're the airline everyone loves to hate" Customer Service and Business Success Expectation confirmation theory (also known as expectation disconfirmation theory) refers to a cognitive theory that is applied to consumer behavior, particularly post-purchase satisfaction. The theory depends upon the interaction between expectations, perceived performance and the confirmation, or alternatively the disconfirmation, of beliefs. Originally developed by Richard Oliver (1977), the basic tenets of the theory posit that: 1) Positive disconfirmation occurs when a product outperforms expectations which yields a result of post-purchase satisfaction; and 2) Negative disconfirmation occurs when a product fails to meet expectations, which yields a result of post-purchase dissatisfaction (Oliver, 1980; Spreng, MacKenzie, & Olshavsky, 1996). This process is further illustrated in Fripp's Disconfirmation Model of Customer Satisfaction in Figure 1 below.