A factor-based importance–satisfaction discrepancy approach for smart campus evaluation: evidence from comparative exploratory factor analyses

Abstract

Abstract Smart campus evaluation commonly relies on descriptive satisfaction scores or importance-performance indicators, yet less is known about whether users organise satisfaction, perceived importance, and respondent-level importance–satisfaction discrepancies through equivalent empirical structures. This study examines that question using survey datafrom 986 respondents at a Brazilian non-profit university undergoing a campus smartisation process. The instrument comprised 69 attributes derived from smart campus, smart city, and sustainable development frameworks and assessed with paired five-point satisfaction and importance scales. Three exploratory principal component analyses were conducted on the satisfaction matrix, the perceived-importance matrix, and the respondent-level importance–satisfaction discrepancy matrix. Satisfaction and importance each yielded five components. After applying the stated loading threshold and excluding a single-item component substantive interpretation, the discrepancy matrix yielded six interpretable multi-item components. The memberships of the three solutions differed, although comparisons are descriptive because the retained item sets were not identical. The study therefore presents a bounded, measurement-oriented application of component analysis to importance–satisfaction data. The discrepancy is interpreted as a diagnostic shortfall between attribute salience and reported satisfaction, not as classical expectancy disconfirmation evidence of causal effects.