Leading Works in the Area of Service Quality Measurement
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Leading Works in the area of Service Quality MeasurementDing, D. X., Hu, P. J.-H., & Sheng, O. R. (2011). e-SELFQUAL: A scale for measuring online self-service quality. Journal of Business Research, 64(5), 508-515.Retrieved from
[pic 1]Figure 1: How the Service Quality Model works?Grönroos (1982) identified two service quality dimensions, the technical aspect (“what” service is provided) and the functional aspect (“how” the service is provided). The customers perceive what s/he receives as the outcome of the process in which the resources are used, i.e. the technical or outcome quality of the process. But s/he also and often more importantly, perceives how the process itself functions, i.e. the functional or process quality dimension. He also emphasized the importance of corporate image in the experience of service quality. Customers bring their earlier experiences and overall perceptions of a service firm to each encounter because customers often have continuous contacts with the same service firm.The model below shows the research model used by Grönroos correlating the functional, technical quality with the image of the firm which together affect the service quality perception and ultimately the customer perception.[pic 2]Figure 2: Grönroos’ Research ModelParasuraman et al. (1985) suggested that quality evaluations are not made solely on the outcome of service; they also involve evaluations of the service delivery process. While the dimensions are inter-correlated, the primary basis for the dichotomy rests with when the evaluation occurs. For process quality, the evaluation occurs while the service is being performed. For outcome quality, evaluation happens after service performance and focuses on “what” service is delivered. However, their measurement of service quality (i.e. SERVQUAL) does not explicitly reflect both dimensions, but a functional dimension only. The focus on a functional dimension is one criticism of SERVQUAL.e-SELFQUAL: A scale for measuring online self-service qualityConsiderable previous research employs SERVQUAL to assess the quality of an information system or the associated services. However, the service environment may differ significantly between physical store outlets and online storefronts; thus, scales targeting face-to-face services, such as SERVQUAL, may not embrace the essential aspects of online services, which makes them less appropriate or effective for measuring online service quality. In e-retailing, several dimensions fundamental to face-to-face service quality become substantially less relevant, such as tangibility and reliability. Attempts to adapt or extend a face-to-face service scale to measure or evaluate online service quality may lead to decreased reliability, questionable convergent validity, constrained predictive validity, or diminished adequacy and efficacy. The resulting e-SELFQUAL scale examines the relationships between online service quality and customer satisfaction, as well as loyalty in e-retailing.