The impact of confidence in expectations on consumer satisfaction

Research into the construct relationships that form consumer satisfaction h as advanced to a stage in which moderator variables need to be examined. Th e present research proposes and tests confidence in expectations as a poten tial moderator of these relationships. A laboratory study tests these hypot heses and finds support for them. Specifically, high-confidence subjects us e both disconfirmation and perceived performance to form feelings of satisf action, whereas low-confidence subjects use only perceived performance. Imp lications for both research and managerial practice are discussed. (C) 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.