Excerpt
Contents
Figures
Tables
Abbreviations
Symbols
1 Introduction
2 Conceptualization and Measurement of Service Quality
2.1 Definition of Service Quality
2.2 Importance of Generality in Marketing Research
3 Current Concepts and Measurements of Perceived Service Quality
3.1 SERVQUAL
3.2 SERVPERF
3.3 Distribution Channel Approaches
4 Deriving a General Concept of Customer Perceived Service Quality
5 Conclusion
Appendix
References
Figures
Figure 3.1.1: Service Quality Dimensions proposed by PZB (1994)
Figure 3.1.2: Functional Relationship Between Perceived Performance and SQ
Figure 3.2.1: Multilevel Approach of Perceived Service Quality by BC (2001)
Tables
Table 2.1.1: Determinants of service quality discussed in the literature
Table A.1: Overview on miscellaneous research contributions about SERVQUAL
Table A.2: Overview on miscellaneous research contributions about SERVQUAL
Table A.3: Overview on miscellaneous research contributions about SERVQUAL
Table A.4: Overview on miscellaneous research contributions about SERVQUAL
Table A.5: Overview on miscellaneous research contributions about SERVQUAL
Table A.6: Overview on miscellaneous research contributions about SERVQUAL
Abbreviations
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1 Introduction
Service Quality is a field of marketing, which stimulated numerous scholars to do theoretical and empirical research on. The SERVQUAL concept first was amongst concepts like The Nordic Model by Grönroos (1984) and The Three-Component Model by Rust and Oliver (1994) and SERVPERF by Cronin and Taylor (1992). After there has been a major debate which role expectations should play for service quality, which primary dimensions should be used to conceptualize and measure it and how service quality has to be integrated in existing marketing theory, newer approaches concentrate either on the depth of these dimensions, further optimization of the integration of service quality into marketing theory or specific factors which might play a role on distinct settings. In a multilevel approach, primary dimensions can be understood as direct antecedents of service quality. Subdimensions are antecedents of the primary dimensions of service quality.
This paper deals with the issue, how customer perceived service quality (CPSQ) is supposed to be conceptualized and measured. In order to do this, the first section begins simply with several ideas that came up in literature what factors might influence service quality and how it can be defined. Then the paper illustrates why generality of theories is useful in Marketing Research and how it can be achieved. Moreover, an adequate framework to justify or reject particular concepts and measurements of service quality is provided. In the third section, the paper continues with the introduction of concepts and measurements of service quality. Attention is given to broader approaches as well as specific approaches of service quality. The paper combines these approaches in the fourth section with the help of the diagnostic framework provided before in order to achieve a concept of CPSQ with an optimal degree of generality. Thereafter the paper closes with a conclusion that gives a résumé on the results of this work.
2 Conceptualization and Measurement of Service Quality
2.1 Definition of Service Quality
Parasuraman, Zeithaml and Berry (hereafter PZB) (1985) state that quality depends on the “conformance of requirements” regarding Garvin (1983). PZB (1988) define perceived quality as “a form of attitude” representing “the consumer’s judgment about an entity’s overall excellence or superiority”, “related but not equivalent to satisfaction, and resulting from a comparison of expectations with perceptions of performance.”
PZB (1985) suggest perceived service quality (PSQ) to be a comparison of the performance and the customer’s expectations about a particular service. Their sharpened definition of PSQ is “a global judgment, or attitude, relating to the superiority of the service” and reflecting “the degree and direction of discrepancy between consumers’ perceptions and expectations” in PZB (1988). This concept refers to the disconfirmation paradigm (Bitner 1990, p. 70; Cronin and Taylor (1992), p. 56), which stems from customer satisfaction literature.
Cronin and Taylor (hereafter CT) (1992) remark concerns on including expectations into service quality research and suggest conceptualizing service quality as an attitude should tend to forecast behavioral intention or current behavior. CT (1992) make a point of using solely performance perceptions as service quality measures. There has been following a considerable debate about the inclusion of expectations in PSQ (Parasuraman, Zeithaml, Berry (1994); Cronin, Taylor (1994)).
Approaches on other determinants of CPSQ investigate the impact of distribution channels, regional and cultural factors as well as specific service settings. Table 2.1.1 gives an overview on attributes of service quality conceptualizations and their specifications. For instance, Zeithaml, Parasuraman and Malhotra (hereafter ZPM) (2002) and Parasuraman, Zeithaml, Malhotra (hereafter PZM) (2005) analyzed the impact of web sites implemented as a sales channel on the determinants of service quality. Sousa and Voss (hereafter SV) (2006) researched in which way multiple distribution channels of service influence PSQ. Raajpoot (2004) investigates the influence of individual issues such as personal value systems, national culture orientation, relationship between provider and customer, gender and frequency of service encounters. He provides a multi-item scale named PAKSERV, measuring culture specific factors of CPSQ. Agarwal, Malhotra, Bolton (2010) concentrate on cross-cultural and cross-national discrepancies in SERVQUAL factors.
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Table 2.1.1: Determinants of service quality discussed in the literature
2.2 Importance of Generality in Marketing Research
There has been much research on service quality that either tried to pinpoint the impact of specific circumstances on service quality or attempted to derive a broader concept. Thus, an analytical framework assessing theoretical value of concepts might help to distinguish between useful or misconcepted research and point out directions of further research. Service quality scholars predominantly tend to justify their discoveries by testing and psychometrically assessing them with data samples. Though this procedure is one good criterion for providing empirical evidence, Perreault (1992, p. 371) and PZB (1994, p. 120) claim more practical criteria like diagnostic value for scale assessment.
Hunt (2002, p. 196 - 217) emphasizes that the main purpose of theory lies in the enlargement of scientific understanding “through a systemized structure capable of both explaining and predicting phenomena.” He lists three conditions justifying research contributions to be part of scientific theory. Theory must first relate containing statements systematically (A), second contain lawlike generalizations to allow for explanatory and predictive power (B) and third be capable of being tested empirically (C). Statements of a theory are systematically related if the inter-relationships between these statements, the concepts contained in each statement and all relationships between these concepts are precisely defined.
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