The impact of cognitive inertia on postconsumption evaluation processes

This study sheds some light on the role of memory in satisfaction judgments. The author's findings indicate that consumers might fail to form satisfaction evaluations in an online manner in typical repeat-consumption situations. Instead of consciously reevaluating familiar products or services, consumers may choose to engage in judgment updating/formation processes only when faced with a postpurchase satisfaction inquiry. Surprise performances or inconsistent service delivery, however, greatly reduce the consumer's reliance on prior judgments. Under these conditions, consumers are motivated to spontaneously update their summary evaluations stored in memory. The implications of the memory-based nature of satisfaction judgments to service and retail managers are briefly discussed. Anna S. Mattila (asm6@psu.edu) is an assistant professor in the College of Human Health and Development at the Pennsylvania State University, University Park. She holds a Ph.D. from Cornell University, an MBA from the University of Hartford, and a B.S. from Cornell University. Her research interests focus on consumer responses to service encounters and cross-cultural issues in services marketing. Her work has appeared in theJournal of Retailing, theJournal of Service Research, theJournal of Consumer Psychology, Psychology & Marketing, theJournal of Services Marketing, theInternational Journal of Service Industry Management, and in theJournal of Hospitality & Tourism Research.