The critical role of marketer’s information provision in temporal changes of expectations and attitudes Hong-Youl Ha Dongguk University, Seoul, South Korea J. Denise John and Joby John University of Louisiana at Lafayette, Lafayette, Louisiana, USA, and Nam-Yun Kim Road Traffic Authority, Chunchoen-si, South Korea Abstract Purpose – This study aims to examine the changes in expectations and attitudes toward a brand over time. Furthermore, since consumers are able to change their previous judgments with information provided by a firm or dealer, the study seeks to examine moderator effects of such new information on an expectations-attitude model. Design/methodology/approach – Using a longitudinal study of automobile consumers, the study demonstrates significant carryover, and moderating effects of information provision on temporal changes in expectations and attitude. Findings – The findings contribute to understanding the time dependency and the dynamic nature of consumer expectations and attitudes. New information provided during direct contact by the marketer updates consumers’ (previous) expectations and, consequently, such new information updates consumer attitudes toward the brand. Practical implications – As consumers’ attitudes change over time, marketers should focus on reinforcing attitude toward the product. It would be desirable to design information for consumers to improve a favorable attitude toward the product. In the current example, as sports utility vehicle markets get more competitive, it is critical to create consumer-focused information. Originality/value – This study provides two important contributions to the understanding of the time dependency of consumers’ expectations, evaluations and attitudes. Keywords Marketing information, Temporal changes, Expectations, Attitudes, Congruency, Sports utility vehicles, Consumers, Consumer behaviour, Road vehicles Paper type Research paper Introduction It is commonly accepted in the literature that consumer expectations and attitudes toward products change over time (Bhattacherjee and Premkumar, 2004; Demo, 1992; Oliver, 1997; Petty et al., 1997; Yi and La, 2004; Zehrer et al., 2011). These studies cover two types of events that cause the changes: . direct experience with the product as in consumption episodes; or . indirect experience with the product as in exposure to information about the product and experiencing the product without ownership as in the retail store. The fundamental tenet of Oliver’s (1997) satisfaction model is that following consumption, the resulting level of satisfaction has a major influence on the consumer’s revised attitude. Studies on the time dependence of evaluations and attitudes (see Johnson et al., 2006; Mittal et al., 1999), demonstrate the importance of changes in satisfaction and behavioral intentions over time and across several consumption episodes. Aside from the consumption episodes, any brand- related information either produced by the company or by company-related events reported in the media, influence consumer attitudes and expectations of products. Building their model of the satisfaction formation process on the disconfirmation paradigm, Spreng et al. (1996) introduced two reference points, one is the commonly accepted reference point of desires or expectations, the other, they proposed was the notion of information satisfaction. Anderson et al. (1994) assert that consumers are influenced by all available information concerning quality and update their expectations accordingly. Rust et al. (1999) show that adjusted expectations may result from non-experiential information, such as advertising, word-of-mouth, or media reports regarding quality. Thus, non-experiential information The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available at www.emeraldinsight.com/0736-3761.htm Journal of Consumer Marketing 30/4 (2013) 355–365 q Emerald Group Publishing Limited [ISSN 0736-3761] [DOI 10.1108/JCM-02-2013-0459] The authors thank Bruce Weinberg, Bentley University and Ramendra Thakur, University of Louisiana at Lafayette for their comments on an earlier version of this article. 355