Capturing the dynamics of in-process consumption emotions and satisfaction in extended service transactions

Can the evolution of consumption emotions and satisfaction along the normal course of extended service transactions be traced and predicted? Ninety-three (49 male, 44 female) consumers of health care services reported in-process positive and negative emotions and satisfaction every day of their hospital stay (median length of stay of 5 days) and global retrospective judgments of the same variables upon departure. Trends in consumption emotions and satisfaction were tested using a dynamic nonlinear model based on assumptions of monotonicity and habituation. Results confirmed that trends in consumption emotions (increasing positive and decreasing negative) and satisfaction (under high in-process positive emotions only) could be modeled with statistical confidence and the model showed a good ability to predict retrospective global judgments. Revealing complex in-process dynamics, higher states of positive emotions magnified increasing trends in satisfaction and higher states of negative emotions dampened increasing trends in positive emotions. In-process satisfaction judgments had no significant impact on trends in either positive or negative emotions. Trends in emotions were influenced by individual (gender) and contextual (health status) conditions. A steeper increasing trend in positive emotions was observed for men (compared to women) while a smoother increasing trend in positive emotions and a smoother decreasing trend in negative emotions were obtained for consumers with poor health status (compared to those with good health status). (C) 1998 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.