In recent years, studies of citizen satisfaction have increasingly relied on the expectancy-disconfirmation model, which highlights the role that expectations play in driving citizen evaluations of government services. But most empirical studies within public administration of the relationship between expectations and satisfaction indicate that expectations have little-to-no net effect on satisfaction. We argue that these results may be largely driven by the weaknesses of existing measurement approaches and inattention in many studies to the distinction between two types of expectations: those about what should happen (normative expectations) versus those about what will happen (predictive expectations). Distinguishing between these two types of expectations is important because they are likely to have different—and perhaps even opposite—effects on satisfaction. We recruited 972 U.S. residents on MTurk to complete a survey vignette experiment and found that normative expectations are strongly (and negatively) related to satisfaction levels while predictive expectations are barely related to satisfaction at all. We also find that comparative performance information generally has a much stronger effect on predictive expectations than on normative expectations. These findings suggest that theories of satisfaction should more consistently distinguish between different types of expectations. Our results also leave us somewhat optimistic about the ability of ordinary residents to follow a reasonable process when assigning normative meaning to performance information.

Research on citizen satisfaction has emphasized the role of service quality (including expectations for quality) in shaping citizens’ evaluations of public services. This article considers an understudied but important aspect of public service delivery—equity—and investigates how disparities in service outcomes between disadvantaged and advantaged groups affect citizens’ evaluations of service providers. This study also examines whether citizens with different socioeconomic status (SES) have different perceptions toward the outcome disparities. Using individual-level data from secondary schools, we find that service users appear to recognize and care about a performance gap among social strata. Even when a student’s individual outcome is held constant, satisfaction varies with the school-level performance gap between high-SES and low-SES students. This finding suggests that service users are concerned about not just their outcomes but also the relative positioning of outcomes for those of their own social group compared with other groups.

This analysis tests fundamental nonprofit theory using individual-level demand-side data, which complements existing studies that have relied on organizational- and community-level variables alone. We use survey and administrative data to test the relationship between individuals’ perceptions and use of local government services and their reported use of nonprofit services, controlling for the density of organizations around respondents’ addresses. Individuals who report being better served by government services are significantly more likely to report using nonprofit services—while individuals who report being unserved by government are also less likely to report access to nonprofits, despite the actual density of organizations around them. These findings support theories of interdependence between government and nonprofit sectors. However, income-based disparities in perceived access to nonprofit services highlight persistent gaps in serving all individuals on the local level.

Over the last several decades, the field of nonprofit marketing has produced a growing number of publications; however, little attention has been paid to examine what research topics have been studied by nonprofit scholars from the marketing perspectives. This knowledge production research contributes to the literature by reviewing trends in research themes and methodologies over the last 20 years among the articles for which authors use the terminology “marketing.” Employing a thematic review using text network analysis, and an in‐depth methodology review, this study finds that nonprofit marketing studies have been shifting to become more subdivided and diversified in terms of research themes and methodologies. However, we also find that there is still room for further development, which we provided recommendations based on the findings. With its findings, this paper provides critical guidance for future studies.

The Forest Visitor Centers for Little Children who means preschoolers is an educational facility that achieves holistic growth by experiencing forests, and it should not be completed by installing specific facilities in the forest environment, but should be a space where preschoolers can play freely in the forest environment themselves. This study comprehensively evaluated the current status of Seoul Forest Visitor Centers for Little Children and suggested space improvement measures to enhance the effectiveness of forest experience. Through the theoretical review, seven spatial elements that enhance the effect of forest experience and six areas composing outdoor play areas were derived to prepare an analysis table for current status evaluation, and field survey studies were conducted on 24 centers in Seoul. Through expert interviews, the physical status was examined from the perspective of childhood education and the experiences of the users were summarized. As a result of the study, the Seoul Forest Visitor Center for Little Children is classified into six types according to the location characteristics and spatial structure, and has the characteristics of each type. The effectiveness of forest experience can be enhanced by identifying and revealing the environmental strengths of individual centers. In the case of outdoor experience learning zones, the proportion of exercise play areas was very large. By evenly organizing the forest experience space for each area, it will be possible to provide more diverse experiences to preschoolers. However, the status of uniform facility-oriented cannot be viewed as a fragmentary factor that lowers the effect of forest experience. The key to increasing the effect of forest experience by inducing creative activities is the spatial composition that considers the surrounding natural environment. Facilities should be a medium to help preschoolers' interest move into the forest. This study prepared data to understand the average physical status of the Seoul Forest Visitor Center for Little Children and suggested space improvement measures to increase the effectiveness of forest experience. This can be used as basic data for research to improve the quality level of the Seoul Forest Visitor Center for Little Children about 10 years after the project was implemented.