Abstract
This study compares service quality (SERVQUAL) dimensions from customers’ perspectives and examines their impact on customer satisfaction in the mobile service markets of Jordan and Yemen. A questionnaire was distributed to 1400 participants in both countries. Utilizing structural equation modeling (SEM), it was found that the most important SERVQUAL dimensions in the studied countries are: reliability, interaction quality (empathy, assurance, and responsiveness), and tangibles in Jordan; and reliability, assurance-empathy, tangibles, and responsiveness in Yemen. In both samples, SERVQUAL was able to predict customer satisfaction, whereby reliability exerted the strongest effect, and it successfully measured service quality from customers’ perspectives in both countries. Furthermore, the current study provides managers of mobile service operators in both markets with insightful knowledge related to SERVQUAL dimensions and their role in ensuring customer satisfaction. Managing SERVQUAL dimensions relative to consumer needs in targeted markets is essential for business competitiveness and marketing strategies.
Highlights
The empirical results from the exploratory analysis and confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) indicated that SERVQUAL items, dimensions, and their impacts on customer satisfaction are different in each mobile service market
The major finding of this study is that SERVQUAL dimensions are not five, as proposed by the original model; this conclusion has been reached in previous studies, the SERVQUAL dimensions and items are different depending on the context of each market and industry
Since our study is comparative, we found that SERVQUAL is a three-dimensional construct in the Jordanian mobile service market, and five items of the scale were deleted (Res 1, Emp 4, Tan 1, Ass 3, and Emp 3) due to weak factor loadings and improving model fit indices
Summary
The world economy is increasingly characterized by the great role of the services sector, which in 2014 contributed a third of global gross value added, half of world employment, a fifth of global trade, and more than half of foreign direct investment flow [1]. This is primarily due to the increasing importance and share of the services sector in the economies of most developed and developing countries. Studying and analyzing service quality constructs is fundamentally important for the whole services sector and mobile services in particular in today’s competitive global markets [4]
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