Examining consumer affective goal pursuit in services: When affect directly influences satisfaction and when it does not

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to investigate how consumers’ affective goal pursuit influences the relationship between their affect and satisfaction in services. In particular, it examines when affect can directly influence satisfaction and when such an impact is mediated by perceived service quality.

Design/methodology/approach

This research explores consumers’ consumption goals in three different service contexts, i.e., a primarily pleasure-seeking hedonic service context, a primarily arousal-seeking hedonic service context and a utilitarian (non-affect-seeking) service context.

Findings

Results from two studies show that the primary affective consumption goal determines which specific affect can directly influence satisfaction. Other desirable non-primary affect influences satisfaction through the mediation of perceived service quality.

Research limitations/implications

This research focuses on the service contexts in which consumers’ primary consumption goals vary. Further research may focus on the priority and strength of a consumer’s various consumption goals in different services and study how the priority and strength of different consumption goals determine how affect influences quality and satisfaction.

Practical implications

The study provides several insights for service providers and retailers to recognize that consumers’ primary consumption goals may vary in different service contexts, for different consumers, and even at different usage situations. Accordingly, marketers need to develop different strategies for consumer with different goal pursuit in services.

Originality/value

While the literature has documented that consumer affect influences consumer satisfaction in general, it is unclear how different consumption goals influence the impact of affect on satisfaction. This research contributes to the consumer goal literature by demonstrating the importance of primary consumption goals in the post-consumption evaluation of services.

Citation

Wang, C.L. and Jiang, Y. (2020), "Examining consumer affective goal pursuit in services: When affect directly influences satisfaction and when it does not", Asia Pacific Journal of Marketing and Logistics, Vol. 32 No. 6, pp. 1177-1193. https://doi.org/10.1108/APJML-03-2019-0205