THE RELATIONSHIPS AMONG CONSUMER SATISFACTION, INVOLVEMENT, AND PRODUCT PERFORMANCE - A CATASTROPHE-THEORY APPLICATION

Attempts to model consumer satisfaction/dissatisfaction (CS/D) respons es rely on linear assumptions regarding the effect of various causes ( e.g, attribute performance, expectancy disconfirmation) on the consume r's reaction to a product or service. This assumption has been pervasi ve in the CS/D literature despite observations in the trade that consu mers are ''sticky'' in their preferences or ''dispreferences'' for pro ducts. We present and operationalize a model which relaxes the lineari ty assumption and allows for lagged and threshold effects of performan ce increments on CS/D responses in product involvement. Our approach u ses the cusp catastrophe model which has been shown to be robust in a number of contexts, but has had only limited use in the marketing Lite rature. We apply a catastrophe model to data on consumers' use of an a ppetite suppressant and show that, under high involvement conditions f or this product, consumers do not shift preferences over a range of re ported performance (e.g., weight loss). The catastrophe model is also shown to be superior to a linear (is, OLS) model of the same data.