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Introduction
Marketing managers are always interested in achieving a better understanding of the influences of post-purchase behavior; namely, what brings consumers back for more? Under what circumstances are they satisfied with their chosen brands, and when do they regret their decisions when turning down an alternative? While regret theory was first introduced among economic decision theorists to help explain irrational decision-making ([40] Loomes and Sugden, 1982), more recently, marketing researchers have been using it to garner greater insight into consumption behaviors. For example, regret has surfaced both as part of a propensity to observe model ([63] Simpson et al. , 2008) and a motivational process model ([16] Dholakia, 2001) in terms of minimizing risk. Likewise, [73] Watson and Spence (2007) discuss regret in terms of post-purchase coping strategies from a consumer emotions perspective.
The purpose of this paper is to understand the relationships between consumer regret and outcome variables such as satisfaction levels, extent of rumination, and brand switching intention. Furthermore, the extent of negative emotion is examined in order to determine any additional indirect effects regret may have on satisfaction and/or ruminative thinking. A key contribution of the model presented in this paper is that it tests both construct validity and relationships among variables based on fundamental marketing, psychology, and consumer behavior theories. This allows for a more thorough understanding of the measurement model and conceptual model individually as well as when they are tested together. The analysis provided for the structural equation model allows for a stronger test of construct measurement and confirms existing theoretical models. Further, the concept of rumination exists within the psychology literature, however this phenomena has yet to be examined within the consumer research literature. Considering that consumers ruminate every day and throughout the day, rumination is an important concept that desperately needs attention within marketing to better understand consumption patterns. One of the key contributions of this paper is that we introduce the concept of rumination into the consumer research literature and examine its impact in a decision-making context.
Literature review
According to [37] Landman (1993), regret is defined as "... a more or less painful judgment and state of feeling sorry for misfortunes, limitations, losses, shortcomings, transgressions, or mistakes". The initial feeling of regret prompts an assessment...