Dynamic effects of customer experience levels on durable product satisfaction: Price and popularity moderation

We investigate the dynamic effects of customer experience levels on satisfaction in China's automobile industry. Based on a large-scale sample of 657,300 online reviews, our empirical study produced three meaningful findings. First, higher customer experience levels are associated with a decrease in customer satisfaction. Second, compared with lower-priced cars, satisfaction is higher for higher-priced cars, and it declines at a slower rate. Third, satisfaction with popular cars, which is often lower than that for unpopular cars, declines at a faster (slower) rate than satisfaction with unpopular cars when they are higher-priced (lower-priced). Therefore, both price and popularity have important moderating effects on the relationship between satisfaction and customer experience level. We discuss the managerial implications of these results, as well as avenues for future research.