A Pragmatic View of Perceived Service Quality Measurement

Abstract

Service quality measurement has been a central issue to service quality researchers and practitioners. A review of the service quality literature yields several approaches to the measurement of service quality. These approaches each have their strengths and weaknesses, and each may be appropriate under given circumstances. The present paper seeks to offer guidance to service practitioners interested in the measurement of service quality by suggesting which approach may be appropriate in light of various measurement criteria.     

Relationship Quality in Cross-Border Exchanges: A Temporal Perspective

Purpose: This article seeks to understand how relationship quality dimensions develop in cross-border relational exchanges and explores their determinants, including the role of cultural sensitivity, in each relationship phase. By mobilizing the multidimensional meta-concept of relationship quality and its forms, this research captures the evolution of relationship quality between French buyers and foreign sellers. The improved understanding of relationship quality’s dynamics under cultural sensitivity influences in turn offers a more accurate, active form of relationship management.

Methodology: Thirty-nine semistructured, in-depth interviews with business buyers located in France, representing a range of sectors, reveal the nature, transformations, and determinants of relationship quality. Qualitative methods are more appropriate to elucidate processes and the fundamental transformation of constructs over time. Because relationship quality is a property of a specific buyer–supplier, cross-border interaction, this multiphase study provides insights into the nature and the fundamental transformation of concepts.

Findings: The multiphase qualitative analysis shows that as relationships evolve, fundamental transformations take place in the components and antecedents of relationship quality. Cultural sensitivity has a key role during the most advanced relationship phases. The primacy of economic logic dominates the exploration phase; cognitive aspects receive the emphasis in the expansion phase; and relationship quality, in the maintenance phase, results from a combination of affective and emotional factors. As emotional ties deepen, relationship quality exceeds what might have been expected on the basis of the cognitive elements actually exchanged.

Originality: The key contributions of this article are the multiform conceptualization of the constituent elements of relationship quality and the phase-specific study of this meta-construct. The article argues and empirically supports how relationship quality is changing in the context of cross-border exchanges—French buyers with international sellers. The innovative study addresses simultaneously concepts that constitute relationship quality and its determinants, as well as revealing their importance in different relationship phases. Prior research does not consider

the differentiated standpoint on relationship quality forms within a temporal perspective. However, this study also is limited by the multisectoral nature of the sample and the monadic character of the research.     

Relational Perspectives of Perceived Service Quality in the Online and Offline Environments: A Meta-Analysis

Abstract

Today, service quality is a major driver enhancing and consolidating the relationship between consumers and their service providers. The diversity of research in this context revealed a gap between empirical results which investigated the relational consequences of service quality, and showed missing studies that allowed generalizing and specifying the perspectives of the service quality in the relational domain. So, this research suggests a Meta-Analytic Structural Equation Modeling (MASEM) to validate a synthetic model integrating perceived quality, satisfaction and loyalty. It is based on 43 recent academic research derived from 22 countries. The results validated the meta-analytic structural model and showed that the service environment moderates causal links between perceived quality, satisfaction and loyalty.