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POLISH JOURNAL OF NATURAL SCIENCES
Abbrev.: Pol. J. Natur. Sc., Vol 32(2): 335–342, Y. 2017
POST-PURCHASE DISSONANCE –
A DIFFICULT AREA OF RESEARCH IN POLAND
Tomasz Olejniczak
Department of Product Marketing Poznan University of Economics, Poland
K e y w o r d s: consumer behavior, post-purchase dissonance, marketing research.
A b s t r a c t
The qualitative and quantitative increase in market offerings has led to an increased significance of purchasers in the market and has changed their expectations over a short period of time. Consumer’s role has changed from a suppliant to a strong entity with high demands addressed at producers and service providers. The strong position of consumers has spawned an increased research interest in consumer market behavior, especially after purchasing. The decision about purchasing a specific product or service is not the last stage in the consumer decision making process on the market. Many consumer behavior models distinguish two post-purchase types of reaction in consumers – satisfaction (when the expectations have been met), or post-purchase dissonance (when the expectations have not been met and the consumer has doubts concerning the purchase). The aim of the present paper is to make an attempt at specifying the reasons why the issue of post-purchase dissonance has generated so little interest among Polish researchers.
DYSONANS POZAKUPOWY – TRUDNY OBSZAR BADAŃ W POLSCE
Tomasz Olejniczak Katedra Marketingu Produktu Uniwersytet Ekonomiczny w Poznaniu, Polska
S ł o w a k l u c z o w e: zachowania konsumenckie, dysonans pozakupowy, badania marketingowe.
A b s t r a k t
Wzrastająca ilościowo i jakościowo oferta rynkowa produktów i usług w szybkim czasie dop- rowadziła do wzrostu znaczenia nabywcy na rynku i zmieniła jego oczekiwania. Konsument z roli petenta stał się silnym podmiotem o wysokich wymaganiach kierowanych do producentów i usługodawców. Silna pozycja konsumenta spowodowała większe zainteresowanie obszarem badań
Address: Tomasz Olejniczak, Poznan University of Economics, al. Niepodległości 10, 61-875 Poznań, Poland, phone: +48(61) 856 94 27, e-mail: tomasz.olejniczak@ue.poznan.pl
jego postępowania na rynku, szczególnie po dokonaniu zakupu. Decyzja dotycząca nabycia określonego produktu lub usługi nie jest ostatnim etapem w procesie decyzyjnym konsumenta na rynku. W wielu modelach zachowań konsumenckich wyodrębnia się bowiem dwa rodzaje odczuć pozakupowych konsumenta – zadowolenie (gdy oczekiwania zostały spełnione) lub dysonans pozakupowy (wątpliwości co do zakupu, sytuacja gdy oczekiwania konsumenta nie zostały spełnione). Celem artykułu jest próba charakterystyki trudności badawczych polskich naukowców w procesie pozyskiwania wiedzy o dysonansie pozakupowym odczuwanym przez konsumentów.
Introduction
The establishment of market economy in Poland led to significant changes
in many social and economic areas. The economic transformation process
initiated in mid-1989 opened the door to the change of economy – marketiz-
ation, namely enabling the market to function as the regulating mechanism.
The activities undertaken (among others, privatization, economic entities’
self-reliance, free price mechanism, creating competitiveness fostering condi-
tions) induced creating consumer freedom to purchase the preferred goods and
services. The sufficient quantity and variability of products on the market
enabled Polish consumers to cater for their own needs in a more broad and
attractive way (G RZEGA 2008). The qualitative and quantitative increase in
market offerings has led to an increased significance of purchasers in the
market and has changed their expectations. A consumer, whose role used to be
rather suppliant, became a strong entity with high demands addressed at
producers and service providers.
The decision about purchasing a specific product or service is not the last
stage in the consumer decision making process in the market. Many consumer
behavior models distinguish two post-purchase reaction types of consumers
- satisfaction (when the expectations have been met), or post-purchase disson-
ance/ dissatisfaction/ discontent (when the expectations have not been met and
the consumer has doubts concerning the purchase). According to some sources,
the post-purchase dissonance is a phase that precedes the feeling of dissatisfac-
tion with the product or service.
In comparison to such issues as customer satisfaction and loyalty, the post-
purchase dissonance is rarely discussed in the literature. Polish sources are
especially scarce here, and if the problem is addressed at all, it usually
concentrates on analyzing the psychological aspects of cognitive dissonance (on
the basis of the feelings experienced by people when making various decisions).
In the world’s literature this topic is gaining popularity due to its huge impact
on the companies (the market competitiveness aspect) and lack of a unified
approach to the issue. The aim of the article is to make an attempt at specifying
the reasons why the post-purchase dissonance has spawned so little interest
336 Tomasz Olejniczak
of post-purchase dissonance derives from the theory of the so called cognitive
dissonance, formulated by Leon Festinger (F ESTINGER 2007). He made an
assumption that people have a need for an inner harmony (consonance)
between their beliefs, attitudes, and values. When there is a discord between at
least two of these elements, an unpleasant inner tension occurs (a dissonance).
Because a dissonance acts as a punishment, it is natural to strive for the
elimination or reduction of the unpleasant state and for regaining harmony
(balance). For this reason, people try to avoid situations which could cause
a dissonance (H AMER 2005).
The theory of cognitive dissonance was soon applied in explaining some
aspects of consumer behavior, especially the post-purchase behavior. Accord-
ing to this concept the majority of purchases (with the obvious exception
of routine purchasing) cause a certain degree of anxiety concerning the decision.
This anxiety and doubts (post-purchase dissonance) occur in a situation when
a customer made a choice from among products with both positive and
negative features. In such a situation the chosen item has some drawbacks,
and at the same time the rejected alternative has some advantages. The
negative features of the purchased product and the positive features of the one
not purchased lead in consequence to the post-purchase dissonance. It is worth
mentioning that the probability of the occurrence of post-purchase doubts, as
well as their intensity depend on a variety of factors (Table 1).
Table 1 Factors increasing the probability of the rise of post-purchase dissonance
- the importance of the decision to the consumer – the more important the decision, the greater the chance that dissonance will arise
- the degree of irreversibility of the decision – the easier it is to change the decision, the smaller the risk of the appearance of dissonance
- the complexity of the decision – the more complex the decision (i.e. the more difficult it is to make a choice), the greater the dissonance. Complexity – a large number of similar products generates many comparative features
- the number of positive features noticed in the rejected products or the number of negative features in the purchased product – the increase in this number corresponds to the increase in the chance that the dissonance will arise
- the effort and time needed to purchase the product – as the effort increases, the dissonance increases as well
- the type of product – complex – the difficulty in noticing all attributes of the product
- increases the chance that the feeling of dissonance will subsequently arise
- the price of product – the higher the price, the more frequently the dissonance will arise
- personality of the buyer – the correlation between self-confidence and the ability to feel dissonance
- social reception of the purchase – the greater the social visibility of the product, the bigger the chance that anxiety about the appropriateness of the purchase will appear
Source: S MYCZEK (2002) as well as RUDNICKI (2004)
338 Tomasz Olejniczak
The issue of post-purchase dissonance is extremely significant and relevant
from both theoretical and practical point of view. In the existing literature the
question of post-purchase dissonance as seen from the perspective of econ-
omics has received a very general treatment, confined essentially to the
explanation of the basic concepts – here among others (R UDNICKI 2004,
DULINIEC 1986, G AJEWSKI 1994, F ALKOWSKI and TYSZKA 2011, S MYCZEK 2002).
It needs to be emphasized, however, that none of the mentioned sources
presents any results of the studies conducted on the Polish market. The
research on post-purchase dissonance has been conducted in Poland among
others by S MYCZEK (2008) O DERKIEWICZ (2012). Theoretical considerations in
the marketing area are presented in S MYCZEK (2002) and A NKIEL -H OMA and
OLEJNICZAK (2006).
In the foreign literature the first attempt at the transfer of the problem of
dissonance from the field of psychology to that of economics was made in the
70s. (A NDERSON 1973, C OHEN and G OLDEBERG 1970). Subsequently, occasional
references to the consumers’ decision making process have appeared (G ILAD et
al. 1987, H OSSEINI 1997, S MITH 2009, C AO and J UST 2010, C OOPER and F AZIO
1984). However, what has been much more often analysed are instances of
consumer dissatisfaction when the satisfaction level in particular branches
was researched (C OGHLAN 2012, N AHID and M OJGAN 2012, W U 2013, J UNG and
YOON 2013). The interest in the issue of consumer dissatisfaction increased
considerably after the year 2000, when, by applying innovative approaches,
newly formulated hypotheses were verified in the analyzed area (S WEENEY et
al. 2000, L INDSEY -M ULLIKIN 2003, S PANGENBERG et al. 2003, O’ NEILL and
PALMER 2004, W ICHARDT 2012, G BADAMOSI 2009).
Discussion
Given the increase in the significance of the study of dissonance on the one
hand, and little explanation of the problem offered in the context of economics
on the other, it seems justified to pose the question why this topic has been
largely neglected in the Polish economic literature. The relatively limited
treatment of the question of post-purchase dissonance in the academic and
commercial research is an effect of, among others, the difficulty in conducting
research in the discussed field, and, apparently, the underestimation of the
problem by managers of the enterprises operating on the Polish market.
The major reason for the limited interest in the research on post-purchase
dissonance is a broadly-understood difficulty in the preparation and implemen-
tation of the research. The preparation of the study entails determining its
scope and when it comes to dissonance in particular, many open questions
Post-purchase dissonance... 339
Conclusions
In the era of dynamic changes of macro-environmental factors (particularly
in the economic and socio-demographic spheres) as well as of the boost in the
intensity of market competition, analyzed in terms of both subjective and
objective system, companies need to undertake intensified actions aimed at
guaranteeing the consumer satisfaction with the purchased products and
services. The problem of identification of psychological, economic and socio-
cultural determinants of post-purchase dissonance is significant from the
perspective of both the supply (economic entities) and the demand (individual
consumers) of the market. Aside from identifying the determinants of the
post-purchase dissonance, it is of particular significance from the perspective
of the of suppliers of consumer products, to determine the possibilities and
potential instruments to alleviate the post-purchase dissonance. This is an
important indicator of the need to increase the significance of the issue of
post-purchase dissonance in the economic studies.
Translated by J OANNA Ś MIECIŃSKA Accepted for print 24.11.
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