A strategic approach of internal service quality for improving employees' job satisfaction in e-business

Abstract

Implementing electric business (e-business) is imperative for firms to gain competitive advantages in modern competitive environment. However, issues regarding how to evaluate and manage the success/effective of e-business are still scant from viewpoints of internal service quality and job satisfaction, not to speak of forming a strategic planning for managers to improve job satisfaction through internal service quality. Hence, the first purpose of this paper aims to explore the relationship between internal service quality and job satisfaction in the context of e-business. The exhausted literature reviews of prior research on service quality dimensions such as reliability, responsiveness, assurance and empathy, and related work on employees' job satisfaction have been reviewed. Then, the relationships between internal service quality and employees' job satisfaction are developed and examined. By conducting a survey of 147 respondents practicing at six international semiconductor manufacturing companies in Science-based Parks in Taiwan, this paper explores how internal service delivered by e-business affects employees' job satisfaction in the context of e-business. The results support three dimensions of internal service quality indeed have influences on employees' job satisfaction. Finally, we propose a service quality-importance of fit (SQ-IF) strategic grid for managers to initialize a strategy for improving job satisfaction. Based on these findings and the SQ-IF grid, we demonstrate some managerial implications for practitioners to improve employees' job satisfaction through enhancing service quality.