Overcoming the Challenges: A Business Perspective

Measurement and analysis of satisfaction has received increased research focus in various disciplines, including economics, public administration, psychology, and marketing. As indicated by Deichmann & Lall (2007), satisfaction can be modelled as a function of (1) citizens’ prior anticipation of the performance of a product or service, and (2) the actual performance, as perceived by them. In other ways expectation serves as an anchor to the evaluation of performance (Deichmann & Lall, 2007).

In applied research, measuring satisfaction with services is a difficult task (Jones et al., 1995). However, it is assumed to be potentially related to personal and economic characteristics such as age, gender, education, income, and wealth. Previous studies in economics indicate that women and older people have greater levels of satisfaction but that

Sustainance

in terms of

continuous

avaliability of

safe water in

adequate

quantities all

time

Consumer

satisfaction

displayed

through

desired

positive

consumer

behaviours

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satisfaction levels strongly decline as the level of education increases (Bhandari & Grant, 2007).

Empirical studies of client satisfaction with public service delivery have received increased attention in recent years. For example, Deichmann & Lall (2007), finding that citizen satisfaction with urban services is closely associated with the actual performance of the services versus citizens’ initial expectations about these services.

Satisfaction as an Instrument to Influence Consumer Behaviour

The process of developing a water supply facility is both software and hardware (Thorsten, 2007). As the consumer is provided with this product; the consumer evaluates both the software and hardware attributes (Olsen et al., 2003) of the facility which determines their satisfaction status with the product. Satisfaction status may not only signify their level of acceptance and ownership of the facility but also their motivation to manage the facility (Deichmann & Lall, 2007). Understanding what influences consumer behaviour (Mittal & Kamakura, 2001) towards ensuring functional sustainability is cardinal in understanding facts behind sustainability of water supplies. It is imperative to explain consumer behaviour when justifying approaches taken for provision of these services to the consumer.

The theory of reasoned action and the theory of planned behaviour (Quick, 2003) assert that behaviour is a function of behaviour intention and that positive intention should result in positive action or else there is going to be a dissonance if they do not meet their commitment.

A significant amount of research has been conducted to understand the antecedents and outcomes of consumer satisfaction. Although number of studies on the topic is impressive; Szymanski & Henard (2001) in their meta-analysis ironically say that very few outcomes of satisfaction have been investigated. The outcomes that have received significant scholar attention include purchase intention, loyalty, word of mouth advertising and complaining behaviour (Reichheld, 1996). One area that lacked scholar attention is outcome of satisfaction as consumers’ corresponding behaviour towards a product or service (Yi, 1993). Consumers’ behaviour in the current research is demonstrated by consumer level of acceptance, ownership and motivation to manage the water supply facility.

Satisfaction is positively related to purchase intentions (Yap et al., 2012) and satisfied consumers show less price sensitivity and are also willing to pay a higher price premium (Olsen, 2003). This revelation is vital as it gives insight on willingness of consumers to pay

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for water supply service which is an indicator of ownership, acceptance and intention to manage a water facility.

The History of Satisfaction Research

Defining satisfaction has been a challenging task because it can be viewed from different levels of abstraction (single event versus collective impression on level of satisfaction received) and from different perspectives (individual firm or society) (Taylor et al., 2004). Froehling, (2008) in his review of literature discussed the different perspectives in defining satisfaction, especially with respect to it, being a process or outcome (state) and whether the response is affective, cognitive and conative. Froehling (2008) noted that the debate helped define the domain of the elements. Satisfaction relates to an object (e.g. product or service), covers a time component (e.g. post purchase or post consumption) and involves a response (e.g. cognitive and/or affective).

The outcome or state oriented consumer satisfaction perspective assert that consumer satisfaction is a static concept, which is a cognitive and an effective response obtained through a current transaction or current consumption experience.

The process oriented consumer satisfaction examines whether the whole process of consumption experience achieves an expected result or not. This view is in line with the purpose and nature of the current research considering that unlike shelved products water supply products like boreholes go through a process of development and the process of consumption begins at inception of the project.

The current research also adopts the view that overall satisfaction is a global evaluation resulting from the service experience in agreement with

Olsen et al., (2003)

(1999) conceptualization of satisfaction as a post usage evaluation of state or feelings towards a product or service.

Satisfaction Models and Approaches

The disconfirmation of expectation model is much employed in marketing research. The model assumes that individuals evaluate product performances by comparing the perceived performance with their expectations (Smith & Bolton, 2002; Taylor et al., 2004). When perceived performance exceeds expectations it causes positive disconfirmation or satisfaction for positive behaviour display, and when perceived performance is below expectations, it causes negative disconfirmation or dissatisfaction (Zeithaml et al., 1996). Although this model has thus far been supported by numerous empirical studies (e.g., Mittal

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& Kamakura (2001), Kumar (2002); Oliver 1993), it has yet to incorporate further complexities that may arise in the process of arriving at global satisfaction.

The current research is guided by Montgomery et al. (2009) study on functional sustainability of rural water supply that all efforts towards functional sustainability of rural water supplies should try to reveal and manage the challenges being faced by water supply system in a particular setting. Froehling (2008) study on effect of satisfaction on attitudinal and behavioural loyalty of customers also assists the researcher in focusing on consumer satisfaction with the service as the central part of the sustainability formula. Customer loyalty is one of the key long term effects of satisfaction (Myers, 2003). Research on brand loyalty dates back to 1920 (Copeland, 1923); during these early days experimental research attempted to explain why consumers chose certain brands over an extended period of time. Borrowing from what Rust & Zahorik (1993) say about the relationship between customer satisfaction and profits. The relationship between end user satisfaction and functional sustainability of rural water facilities may be a very complex one and should indeed include many intermediate links. The current research attempts to resolve this complexity by first understanding the root causes of consumer satisfaction and evaluating how the root causes can be managed; the current research further attempts to understand how each factor impacts on sustainability so that the nature of impact is established if it is causal, supportive or influential. In order to better model the impact of end user satisfaction on sustainability, one has first to examine and comprehend how end user’s satisfaction is triggered and how it influences end user behaviours’ responses (Zeithaml, 1990). In the current research profits are synonymous to economic and healthy benefits of a sustained water supply facility.

According to Montgomery et al. (2008) sustainability in rural water supply has been seen as a three faceted constructs that has effective community demand, local financing and cost recovery and dynamic operations and maintenance dimensions. By working on the root causes of the challenges facing the rural water supply then the researcher will show the causal relationship between various factors that triggers consumer behaviour. The satisfaction–loyalty model by Froehling (2008) can be presented as below and it shows the interplay between key independent and depended variables of satisfaction and this model could be very useful in the current research:

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Source: Froehling (2008)

Figure 5 presents a satisfaction loyalty framework and how that relationship can result in behaviour of the consumer. Based on a process-oriented model, consumer (dis)satisfaction toward different foci of product usage/consumption can be considered as an antecedent to global (dis)satisfaction. These multiple reactions, as noted by Smith & Bolton (2002), tend to be independent from each other. For example, consumer may be satisfied with one aspect of the product while dissatisfied with another aspect (Attribute satisfaction). The varying satisfaction levels of consumers on different components of the product may vary in the degree of satisfaction or dissatisfaction, resulting in conflicting feelings of the overall product called overall satisfaction (Anderson et al., 1994). In addition, Taylor et al., (2004) stress that these different components tend to vary in terms of their ability to impact (dis)satisfaction: (1) some increase satisfaction when present but do not increase dissatisfaction when absent, (2) some increase dissatisfaction when absent but do not increase satisfaction when present, (3) some impact both satisfaction and dissatisfaction and negative evaluations to the extent that they are present or absent, and (4) some have no impact on satisfaction and dissatisfaction.

According to the researcher root cause analysis could be a solution in solving the challenges faced in water supply and has the potential to innovatively solve rural water supply sustainability challenges. Rural water supply literature mentioned many times of importance of consumer satisfaction with the water supply service in stimulating positive consumer behaviour towards rural water supply sustainability but no comprehensive research has

Figure 5: Satisfaction-Loyalty Framework

Attr ibut e Sati sfac tion Ove rall Sati sfac tion Atti tudi nal Loy alty Behaviour Loyalty Moderati ng factors

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been done so far in that respect to uncover reasons behinds failing consumer satisfaction. This aspect of satisfaction as a potential stimulus for positive consumer behaviour for rural water supply sustainability leads the researcher to two other research questions:

RQ3: What could be the determinants of consumer (dis)satisfaction in rural water supply?

RQ4: How does consumer satisfaction affect consumer behaviour in rural water supply?

2.6 Developing a Satisfaction Based Framework for Rural Water Supply