An assessment of information systems service quality using SERVQUAL+

Abstract

Service quality of Information Systems (IS) is an important component of IS performance. While previous IS service quality research was based primarily on the version of SERVQUAL that uses a single expectation measure, there have been very few studies on IS service quality based on the enhanced SERVQUAL+ that uses dual expectation measures. The present research evaluates SERVQUAL+ and IS-adapted SERVQUAL+ for their psychometric properties on four scales, namely perceived service (PS), service adequacy (SA), service superiority (SS) and zone of tolerance (ZT), in order to assess their suitability for IS service quality evaluation. Based on nationwide survey data of 337 respondents, the two instruments were analyzed for construct reliability, convergent and divergent criteria, LISREL-based CFA analyses of goodness-of-fit, indicator loadings, construct composite reliability, average variance extracted, and unidimensionality. Our results show that SA and ZT have better psychometric properties compared to SS, the traditional gap measure of service quality. The tangibles dimension contributes adequately towards IS service quality measurement and may not be discarded. While both the instruments demonstrate good psychometric properties on most criteria, IS-adapted SERVQUAL+ is marginally superior to SERVQUAL+. However, neither instrument satisfies the discrimination criteria and unidimensionality property in any of the four scales.