Exploring the Role of Alternative Perceived Performance Measures and Needs-Congruency

Prior research suggests that perceived performance of a product or a service is directly linked to postpurchase satisfaction. We argue that this causal relationship might be a measurement arti-fact and/or insufficient modeling of the satisfaction process rather than an accurate assessment of how consumers form satisfaction judgments. To test our hypotheses, a 2 × 2 × 2 (Performance × Expectations × Needs) factorial design was used with 2 types of perceived performance measures (value-laden and objective). The findings demonstrate that the observed direct link from perceived performance to overall satisfaction di-minishes when more objective perceived performance indicators replace the commonly used value-laden measures. Furthermore, desire-congruency was found to contribute independently to satisfaction over and above a disconfirmation-of-expectations standard. In fact, desire-con-gruency was found to be a better predictor of satisfaction than disconfirmation-of-expectations. Finally, our results suggest that the direct performance–satisfaction link becomes insignificant when the modeling of the satisfaction process is improved. Taken together, these findings sup-port the view that the frequently observed high correlations between perceived performance and satisfaction might be a reflection of the type of measures used and/or insufficient capturing o