IN THIS ISSUE

摘要

Consumer satisfaction continues to play a critical role in the evaluation or retailers, especially in the e-tailing context. As a consumer repeatedly interacts with an e-tailer, all previous encounters may affect the way the consumer evaluates a subsequent encounter with the e-tailer. Using adaptation theory, the authors explore the nature of this relationship. The authors highlight the importance of the effects of historical satisfaction not only on encounter satisfaction but also on word-of-mouth and repurchase intentions. Managers need to consider each consumer encounter as an investment in historical satisfaction, where each positive (negative) encounter strengthens (weakens) historical satisfaction, thereby mitigating (exacerbating) the effects of the current encounter.