 Did I choose the right university? How post-purchase information affects cognitive dissonance, satisfaction and perceived service qualityWen Mao and Harmen Oppewal Australasian marketing journal, 2010, vol. 18, issue 1, 28-35 Abstract: This paper investigates the effects of post-purchase reinforcement and choice-inconsistent information, the latter of which arouses cognitive dissonance, on consumer satisfaction and perceived service quality (SQ). A field experiment was conducted in which university students are provided with university rankings information that is either consistent with their choice of university (choice-reinforcing) or inconsistent with their choice. It is found that provision of choice-inconsistent information affects neither satisfaction nor perceived SQ. In contrast, while not affecting perceived SQ, provision of post-purchase reinforcement does enhance satisfaction. The paper demonstrates this to result from a reduction in psychological discomfort regarding the choice made, which is the emotional aspect of cognitive dissonance. The paper also finds that both information conditions result in an increase in Word-of-Mouth behaviour compared to a control group. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed. Keywords: Cognitive dissonance; Perceived service quality; Satisfaction; Affect-as-information; Experimental research; Student choice of university (search for similar items in EconPapers) Downloads: (external link) Related works: Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:aumajo:v:18:y:2010:i:1:p:28-35 DOI: 10.1016/j.ausmj.2009.10.002 Access Statistics for this article Australasian marketing journal is currently edited by Roger Marshall More articles in Australasian marketing journal from Elsevier |
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