Behavioral Intentions in Satisfaction Research Revisited

Abstract

Intentions are usually included as dependent variables in satisfaction models, but satisfaction researchers have paid little attention to the discussion in psychology and philosophy in which different intention constructs are distinguished. In this paper, we examine - empirically and conceptually - the satisfaction-intention link with respect to three different intention constructs. The main result is that satisfaction is not equally correlated with these three intentions, and it suggests that satisfaction researchers should be concerned with the particular intention constructs they use: the selection of one particular intention indicator over another will generate different conclusions about the role of satisfaction as a determinant of intentions. Since behavioral data are seldom collected by satisfaction researchers (intentions are often used as a proxy for behavior), different conclusions about the satisfaction-intention link are also likely to affect conclusions about customer behavior.