The Impact of Performance, Cost, and Competitive Considerations on the Relationship between Satisfaction and Repurchase Intent in Business Markets

Abstract

In this article, the author develops and tests a component-based, reference-dependent model of business customers’ intent to repurchase from one of their existing supplier firms. In the model, the author proposes that customers’repurchase intent depends not only on their satisfaction with a supplier on the appropriate performance criteria but also on competitive and cost considerations. The author finds that customers weight their satisfaction with the relevant performance criteria differently when they form their overall satisfaction judgments than when they consider the supplier for a repeat purchase. Furthermore, customers’ repurchase intent is reference dependent in that it incorporates their evaluation of the focal supplier’s performance and life-cycle cost relative to that of a referent competing supplier with whom they have had a concurrent or past experience.