Product quality expectations: Towards an understanding of their antecedents and consequences

This paper examines the role of product quality expectations. Past research on information cues, scarcity, self-congruity, product quality and satisfaction are synthesized to develop a conceptual model. This model examines how consumer expectations of product quality are formed. A number of antecedent factors and their relationship to consumers' product quality expectations are discussed. How consumer expectations of quality affects their product evaluation both during the pre-purchase stage and during the post-purchase stage are discussed. A number of theoretical propositions are presented. Finally, the implications of the conceptual model are discussed.This report was funded by a research grant from the University of Miami Institute for the Study of Quality and a McLamore Research Award. The author acknowledges the helpful comments of M. Joseph Sirgy, Jerry Gotlieb, Howard Marmorstein, Dan Sarel, Howard Gitlow, Arun Sharma, Diana Grewal and theJournal of Business and Psychology reviewers.