【正文】
nd a pilot study, indicated that customer satisfaction may be linked to individual loyalty. Jones and Sasser (1995) showed customer satisfactionloyalty relationships in five markets: automobiles, personal puters procured by businesses, hospitals, airlines and local telephone services. Parasuraman et al. (1994b) showed the rela tionship between service quality and behavioural intentions, such as loyalty, in an empirical study of customers of a puter manufacturer, retail chain, automobile insurer and life insurer. A positive correlation between product satisfaction and customer loyalty is shown in empirical investigations regarding household appliances (Newman and Werbel, 1973) and relating to grocery products (LaBarbera and Mazursky, 1983). How to achieve customer satisfaction There is a group of investigations based on the idea that consumer satisfaction is a function of expectations and disconfirmation, as Oliver?s (1980) field study of flu inoculation. In the socalled confirmation/disconfirmation paradigm, the oute of customer feelings of satisfaction and dissatisfaction depends upon an evaluation of the actual performance and certain standards. Thus satisfaction occurs when the performance is better than the standard. This was supported also by Cadotte et al. (1987) in a study of restaurant customers. It should be acknowledged here that according to Churchill?s and Surprenant?s (1982) investigation of hypothetical purchases of durable goods (video disc players), satisfaction corresponds solely with performance, and according to Tse and Wilton?s (1988) laboratory research with record players, perceived performance exerts more influence than expectations do on consumer satisfaction. Spreng et al. (1996), in a more recent study of the disconfirmation paradigm, claim that desires congruency and information satisfaction are further determinants of consumer satisfaction. There is no gen