Structure Of Service Quality Research Articles

An Investigation on the Dimensionality and Structure of Service Quality in Private Banks of South Odisha

The success of any organization is measured in its ability to quickly respond to market changes with more efficient satisfaction and customer retention. The subject “quality” is nowadays, in a globalized world, one of the key concerns of businessmen to face the competition on industries and service areas. Financial groups are measuring no efforts to achieve quality excellence, starting by customer services and relationship. When the expression “Quality” is used, we usually think in terms of an excellent product or service that fulfills or exceeds our expectations. These expectations are based on the intended use and the selling price. Products are determined by its quality. Hence based on observation it is considered elusive. Quality can be quantified as Q = P/E. Where Q = Quality, P = Performance and E = Expectations. Quality is a complex phenomenon based on perceptions by individuals with different perspectives on products and services. These perceptions have been built up through the past experience of individuals and consumption in various contexts. Indian banking sector opened its doors to private and international players after the economic liberalization in 1991. It has been almost 2 decades of operation of the private banks in India. Much has evolved in the overall structure of banking during this time but have the private banks delivered the type of quality that the customers expect them to. This research is an effort to evaluate the service quality of the private banks in Southern parts of Odisha of the country India. The study is based on primary data collected in the cities of South Odisha through a structured questionnaire designed on the basis of SERVQUAL Model. The banks under study are the five top private banks from South Odisha region. The study has found that none of the banks have been able to meet the customer expectations and are still dwelling on the ‘zone of pain’. The research is very useful for managers, policymakers, implementers as well as academicians. The research provides implications for managers as well as policy makers to understand the customer expectations in India. It can be a guideline for a bigger role for the BCSBI (Banking Codes and Standard Board of India). Implications for future research are also discussed. The novelty of the research lies in the context that no effort has been made so far to effect research on sector specific contribution of banks. There is also very little literature available to identify the need-service gap in this area. The study adds value to the knowledge in the field of banking service quality for development and also opens new areas of research.

Analysis of Cultural Education and Behavior in Colleges and Universities Based on Image Recognition Technology

When the rationality and importance of cultural education in colleges and universities have been confirmed, the key question is how to better realize cultural education. This requires an in‐depth understanding and grasp of the cultural education work of colleges and universities, analyzing the internal logic contained in this education system and then discussing its practical rationale. This paper proposes a multiobjective Support Vector Machine (SVM) image recognition method for college cultural and educational behaviors based on three decision‐making theories. Aimed at the problem of classification errors caused by image segmentation in image recognition of cultural and educational behaviors in colleges and universities, it is found that the reason that causes the same target to be divided into different subblocks is that the ordinary SVM classifier has only two choices of “yes” and “not” in classification. It is impossible to set the conditions for the classification of cultural and educational behavior images to satisfy all the existing conditions. In order to solve the above problems, this paper combines the three decision‐making ideas with the image recognition of university cultural education behaviors and designs a multiobjective SVM image recognition method of university cultural education behaviors based on the three decision‐making theories. We establish a higher education service quality structure model and use LISREL to explore the causal relationship among students’ perceived service quality, university image, student’s perceived service value, student trust, student satisfaction, and student behavior intentions in the field of higher education. The empirical results show that student satisfaction has a significant direct and positive effect on student behavior. Service quality has a significant direct and positive impact on perceived value and student trust. The perceived risk of higher education services determines the image of colleges and universities, and student trust plays an important role. The image of colleges and universities acts on student satisfaction through perceived value and student trust. The image of colleges and universities has a direct impact on students’ behavioral inclination, and it acts on students’ behavioral inclination through student trust and student satisfaction. Among the influences on behavior tendency, the direct positive effect of student trust is the largest, followed by the image of colleges and universities and the quality of service.

Evaluating the Effects of Service Quality, Customer Satisfaction, and Service Value on Behavioral Intentions with Life Insurance Customers in India

The present study aims to empirically test and evaluate the direct and indirect effects of service encounter constructs of service quality, customer satisfaction and service value on loyalty related behavioral intentions of customers in Indian Life services in India to determine the best fitting model. Most studies based on comprehensive models of service constructs relationships have not considered alternative competing models. The theoretical background and the empirical support for these issues derive mostly from prior studies in the developed markets of the U.S., UK and Canada. Further, the study aims to contribute to resolution of the variance in structure and dimensionality of service quality (dimensionality) in literature by developing and validating a second order model of service quality which integrates the two dominant perspectives ie the Nordic and the American approach. Design/methodology/approach: A second order scale of service quality was developed and validated by integrating the American and Nordic approach to Service Quality using exploratory factor analysis and confirmatory factor analysis. The constructs of Customer satisfaction, service value and Behavioural intentions were validated using confirmatory factor analysis. Two competing models of effects of the three service encounter constructs on Behavioral Intentions were tested using structural equation modeling. The results show that Service quality is a second order construct consisting of the dimensions of Core service, Service Delivery, Sales Agent Quality, Tangibles and Empathy. The process dimensions (sales Agent Quality and Service delivery) are most important in overall service quality perceptions. The effect of service quality on positive behavioural intentions is both direct and indirect with the moderating effect of service value and customer satisfaction being significant. The study contributes to research by developing and validating a hierarchical model of service quality and testing two competing models of direct and indirect effects of service quality on behavioral intentions so that there is better understanding of the simultaneous and composite interactions and effects of the three service encounter constructs. The results would provide practitioners with a valid measure of service quality in life insurance services and would enable them to devise marketing strategies which enhance customer loyalty related behavioral intentions. The study addresses the gap related to wide divergence in dimensionality and structure of service quality and contributes to the debate on whether the effect of service quality on behavioral intentions is only indirect or both direct and indirect.

Handling stakeholder uncertain judgments in strategic transport service analyses

The quality level of services has to be constantly controlled, especially under conditions of competition increasing and limited resources. However, considering that service performance analyses are based on stakeholders' judgments, they can be characterized by possible uncertainties related to incompleteness for partial ignorance, imprecision for subjectivity and even vagueness. Therefore, under these conditions, unreliable results can be obtained by widely used service analysis methodologies. In the present paper, a methodology based on a recent extension of the SERVQUAL model, and that uses in combined manner the fuzzy set theory and the analytic hierarchy process method is proposed to effectively handle uncertainty in service performance analyses. In particular, the fuzzy set theory is considered to deal with such uncertainty, whereas the AHP method is adopted as tool to estimate the importance weights of the strategic service attributes.Subsequently, the Italian public transport service sector is strategically analysed, and its overall service quality structure is described and, finally, the strategic analysis of the public urban transport service delivered in Palermo (Italy) is performed by means of the proposed methodology. The performed service analysis allows the most influencing service factors to be captured and commented upon. The obtained results show that the management's perception of service quality meaningfully influences the overall service performance level.

Developing and Testing a Hierarchical Model of Customer Perceived Service Quality for Life Insurance Services

The article attempts to empirically test a multi-dimensional and multi-level hierarchical structure of service quality in Life Insurance services in India. The study draws evidence from India to develop and compare a second-order hierarchical model with a first-order model to draw better insight into the determinants and structure of perceived service quality in Indian Life Insurance services. Five component dimensions of perceived service quality were extracted through exploratory factor analysis from a list of initially generated 38 items of service quality from literature and expert review. The five dimensional structure was then tested through confirmatory factor analysis using first-order and second-order reflective model to determine the best model of perceived service quality. The second-order reflective model was found to be of better fit based on indices of fit using AMOS ver 4.0 software. The results showed that both the first-order and hierarchical second-order models are of excellent fit after some modification based on modification indices. The second-order model was however accepted for interpretation of results since it has relatively better fit (significantly lower chi-square value and better fit indices values) and is a more parsimonious model. The results thus provide support for a multi-dimensional and multi-level hierarchical structure of service quality as suggested by Brady and Cronin ( 2001 ), third in Life Insurance services in India. The results show that perceived service quality of Life insurance services is a multi-dimensional second-order construct consisting of the primary dimensions of Service Delivery, Sales Agent Quality, Tangibles, Value and Core Service.

An exploratory study of the contextual stability of SERVQUAL amongst three retail clusters in far North Queensland

PurposeThis study seeks to assess the psychometric properties of SERVQUAL, a prevalent instrument for measuring service quality within the “place” context of a shopping mall. Since, appearing in the management and marketing literature, this instrument has proved popular amongst researchers and practitioners. However, evidence supporting or refuting the tenets of the “gap” model and the dimensionality of the questionnaire is equivocal.Design/methodology/approachModified versions of the questionnaire were used as a basis for interviewing customers of three retail clusters in the region of far North Queensland (n=782).FindingsAnalysis of data failed to support the generic five‐factor structure of service quality amongst these retail outlets. Service quality was perceived to be context‐specific and less multi‐dimensional than contended by the original SERVQUAL authors. Furthermore, little support was found for the concurrent validity of the instrument. Moreover, notions of service quality may have been confused due to the separate perspectives of three retail clusters within the overall context of a shopping mall. The multi‐dimensional nature of intangible service quality and dynamic expectations of customers and clients therefore presents significant challenges for place managers.Research limitations/implicationsA practical decision was made to maximize the generalizability of the research by aggregating individual retail outlets into three overall clusters. Some measure of internal validity may therefore have been sacrificed.Practical implicationsIt is recommended that future research begins with 360‐degree qualitative analyses of contexts from which new constructs and instruments may be developed.Originality/valueThe retail industry in far North Queensland is a previously under researched area in terms of the SERVQUAL instrument. The new factor structures found for clusters should improve service‐quality management and impact on tourism‐related business in the region.

Towards an understanding of total service quality in hotels

The importance of service quality for business performance has been recognized in the literature through the direct effect on customer satisfaction and the indirect effect on customer loyalty. The importance was recognized by Parasuraman et al. [1985. A conceptual model of service quality and its implications for future research. Journal of Marketing 49(4), 41–51] in the development of SERVQUAL, a measure of perceived service quality across industries. Although the importance of service quality and service quality measurement has been recognized, there has been limited research that has addressed the structure and antecedents of the concept for the hotel industry.This research addresses the antecedents and structure of service quality in the context of the luxury and first class hotel sectors. The data are analysed using exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis approaches and a structural model is used to test the structure of service quality.The paper clarifies the dimensions and structure of service quality in the hotel industry. The clarification of the dimensions is important for managers in the hotel industry as it identifies the bundles of service attributes consumers find important. The clarification of the structure is also important as it confirms, in a hotel context, that customers see service quality in its entirety as a second order dimension.

Examination of the Factorial Structure of Service Quality: A Multi-Firm Analysis

To date, there is no consensus regarding the dimensionality of the service quality construct. Parasuraman, Berry and Zeithaml [1991] suggest that when consumers evaluate a 'specific company', they may rate items coming from two distinct dimensions the same or similarly. The authors further note that factor analysis translates such responses into fewer than five dimensions (as originally proposed by Parasuraman, Zeithaml and Berry [1988]). The authors suggest that verifying the conceptual meaningfulness of the SERVQUAL framework is an important area for future research. Accordingly, the current study examines the factor structure of service quality in two 'multi-firm' samples using service performance measures. The empirical findings suggest that service quality, in general, is comprised of two factors: interaction quality and tangibles.