The contribution of emotional satisfaction to consumer loyalty

Many customer satisfaction studies have concluded that there is a significa nt relationship between customer satisfaction and loyalty, but this finding has been questioned in that most of the studies focus on measuring the cog nitive component of customer satisfaction. This study includes the cognitiv e component, but focuses oil the affective component. It explores the role of emotions in satisfaction, and then compares the predictive ability of th e cognitive and affective elements. Key findings are that both positive and negative emotions, and the cognitive component of satisfaction correlate w ith loyalty. Regression analysis indicates that the affective component ser ves as a better predictor of customer loyalty than the cognitive component. Further, the best predictor of both overall loyalty and the most reliable dimension of loyalty, positive word of mouth, is positive emotions. The the oretical and practical implications of these findings are discussed.