction would be impossible to happen. This first part ends with Chapter 4 dedicated to the detailed development of the expectancy disconfirmation model of satisfaction. It provides evidence supporting this framework, discussing the complex process which takes place in the mind of the consumer.

Part II integrates five chapters referring to alternative and supplementary comparison operators affecting satisfaction response. The conceptual model being developed throughout the book moves from the foundations of the product/service delivery aspects of satisfaction, to a second building block related to actual satisfaction delivery. Chapter 5 explores need fulfillment in a consumer satisfaction context. It takes the reader back to basic, historical views including those of Maslow and Herzberg. It also presents other approaches like the Kano Model, originally more associated with total quality management in Japan and related to satisfiers and dissatisfiers. Chapter 6 is dedicated to quality, being defined as a comparative judgment, emphasizing the need to redefine the construct given that the use of engineering standards from manufacturing are not applicable in services. Given the extensive writing over the years about service quality and measurements techniques developed like the well‐known SERVQUAL instrument, this chapter is particularly useful to understand the fundamental differences between satisfaction and quality, clarifying the role quality plays in the expectancy disconfirmation model. Value is discussed as another comparison operator for satisfaction delivery in Chapter 7. It aims to go beyond the traditional quotient of benefits over costs to discuss value at different levels of abstraction to understand it as the outcome of experiential consumption. Contents go onto the notion of equity as an interpretation of fairness as another important antecedent of satisfaction. This fundamental part of the book ends exploring regret as the buyer's remorse in the consumption experience. The dilemma between what is vs what might have been is discussed as another important comparison operator shaping the satisfaction phenomenon. The author argues about the importance of noticing that not a single consumer makes all of the comparisons included above, and even some only observe, not compare performance against expectations or standards.

Once the basic satisfaction mechanisms and the comparison constructs have been discussed and analyzed, Part III gets into the psychological processes and mechanisms which lead consumers to produce satisfaction judgments. Four key human responses relevant to consumption are analyzed. The first is explored in Chapter 10. It refers to the fears of consumers about the purchase and its corresponding results. This is known as cognitive dissonance. Then, in Chapter 11, the orientation we have as individuals to search for explanations and causalities in relevant events is described as attribution. Different types of causal explanations are discussed here. The discussion of psychological processes continues to explore affect in Chapter 12, as the range of emotional responses about consumption results and their various roles in this process. The third part of the book ends with the integration of many of the concepts and variables discussed in previous chapters, into what the author calls consumption processing model of satisfaction. It is parsimoniously built along Chapter 13, showing statistical tests and validity measures. A 12‐item consumption satisfaction scale is provided at the end of the chapter.

The conceptual model being built then moves from the “satisfaction delivery” to the “post‐purchase delivery” stage. Basically, Part IV refers to satisfaction's consequences. The author helps the reader to understand what happens next. To do this, such consequences are presented for the short and long run. Those immediate effects are discussed in Chapter 14, mainly related to complaining and complimenting. A complaint‐handling model is discussed. It also provides different responses to insatisfaction. In particular, the worth‐of‐mouth phenomenon is discussed, including the controversial use of “one‐number” satisfaction indicator being popularized nowadays. Finally, Chapter 15 addresses the long‐term effects of satisfaction manifested through loyalty and financial impact. A four‐stage model of loyalty progression is proposed and the links between satisfaction‐loyalty‐profitability are discussed.

All in all, the book is an outstanding collection of concepts, definitions, models, tools, scales, examples, references and the like, which are cleverly explored, analyzed, compared and integrated to conform a comprehensive framework of what is known about satisfaction and what is still to be discovered about this complex human phenomenon in the consumer context. The book is written in its present form primarily oriented to students, academics and researchers. Undoubtedly, an adapted version would become also a significant contribution for managers and executives to further disseminate such accumulated knowledge and reduce the existing gap with organizational understanding and practices to achieve higher levels of customer satisfaction, value, loyalty and profitability.

Are you satisfied?