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2001). However, further evidence is drawn from ethnomethodology and discursive psycho-
logy, which places greater emphasis on the interactions of tourists, conceives evaluations
as constitutive actions and thus satisfaction as something that is constructed in and through
social interaction.
The process of satisfaction
Pearce (2005) argues satisfaction is simply a post-experience attitude, a cognitive process and the
outcome of a '
post
-
consumption evaluative judgment
'. Research in this tradition has attempted to
understand this individual cognitive process and the ways that tourists process experiences
into subjective evaluations (Decrop 1999: 103). By looking at satisfaction as a process, these
approaches concentrate on the antecedents to satisfaction rather than the construction of
satisfaction itself.
At the core of this approach is the assumption that tourists make a rational cognitive evaluation
by comparing the evaluative object or experience with some absolute or relative standard.
Evaluations, for the most part, are treated as part of the individual cognitive process; they are the
internal assessment procedure that individuals undertake to judge their levels of (dis)satisfaction.
Customers use these evaluative judgments to inform future purchases. Satisfi ed consumers will
engage in positive word-of-mouth behaviour and may remain loyal to the company. Dissatisfi ed
consumers may engage in negative word-of-mouth, they may complain to the company and
may ultimately choose not to use that company again. The link between attitudes and behavioural
intentions is in the treatment of (dis)satisfaction as an attitude on the assumption that by
understanding (dis)satisfaction, predictions can be made about future behaviour. Customer
satisfaction is therefore a relative concept, which is always judged in relation to a standard.
However, as Ekinci (2003) notes, although the use of a comparison standard is central to the
measurement of customer satisfaction the choice of standard remains a key issue.
Historically, amongst the 'process' approaches to satisfaction, the 'disconfi rmations approach'
prevails and it forms the basis for numerous models used in tourism studies. Expectancy
disconfi rmation models assume that consumers purchase services with pre-purchase expectations
about anticipated performance. Tourists evaluate their current experience based on these prior
expectations and thus, the expectation level becomes a standard against which the service is
judged. The theory works on the premise that confi rmation occurs where customer percep-
tions of performance match expectations. Disconfi rmation occurs where perceptions of
performance deviate from expectations and this can be positive (perception of performance
better than expectations), or negative (perception of performance worse than expectations). By
measuring the difference between expectations and perceptions of performance, a 'gap-analysis'
can be taken to judge the levels of satisfaction. Thus, satisfaction is related to the size of the
disconfi rmation experience, where disconfi rmation is related to the person's initial expectations
(Johnson 1995).
Despite on-going debate in relation to whether expectations are based on what consumers
believe will happen or should happen, and whether consumers compare performance to
expectations or norms, researchers generally agree that unfulfi lled expectations can be an
important source of consumer dissatisfaction. Alternative comparison standards also based on the
'disconfi rmations approach' include 'experience based norms' where comparisons are made
against previous experience. Similarly, 'equity theory' is posited as a comparison standard where
satisfaction is judged in terms of the costs associated with the purchase (price, time, effort) and
the rewards or benefi ts anticipated. If the rewards exceed the costs then tourists will be satisfi ed.
However, some researchers (see for example Spreng
et al
. 1996; Bowen 2001; Decrop 2001;
