However, Anderson and Mittal (2000) also show
that the links within the chain can be asymmetric
and nonlinear. In an asymmetric situation, ‘‘the
impact of an increase is different from the impact of
an equivalent decrease, not only in terms of direction
but also in terms of size’’ (Anderson and Mittal,
2000, p. 108). Thus, there might be negative asymmetry
(e.g., slower provision might have a greater
impact on customer satisfaction than faster supply) or
a positive asymmetry (e.g., increasing the use of humor
likely has a greater impact on customer satisfaction
than does decreasing it). This dimension aligns with
prospect theory as well (Kahneman and Tversky,
1979). In terms of nonlinearity, each additional
one-unit increase in an input may have a smaller
impact than the preceding one-unit increase. As in