Abstract
Customer satisfaction (CS) and customers' continuance intention (CI) (i.e. customer loyalty) are the two most-researched consequents of service quality (SQ); generally, SQ directly influences CS and CI. However, retail marketing and information system (IS) theories do challenge this notion; SQ dimensions are essentially based on expectations or perceptions which need to be judged in an interim stage (i.e. confirmation) in the satisfaction-continuance process. Hence, the current study investigates the role of confirmation - through direct, mediating, and moderating effects - in the SQ context. Applying positivist epistemology and using an empirical approach, this research validates the developed SQ model with partial least squares-based structural equation modelling; data were collected from Australia and Bangladesh. The results show that SQ dimensions are evaluated in the confirmation stage, which eventually affect CS and CI. Also, confirmation moderates the relationship between CS and CI; similarly the mediating effects of confirmation on CS and CI are established. The primary contribution of this study is the application of expectation-confirmation-satisfaction concepts from three popular theories from Marketing and IS in the SQ domain. Moreover, this research presents practical contributions.