Prediction of citizen satisfaction with local government based on perceptions of physical disorder

Abstract

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to identify the aspects of service quality that citizens view as most important regarding the improvement of their quality of life within the city where they live, by finding out the intangible variables or factors that most influence citizen satisfaction with the local government. The paper uses a measuring instrument to obtain survey data and build a theoretical and empirical model that operates at the level of the local government. Design/methodology/approach – It involves a construction of a causal theoretical model that follows a series of steps that connect the empirical context (data) with the same theoretical representation (model from reality). This model attempts to explain the relations between the latent variables included in the structural equation model from background knowledge inspired in the evolution of social sciences. Findings – The emergent model discriminates three areas pertaining to quality of services, its relationship with the satisfaction of citizens in local government across local leadership image and expectations. Practical implications – Citizens satisfaction indexes provide not only information about citizen satisfaction and the rate of fidelity and perceived quality but also suggestions about the factors influencing this satisfaction. Originality/value – This article describes the many and varied possible relationships between the various precedents and consequences that influence the conceptualization of citizen satisfaction with the local government. The paradigm used focuses on perceptions of physical disorder rather than on the hierarchical approach of conceptualizing the perception of service quality.