Product attachment and satisfaction: understanding consumers' post‐purchase behavior

Purpose – Past research on consumers' post‐purchase behavior has focused on understanding satisfaction. However, the consumer‐product relationship is much broader. This paper aims to deal with another aspect of post‐purchase behavior: the emotional bond consumers experience with their durables during ownership. The paper contributes to the literature on this topic by testing a conceptual model of product attachment and its relationships with satisfaction, and the determinants: utility, appearance, and memories. Design/methodology/approach – Two experiments are presented in which the product categories photo cameras and mobile phones were used as stimuli to test the conceptual model. Findings – Results show that the product's utility and its appearance positively affect both product attachment and satisfaction. For both product attachment and satisfaction, the pleasure elicited mediates the effects of utility and appearance. Only for product attachment, the presence of memories serves as an additional determinant that also moderates the effects of utility and appearance. Importantly, satisfaction has no direct effect on product attachment. Originality/value – The paper contributes to the lack of knowledge concerning consumers' post‐purchase behavior by exploring the relationships between product attachment and satisfaction.