Simulating online consumer satisfaction using fuzzy cognitive mapping

Abstract

The increasing growth of online businesses in last decades has resulted in complexity of interactions and consumer behavioral patterns in so many aspects. Therefore, many researchers keep on presenting an integrated model of the effective factors in online consumer behavior and their satisfaction. In this paper the applications of Fuzzy Cognitive Maps (FCMs), as a novel approach in modeling online consumer satisfaction, as one of the success factor in online businesses, have been discussed. The objective is to identify and extract factors affecting online consumer satisfaction and simulate e-satisfaction. The resulting e-satisfaction Fuzzy Cognitive Map from experts’ opinions who have a good background and experience about the field gives an integrated and clear perception of factors affecting online consumer satisfaction and their relations which greatly help decision-makers analyze the optimal path to meet the e-satisfaction.