A Desires Congruency Model of Consumer Satisfaction

The disconfirmation of expectations model has been increasingly criticized and, as a result, standards other than expectations have been suggested. The present research proposes consumer desires, based on means-end theory, as the comparison standard. Results of an experiment show that the extent to which performance is congruent with desires is a powerful antecedent to satisfaction, while the effect of disconfirmation of expectations is nonsignificant.