We systematically review the literature on customer satisfaction, partitioning the literature into three generations of thought and focus, with the most recent, third generation, heavily emphasizing international business phenomena. Following a brief, stage-setting review of the first two generations – which address, respectively, the psychological underpinnings of the satisfaction concept, its antecedents, and consequences (first-generation), and the relationship between customer satisfaction, its strategic firm drivers, and firm financial performance outcomes, as well as moderators and mediators of those drivers and outcomes (second-generation) – we primarily focus on the third-generation international studies that have emerged over approximately the last 20 years. These third-generation studies have predominantly investigated the customer satisfaction concept as it is applied cross- and multi-nationally in diverse international market contexts but, due in large part to the cross-disciplinary nature of this research, this literature is fragmented and disjointed. Following a review and synthesis of the third-generation satisfaction literature, connecting it to and differentiating it from the first two generations and integrating its main themes and most significant findings, we identify enduring gaps and unanswered research questions. Of particular note is the dearth of studies examining cross- and multinational moderators of both the strategic firm drivers of satisfaction and the satisfaction–firm performance relationship. We conclude with avenues for future research that can generate important IB-related customer satisfaction knowledge with the potential to provide enormous value to international researchers and managers.

我们系统地回顾了关于客户满意度的文献，将文献分为三代思想和重点，最近的第三代重点强调国际商业现象。在对前两代人进行了简短的阶段性回顾之后——分别解决了满意度概念的心理基础、其前因和后果（第一代），以及客户满意度与其战略公司驱动因素之间的关系，和公司的财务业绩结果，以及这些驱动因素和结果的调节者和中介者（第二代）——我们主要关注大约在过去 20 年出现的第三代国际研究。这些第三代研究主要研究了客户满意度概念，因为它在不同的国际市场环境中被跨国和跨国应用，但在很大程度上由于这项研究的跨学科性质，这些文献是零散的和脱节的。在对第三代满意度文献进行回顾和综合后，将其与前两代联系起来并加以区分，并整合其主要主题和最重要的发现，我们确定了持久的差距和未解决的研究问题。特别值得注意的是，缺乏对战略企业满意度驱动因素和满意度-企业绩效关系的跨跨国和跨国调节因素的研究。