Patterns of emotional responses and behavioural consequences of dissatisfaction

Patterns of emotional responses to a dissatisfactory consumption experience and the relationship between these patterns and consumer post-purchase res ponses are investigated. In a mental simulation, participants reported thei r emotional responses and post-purchase cognitions, satisfaction, and behav ioural intentions following a core service failure. Four discriminable patt erns of emotional responses, positioned in a tridimensional space, were obs erved. Problem-handling cognitions, satisfaction judgements, and exit, voic e, word-of-mouth, and loyalty intentions were found to differ among emotion al patterns, with two structural dimensions, acceptance/calmness and anger/ surprise, accounting for most of the variation in consumer behavioural resp onses to dissatisfaction.