The Structure and Dynamics of Expectations and Customer Satisfaction in Channel Member Relationships in the Victorian Fruit Industry

Many studies in channel member relationships have hitherto focused on factors such as trust, commitment, uncertainty, dependence and situational factors. What research has addressed satisfaction in channel member has focused on constructs of ‘economic’ and ‘non-economic’ satisfaction. This paper advances several reasons why these approaches may usefully be supplemented with research attempting to apply the well established disconfirmation of expectations model, with its familiar constructs of expectations, perceived performance, disconfirmation and customer satisfaction/dissatisfaction. Further, the paper proposes that a modification of the traditional disconfirmation model incorporating dimensions of ‘outcome’ and ‘process’, previously tested in a business to business context, may be insightful in this context, despite radical differences in the nature of the product. A program of research is proposed in the context of both upstream and downstream distribution channel relationships amongst fruit producers and their distribution channel(s) in Northern Victoria. Qualitative and empirical studies of a longitudinal nature are proposed.