Avaliação da satisfação do consumidor utilizando o método de equações estruturais: um modelo aplicado ao setor elétrico brasileiro

This article presents the Consumer Satisfaction Model for the Brazilian Electric Utility Industry, based on Structural Equations Method. There were used the evaluation of the Distribution Service Quality, and of the Perceived Value as Satisfaction antecedents. There was also created a latent variable representing the Global Satisfaction and it was used as the global score of each energy provider. Complementing the model, it also was inserted the loyalty construct, evaluated through some sceneries in which the consumer was exposed to some advantages and measured his intention to change to other option. The obtained results indicated a good model validity and internal consistency, as well as flexibility to measure the Satisfaction in several situations (for different companies, country regions, etc). In the same way, for the methodology replication in other Brazilian economic industries, it is allowed the performance comparison among them and with international benchmarks.