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consumption emotion is the core of the post-purchase period (Allen, Machleit, & Kleine, 1992;
Laverie, Kleine, & Kleine, 1993; Mano & Oliver, 1993; Oliver, 1993).
The present study attempts to extend this literature with the following additions to
existing work. First, to better understand which emotional attributes have the most influence on
customer satisfaction and repurchase intention, a multiple component perspective of emotions in
restaurant operations was considered. While the two-dimension approach to explaining customer
satisfaction and subsequent behaviors has predominated in marketing literature, mainly using the
positive and negative subsets of basic emotions in the Izard (1977) typology (e.g., Oliver, 1993;
Westbrook, 1987), the multiple dimensions of emotions, rather than simple positive and negative
emotions, should be included to precisely assess more complex emotional experiences in
consumption situations (Dube & Menon, 1998; Westbrook & Oliver, 1991).
Second, to understand the satisfaction and repurchase intention relationship better,
additional insight into the link was provided by examining the moderating effects of switching
barriers on this relationship. The empirical and theoretical focus in explaining the customer
retention process has been predominantly on customer satisfaction. That is, the strong focus on
customers’ satisfaction is based on the implicit assumption that there is a strong positive
relationship between customer satisfaction and behavioral intention (Homburg & Giering, 2001;
Jones, Mothersbaugh, & Beatty, 2000) However, interestingly, the relationship between
satisfaction and repurchase intention often shows considerable variability (Jones, Mothersbaugh,
& Beatty, 2000; Ranaweera & Prabhu, 2003), which indicates that the linkage between customer
satisfaction and repurchase intention is not that simple (Carroll & Rose, 1993; Evanschitzky &
Wunderlich, 2006; Reinartz & Kumar, 2000). Such variability emphasizes the possibility that
customer retention may be contingent on additional factors such as switching barriers, and the
customer satisfaction and retention link may depend on switching barriers customers perceive in
the context of service provision (Jones, Mothersbaugh, & Beatty, 2000; Ranaweera & Prabhu,
2003). Switching barriers can be described as inhibiting factors that make it difficult for
customers to change their current service provider (Jones et al., 2000). Thus, although customers
are not fully satisfied, service providers can still retain customers with high switching barriers
(Jones et al., 2000; Ranaweera & Prabhu, 2003).
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