Satisfaction with Public Transport Trips

2.2. Three-factor theory 
Three-factor theory postulates that QoSA impact on overall travel satisfaction very differently depending 
on their performance level, and thus relaxing the assumption of the Importance-Performance analysis. 
While the three-factor theory is based on Kano’s model (1984) it reduces the number of factors from five 
to three and can employ conventional customer satisfaction surveys. The three factors have been defined 
by authors Matzler et al. (2003) and Busacca and Padula (2005) as follows:  
a) Basic factor: when attributes belonging to this category are well delivered, they do not positively 
influence overall satisfaction, yet when delivered poorly they induce dissatisfaction. They are basic and 
expected attributes that all service should provide adequately. Their relationship with overall satisfaction 
is asymmetric and non-linear.
b) Performance factor: this category of attributes can contribute to both satisfaction and dissatisfaction 
depending on whether their performance is high or low, respectively. They have a linear and symmetric 
relationship with overall travel satisfaction.
c) Exciting factor: This category is the reverse of the basic factor. Attributes belonging to this category 
are unexpected attributes that can only bring joy and satisfaction with the service. Their relationship with 
overall satisfaction is asymmetric and non-linear. 
Figure 1. Kano’s three factors (own adaptation) 
Impact on 
Overall 
Satisfaction 
Service 
Attribute 
Performance 
Positive 
Positive 
Negative 
Negative 
Exciting 
Basic 
Performance 

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Hitherto, only three studies in the transport field have relaxed the assumptions of linearity and symmetry 
(Zhang et al., 2017; Cao and Cao, 2017; Wu et al., 2018). However, these studies entail a number of 
limitations such as the use of relatively small sample sizes per travel mode (Cao and Cao 2017, Wu et al. 
2018) and their inability to control for the impact of socio-demographic attributes, travel characteristics 
and seasonal variations.