An Empirical Assessment Of The Zeithaml,Berry And Parasuraman Service Expectations Model

The study empirically evaluated the Zeithaml et al. model of service expectations. Data on. service reliability was gathered from 267 auto repair service personnel who bought auto parts from manufacturer dealerships and independent suppliers. The model was partially successful in explaining customer perceptions of service quality and satisfaction. A significant finding was that buyers appear to tolerate a range of service performance and the size of this range is linked to service quality perceptions.     

The Antecedents of Service Expectations

Expectations are an important element in the modelling of both service quality and customer satisfaction, through the expectation-disconfirmation paradigm. However, understanding of the way in which differing classes of expectations are formed is limited. To date, studies concerned with the antecedents of expectations have been highly exploratory and mainly qualitative in nature. Although this study is also to an extent exploratory, it advances the debate surrounding expectations by offering systematic quantitative testing of two different classes of expectations. Data were collected on service expectations for bank accounts prior to consumption, along with information on possible antecedents. Hierarchical regression analysis was then employed to interpret the data. The results showed implicit service promises are an important antecedent of both 'predictive' and 'desired' classes of expectations. In addition, explicit services promises have some influence on predictive expectations, whilst word of mouth influence desired expectations. In general, many of the posited antecedents of expectations were not significant predictors of expectation levels.     

Service attributes: Expectations and judgments

Consumers' expectations regarding a product or service they would select for a particular usage situation may determine a reference point that impacts how they judge products or services they plan to use in that situation. We hypothesize that perceptual judgment of an attribute that is less important to a consumer's choice decision is more heavily influenced by the reference point than is judgment of an attribute that is more important to the choice. We support our hypothesis with experimental results in a service industry application. Further, we estimate a model and use the obtained parameter values to predict judgment of the service for a holdout usage situation. © 1993 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

Measuring Consumer Ethnocentrism: An Assessment of Reliability,Validity and Dimensionality of the CETSCALE in a Developing Market

ABSTRACT

Based on 305 surveyed consumers in Zimbabwe’s two major cities (Harare and Bulawayo), the study sought mainly to measure consumer ethnocentrism and to test psychometric properties of the CETSCALE in Zimbabwe using structural equation modeling. It was established that the construct of consumer ethnocentrism comprises two dimensions, namely negative influence of foreign products, and preference for domestic products. Consumer ethnocentrism was found to be moderately high. The psychometric properties of the CETSCALE tested above the required thresholds. Consumer ethnocentrism was found to negatively influence consumer attitude towards imported poultry products. The study has implications for managers and future researchers.     

An Empirical Study of Servqual's Dimensionality

This paper describes a scale, called SERVQUAL, which measures Service Quality. First, the scale's conceptual framework and the steps of its development are described. Second, criticisms arising from several replication studies of SERVQUAL are reviewed. The last part focuses on the dimensionality of the scale. Do the 22 items of the SERVQUAL scale clearly evoke, in the clients’ mind, the five Service Quality dimensions defined by Parasuraman et al. [1988]? An empirical study shows that one dimension, ‘Tangibles’, is clearly perceived followed by ‘Empathy’. The three other dimensions, ‘Reliability’, ‘Insurance’ and ‘Responsiveness ', are confused in the client's mind.     

The Impact of Scale. Characteristics on the Dimensionality of the Service Quality Construct

Many studies focusing on the dimensionality of the service quality construct have adopted frameworks developed within the marketing literature. This study, involving interviews with 200 repeat attenders at a specialist family planning clinic, suggests that earlier frameworks developed by patient satisfaction researchers go further in explaining the resu1ts of factor analytical studies. Analyses of data relating to two suppliers illustrate that scale characteristics i.e. scale length and the level of variation introduced into the data, have little impact on a factor structure which distinguishe between two key dimensions of expressive/instrumental qualities and access/convenience.     

Understanding Customer Role and its Importance in the Formation of Service Quality Expectations

A search of the Service Quality (SQ) and Customer Satisfaction (CS) literature reveals a gap in knowledge relating to the ‘expectation’ formation aspect of the disconfirmation paradigm.

Little consideration has been given to the ‘role’ of the customer in the service encounter, albeit that the above literature mostly customer that one measure of output performance comprises a customer comparison of the various delivery components with a self-established standard, of which ‘expectations’ appears the most common. A need exists to identify not only how customers define the standards and parameters for evaluation, but also, how the customers’ understanding of their role during service interaction affects the expectations they form.

This paper addresses the above need through the development and subsequent exploratory testing of a conceptual model of expectation formation. In addition to the recognised expectation antecedents of ‘experience’ and ‘familiarity,' two ‘role’ construct dimensions ‘role understanding’ and ‘role benefit’ are introduced in a broader expectation antecedent framework. The relationship between ‘experience’ and ‘familiarity’ with respect to expectations is found to be indirect in nature; with ‘role understanding’ and ‘role benefit’ both performing a mediator function. Managerial and research implications are discussed.     

Gender Differences in Service Quality Expectations in the Fast Food Industry

Abstract

Services marketers can influence the evaluation of service quality by “managing” customer expectations. Expectations can also provide insights into market segmentation strategies. Gender is often used as a segmentation variable since it is easily identifiable, accessible, and profitable. The purpose of this study was to examine if there are any gender-based differences in the expectations of service quality in the fast food industry. Hypotheses on gender differences in expectations were tested by an ANOVA, where the composite scores of each of the five dimensions of fast food service were used as dependent variables. The expectations of women were significantly higher than men in four of the five dimensions of fast food service quality.     

An Assessment of Home Buyer and Real Estate Broker Attitudes Toward Service Quality

No abstract available for this article.     

我国应加快发展城市服务经济

当前,服务经济发展水平已成为衡量一个城市国际竞争力和现代化程度的重要标志。从总体上看,我国的城市服务经济还没有跟上时代发展步伐。我国应增强加快发展城市服务经济的紧迫感,深化现代城市服务经济管理体制改革,尽快形成城市服务经济为主的产业结构,积极提高现代服务业从业人员的素质,从而进一步加快城市服务经济的发展,以带动周边区域的服务经济,使我国尽快进入服务经济时代。     

Perception Gaps in Customer Expectations: Managers Versus Service Providers and Customers

Two new gaps are added to the 5-gap model proposed by PZB. These new gaps reflect the differences in the understanding of customer expectations by manager and front-line service providers and in customer expectations and service providers' perception of such expectations. Using room service as the object for investigation, the present study provides empirical evidence indicating the existence of these gaps which have negative impact on overall service quality. The findings also disclose that the gap between customer expectations and managers' perception of such expectations is much larger than the gap between customer expectations and service providers' understanding of such expectations.     

An Assessment of Selected Psychometric Properties of a Service Quality Scale:

No abstract available for this article.     

Examining Public Hospital Service Failure: The Influence of Service Failure Type,Service Expectations,and Attribution on Consumer Response

This study investigates three independent variables; types of service failure, service expectations, and attribution on postfailure responses in healthcare. A between-subjects 3?×?2?×?2 experimental design using written scenarios was used. The findings demonstrate that customer responses to service failures in hospitals are extensively influenced by the type of service failure, the level of service expectation of the provider, and, to a lesser extent, the controllability of the cause of the failure. Core service failures lead to greater increases in negative responses for satisfaction, emotional, and behavioral responses than supplementary service failure with high service expectations protecting the provider against overall dissatisfaction, negative word-of-mouth, and switching behaviors. Interestingly, perceived high controllability leads to greater dissatisfaction but not to increased negative emotional or behavioral responses. The study applies attribution theory to explain the results. The article concludes with managerial implications.     

Management of Customer Expectations in Service Firms: A Study and a Checklist

There has been much emphasis in recent years, both in the service quality and customer satisfactoin literature, on the need to understand customer expectations. Less attention has been given to the management of expectations. This paper reports on a recent study of expectations management practices in British service firms and offers a checklist for service firms to use in the evaluation of their expectations management practices. It also links expectations management practices to overall customer satisfaction and market share.     

An Assessment of Experiential Learning of Global Poverty Issues Through International Service Projects

Service learning has been used to supplement a standard business curriculum, but not typically in an international business context. We report the results of two short-term study abroad programs in which we incorporated service learning projects, one in Cambodia and the other in Vietnam. Our objective is to assess how we organized and delivered effective service learning projects in short-term study tours, and to assess students’ learning outcomes on global poverty issues in a business curriculum. We used both quantitative and qualitative assessment measures. The findings suggest that several types of learning outcomes did occur through the service learning projects, as the literature suggested. Seeing poverty firsthand and doing something about it through service learning may be a first experience for many students, but it seems to be a transformational one for many. We conclude that students may approach business and even political decisions with a greater understanding of their impact on poverty in the developing world.     

SHIBOR市场预期理论的实证检验

本文使用SHIBOR市场期限为1个月及以上的中长端利率数据,针对由预期理论推导出的三个模型进行了回归检验,提出期限为1个月的利率与其它长端利率的利差是平稳的,但是利差对长短期利率变动的预测与理论不一致,即存在预期迷惑现象,因而拒绝了预期理论;长端利率之间的利差不平稳,因而长端利率整体上不支持预期理论。此外,考虑到回归结果的稳健性,本文还按照不同的方式选取了两组样本数据,通过使用不同的数据仍然可以得到相似的结论,这表明回归结果是在一定程度上是稳健的。对预期理论的背离表明SHIBOR市场中长端利率的变动未能充分反映金融市场资金的供需情况,因而有待进一步发展。     

Service Quality Expectations: Exploring the Importance of SERVQUAL Dimensions from Different Nonprofit Constituent Groups

Given the multiplicity of “customers” in the nonprofit sector, the need for nonprofits to ensure that quality service delivery matches customer expectations is difficult yet paramount. Nonprofit organizations serve several constituent groups: the service recipient, donor, volunteer, and general public at large. While each constituent group may not be perceived as a customer in the general sense, each group is making quality assessments that may affect performance evaluations, donations, volunteerism, and brand equity decisions. Hypothesis support was found, distinguishing between the importance of the different SERVQUAL dimensions and the perspective roles played within the nonprofit scenarios. Respondents playing the role of volunteer rated Empathy and Assurance highest and Tangibles lowest. Respondents playing the role of donor rated Reliability and Tangibles highest and Empathy lowest. Respondents playing the role of recipients rated Empathy and Responsiveness highest and Tangibles lowest. Finally, respondents playing the role of volunteer rated Assurance and Reliability highest and Tangibles lowest.     

服务业创新影响因素的实证研究

创新是企业发展的根本,服务业中创新的程度和范围对社会经济的影响不亚于制造业中的技术创新,影响服务业创新的主要因素包括生产要素数量和质量、市场竞争环境、制造业的发展等,本文根据我国服务业的实际资料,以模型实证分析了影响我国服务业创新的因素,认为我国第三产业正处于发展阶段,增长潜力较大;国有投资额对第三产业的拉动作用大,但应广开融资渠道,促进第三产业发展;劳动力素质对第三产业的影响较大,应加大对劳动力资源的投资力度.为了促进现代服务业发展,应提高财税政策的支持力度,鼓励服务业制度创新和管理创新,促进制造业和服务业的良性互动,并创造更多的高级生产要素.     

矿业权价值评估中应考虑外部社会效益

我国目前对矿业权价值的评估还处于起步状态,在理论和实践上尤其缺乏对矿业权评估的研究。因此,从评估方法、评估理论等多个角度对矿业权价值评估进行研究,对准确把握矿业权的价值具有重要作用。本文对矿业权评估方法和理论的不足提出了一点探索性的看法,以供矿业权评估管理部门、矿业权评估机构和从业人员探讨。     

Managing Service Expectations in Online Markets: A Signaling Theory of E-tailer Pricing and Empirical Tests

Expectations play a significant role in determining customer perceptions and satisfaction. Accordingly, retailers seek to manage customers’ service expectations. However, the tangible signals of service quality that are available to brick-and-mortar retailers (such as location, store appearance, and salespersons’ behavior) may not be available in online markets. Using a signaling model, we obtain conditions when Internet retailers (e-tailers) use price to manage their customers’ service expectations. In contrast to extant theory, we find that it is possible for both low and high service e-tailers to use price in signaling their service levels. Further, we develop an appropriate deductive test of our theory based on price-ending patterns as an artifact of the signaling process. Based on this test, we find evidence that e-tailers indeed manage service expectations using price. Interestingly, we also find preliminary evidence that suggests customers implicitly associate price-ending patterns with a retailer's expected service level. We discuss several other implications of our findings for researchers and managers.