Consumer markets scoreboard : refinement, further development and analysis of micro-data : final report

The present report has been commissioned by the Consumers Directorate of DG Justice and Consumers from the Joint Research Centre's Econometrics and Applied Statistics Unit as part of a broader collaborative effort that aims to extend and revise the statistical indicators, methodology, and presentation of information that underpin both the 'Consumer Markets' and the 'Consumer Conditions' Scoreboards, within the more general framework of internal market integration. The present document has been conceived to address the refinement and further development of the Consumer Markets Scoreboard (CMS). As a result, the main objectives of this report are twofold: 1. To provide a comprehensive review of the theoretical framework and methodology behind the CMS, and to assess the statistical soundness and robustness of the existing Market Performance Indicator (MPI). 2. To review the empirical tools that can be used to analyse micro-level data on market performance, as perceived and reported by the experienced consumers responding to the Market Monitoring Survey (MMS). In this light, the report is structured in two parts. The first part commences with a survey of the literature about consumer satisfaction and market performance studies, which is divided in three main sections. The first section focuses on the different theoretical approaches and behavioural models that have been proposed to analyse the consumer decision-making process and subsequent satisfaction outcomes. The second section of the literature review focuses on the issue of how to empirically assess consumer satisfaction. Finally, the third section addresses the links between consumer satisfaction and profitability and economic growth.