The Cause Effect Relationship Model of Service Quality in relation with Overall Satisfaction

Abstract

Public transportation has become one of the cornerstones of a country’s infrastructure development. In particular, road transportation plays a critical role in developing countries, as large numbers of people use bus transportation as the means to commute between one place to another for work, home, visiting friends, trips etc. Ensuring the service quality in this service, therefore, is crucial. There are limited scientific studies, however, on the service quality of intercity passenger transport in India, especially with regard to infrastructure aspects. In this paper the cause effect relationship model of service quality in relation with overall satisfaction of intercity bus transport is attempted. Results demonstrate three types of passenger profile emerging from the data (K-means clustering). According to findings of the study, the service quality dimension such as empathy, information reliability, luggage assurance, responsiveness, service time reliability, external tangibles and tangibles exhibit the cause effect relationship with respect to overall satisfaction of passengers with technology mediation. It also indicates that, Technology alleviates the influence of responsiveness and environmental dimensions on overall satisfaction. A comprehensive service quality model is built, consisting of core service quality dimensions and external dimension such as technology, policy and road infrastructure for intercity bus transport, a contribution is made to public transport literature. This helps the intercity transport organizations to devise a strategy for service quality for competitive edge.