THE NATURE OF SATISFACTION - AN UPDATED EXAMINATION AND ANALYSIS

The preponderance of recent satisfaction research focuses on things th at cause satisfaction. Measurement articles addressing the precise con ceptualization of consumer satisfaction are more than a decade old. In that time, many advances ill analytical approaches used to delineate and operationalize latent constructs have been made. The research pres ented here uses advances in both satisfaction research and measurement theory to provide a more precise view of consumer satisfaction and di ssatisfaction than has been previously offered. While some researchers have used indicators that, arguably, lack face validity due to contam ination of other closely related constructs, the conceptualization off ered here maximizes face validity and is more true to the nature of re flective indicators of latent constructs. Additionally, the possibilit y of distinct satisfaction and dissatisfaction constructs is investiga ted. (C) 1998 Elsevier-Science Inc.