The temporal pattern of customer satisfaction: a construal-level approach

Customer satisfaction has been traditionally studied and measured regardless of the time elapsed since the purchase. Some studies have recently reopened the debate about the temporal pattern of satisfaction. This research aims to explain why “how you evaluate a service depends on when you evaluate it” on the basis of the theoretical framework proposed by Construal-Level Theory (CLT). Although an empirical investigation is still lacking, the literature does not deny that CLT can be applied also with regard to past events. Moreover, some studies support the idea that satisfaction is a good predictor of future intentions, while others do not. On the basis of CLT, we argue that these inconsistent results are due to the different construal levels of the information pertaining to retrospective and prospective evaluations. Building on the Two-Factor Theory, we explain the persistence of certain attributes’ representations over time according to their relationship with overall performance. We present and discuss three experiments and one field study that were conducted a) to test the extensibility of CLT to past events, b) to disentangle memory and construal effects, c) to study the effect of different temporal perspective on overall satisfaction judgements, and d) to investigate the temporal shift of the determinants of customer satisfaction as a function of temporal distance.

Identity Changes and Consumer Behavior. How Becoming Parents Changes Our Consumption Choices

This research aims at investigating the impact of the identity change on consumption. An identity change is defined as the acquisition of a new identity after a life change event. For instance after the birth of the first child the new identity as parent is acquired and a woman can define herself as a mother. Despite marketing research recognizes that individuals’ identity is unstable and susceptible to change, the investigation of the identity change is still in its infancy. Furthermore, marketing research did not investigate the contextual effect of the new as well as the old identity on individuals’ reaction toward identity-marketing. In order words, whether people show a more favorable reaction toward product related to their new or their old identities after an identity change is still unclear. In order to answer this question, five studies are conducted. Results show that when the new identity substitutes the old one, people show a more positive reaction toward new-identity related products, while when the new identity is added to the old ones, people show a more positive reaction toward old-identity related products. This is the case also when the new identity accounts for high levels of identification (study three) and when the old identity is squeezed by the new one (studies four and five). A new concept, the identity strain, is then introduced and discussed.

Les livres VI à VIII du traité des Simples de Galien. Tradition du texte et traduction annotée

La thèse se propose d’offrir la première traduction française des livres VI à VIII du traité des Simples de Galien portant sur la flore à intérêt pharmacologique. Afin de comprendre l’esprit et le but de l’œuvre, nous avons situé le médecin dans son contexte historique et culturel, le IIe siècle de notre ère, et nous avons fourni les données fondamentales de sa biographie et de sa production littéraire et, plus particulièrement, des textes pharmacologiques. Nous avons également étudié le rôle des plantes médicinales dans la médecine d’époque romaine, ainsi que les sources de l’œuvre, en particulier Dioscoride. Malgré le succès du traité au cours des siècles qui ont suivi, il n’a pas fait l’objet d’études approfondies et l’édition la plus récente demeure celle de K. G. Kühn du XIXe siècle. Une édition critique s’impose et c’est dans cette perspective que nous avons entrepris de dresser la liste définitive des manuscrits transmettant le texte galénique. Nous espérons que ces recherches permettront de comprendre un peu mieux l’importance des simples dans la pharmacologie de Galien et qu’elles seront un point de départ pour d’autres travaux sur le traité des Simples.