THE ASYMMETRIC IMPACT OF NEGATIVE AND POSITIVE ATTRIBUTE-LEVEL PERFORMANCE ON OVERALL SATISFACTION AND REPURCHASE INTENTIONS

The relationship between-attribute-level performance, overall satisfac tion, and repurchase intentions is of critical importance to managers and generally has been conceptualized as linear and symmetric, The aut hors investigate the asymmetric and nonlinear nature of the relationsh ip among these constructs, Predictions are developed and tested empiri cally using survey data from two different contexts: a service (health care, n = 4517) and a product (automobile, n = 9359 and n = 13,759). Results show that (1) negative performance on an attribute has a great er impact on overall satisfaction and repurchase intentions than posit ive performance has on that same attribute, and (2) overall satisfacti on displays diminishing sensitivity to attribute-level performance, Su rprisingly, results show that attribute performance has a direct impac t on repurchase intentions in addition to its effect through satisfact ion.