Theses and Dissertations

Issuing Body

Mississippi State University

Advisor

Hunt, Kevin M.

Committee Member

Kaminski, Richard M.

Committee Member

Grado, Stephen C.

Date of Degree

5-5-2007

Document Type

Graduate Thesis - Open Access

Major

Wildlife and Fisheries Science

Degree Name

Master of Science

College

College of Forest Resources

Department

Department of Wildlife and Fisheries

Abstract

Hunter satisfaction has received extensive attention in the literature, but the role of expectations on satisfaction has been neglected. Consumer satisfaction researchers often use the expectancy disconfirmation paradigm (i.e., differences between expectations and reality) to address relationships between expectations and satisfaction. I used this paradigm to examine the relationship between expectations and satisfaction for waterfowl hunters in Arkansas and Mississippi. I found hunter satisfaction was a partial function of fulfilled expectations in both studies. Performance-only measures generally correlated more strongly with overall satisfaction than disconfirmations measured by a difference score. Conversely, disconfirmation of expectations for a season measured on a single item scale, had the greatest relationship with overall satisfaction for a season. Knowledge of congruence between hunter expectations and outcomes offers managers an avenue to effectively focus management efforts to improve satisfaction levels.

URI

https://hdl.handle.net/11668/17292

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