Customer Value And Tourism Satisfaction: A Multidimensional Perspective Paul Williams, American University of Sharjah, UAE Geoffrey Soutar, University of Western Australia Abstract This paper reports on a research study into customer value and tourism satisfaction. It used a multidimensional framework to measure customer value in a tourism context including not only a functional dimension of value, but also the additional dimensions of social value, emotional value and epistemic (or novelty) value. It was expected that this broader conceptualization of value would provide a more accurate and holistic perspective of customer value perceptions in a tourism context. The study found that customer value is indeed a multi-dimensional construct, and has a strong, positive influence on customer satisfaction in a tourism setting. Additionally, the performance-only measures of value were found to explain the variance in customer satisfaction better than the measures of value calculated with an expectancy-disconfirmation approach. Introduction Customer value seems to be a critical element in consumers’ decision making behaviour (Zeithaml, 1988; Sheth, Newman and Gross, 1991; Sweeney, Soutar and Johnson, 1999). The construct has traditionally been approached from a functional utility perspective, with the construct seen as a “trade-off” between quality and price (Cravens et al., 1988; Dodds, 1991). However, functional value may not be appropriate in a tourism setting as such a trade-off model is too simplistic for service-based consumption experiences (Schechter, 1984; Bolton and Drew, 1991). The functional notion of “value” is central to economic exchange theory, but is also relevant to marketing theory, where buyers and sellers infer value from a comparison of the benefits received to the costs incurred (Zeithaml 1988; Gale, 1994; Treacy and Wiersma, 1995; Dodds et al., 1991; Bolton and Drew, 1991; Sinha and DeSarbo, 1998; Sweeney, Soutar and Johnson, 1997). Perceived price and perceived quality are antecedents to value, with satisfaction being the most common suggested consequence of value perceptions. A summary of the functional perspective was offered by Zeithaml (1988, p. 14), who suggested perceived value can be thought of as a “consumer's overall assessment of the utility of a product, based on what is received and what is given.” However, it has been suggested that a multidimensional approach may be more suitable in service contexts (Zeithaml 1988; Sheth, Newman and Gross 1991; Woodruff 1997; Sweeney, Soutar Johnson 1999; De Ruyter at al. 1997; Sweeney and Soutar 2001). In the service sector, sociological and psychological aspects, which Zeithaml (1988) termed “higher order abstractions”, may be more important because of the interaction between producers and consumers and the heterogeneous nature of the service experience (Holbrook, 1994). Similarly, in many services contexts, value perceptions differ from those made for goods, due to the greater risk and uncertainty inherent in many services (Murray and Schlacter, 1990; Zeithaml, 1981). In tourism, like most other services, the consumption experience is complicated by intangibility, dynamism and subjectivity (Botterill and Crompton, 1996; O’Guinn and Belk, ANZMAC 2005 Conference: Tourism Marketing 129