Cognitive Dissonance Impacts Repurchase Intention Research Paper

Cognitive Dissonance Impacts Repurchase Intention - Research Paper Example The moments immediately after purchase, trigger a series of thoughts in the minds of customers. The consequence of losing other substitute choices and impact of gaining alternate choices together can produce mental irregularity, thus, compelling the customer to reconsider the insight of the purchase decision (Kassarjian & Cohen, 1965). Statement of the Problem Cognitive dissonance occurs when a purchaser becomes dissonant about his/her purchase decision. The research seeks to investigate the problem of cognitive dissonance to understand what aspects lead to dissatisfaction after a purchase decision. A dissonant consumer can return a product or discontinue use of a particular service. The concept of cognitive dissonance is much important for organizations because it can significantly impact on the customers’ post purchasing behavior (Hamza & Zakkaria, 2012). The major problem studied in this research is to understand the consequence of cognitive dissonance on the repurchase int ention of customers. The research findings in this paper will help businesses to understand better how to retain a customer by reducing the dissonance. The purpose of this research is to examine how cognitive dissonance among consumers can lead to a decrease in customer repurchase. Significance of the Problem The significance of this problem is prevalent in customer retention. Drege (1991) depicted that most companies have a customer acquisition strategy, but few companies have a customer retention strategy. Once companies acquire customers they do not develop a plan to keep them for long-run. Many times, it can be observed especially in retail segment that customer returns or exchanges product because of dissatisfaction. Thus, businesses suffer because the relationship they have with the consumer is not managed well. Businesses also face impact heavily from a lost sale, which results in acquiring a returned product that has lost its value. If there is a way to reduce the dissonance that a consumer feels after purchase behavior, it could lead to positive impacts for the consumer and businesses. The problem of dissonance also represents other significant issue concerning consumers that often experience of dissatisfaction, and failure to complaints result in silent departure of customers from using the company’s services. According to Chebat, Davidow, & Codjovi (2005), a silent loss can create negative impacts on companies such as losing a customer, along with their lifetime flow of revenue. The other negative impact silent losses have on companies is the inability to address the problem at hand. Dissatisfied customers who never protest are subject to multiple losses due to similar reasons. Companies cannot fix problems they do not know to exist. When companies fail to adhere to dissonant customers, they run the risk of harmful word-of-mouth reviews. There are only few investigative researches undertaken about the impact of cognitive dissonance and repurc hase intention of customers. Therefore, there is a requirement for increased number of experimental research where relationship between these two variables can be analyzed. This research can further be studied by analyzing respondents about the reason for remaining in good relationship with an organization for a longer period of time. Literature Review According to the observation of Leon, cognitive dissonance is related with the relationships about understandings of people.