Positive Disconfirmation as a Threshold to High Satisfaction

Despite increasing attention that satisfaction research has received in the recent years, certain aspects of satisfaction behaviour remain to be addressed and to be fully understood. While industry is laying great stress on exceeding consumer expectations and obtaining higher (or complete, total) satisfaction levels, research is silent on the extent to which expectations need to be exceeded in order to achieve the same (higher satisfaction). Data from a survey among two wheeler buyers has been analysed in this paper with a view to studying the effects of expectation-discrepancy upon consumer satisfaction responses. Results indicate the existence of a threshold level at which expectation-discrepancies result in complete satisfaction.