Service Quality in the Internationalization of Service Firms

2014 ◽  
pp. 113-114
Author(s):  
Kent Eriksson ◽  
Anders Majkgärd ◽  
D. Deo Sharma
Keyword(s):  
Service Quality ◽  
Service Firms

Service quality and global competitiveness: evidence from global service firms

2017 ◽  
Vol 27 (6) ◽  
pp. 1058-1080 ◽  
Author(s):  
Wenbin Sun ◽  
Jing Pang
Keyword(s):  
Service Quality ◽  
Service Industry ◽  
Situational Factors ◽  
Service Firms ◽  
Moderating Effects ◽  
Multiple Sources ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Global Competitiveness ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Practical Implications

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to explore the relationship between service quality and firms’ global competitiveness in the service industry. A set of moderating effects is formulated to further reveal how the relationship varies under different situations. Design/methodology/approach This paper tests the model with data collected from multiple sources such as World’s Most Admired Companies and COMPUSTAT. Two types of robust regressions for panel data are employed in the empirical model estimation. Findings Service quality is found to significantly drive global competitiveness. Specifically, its impact is stronger for large service firms and when the global environment is characterized as low munificence, high dynamism, or high complexity. Practical implications The paper provides a set of implications for managers of service firms regarding global expansion and quality management. It generates useful guidelines of maximizing the power of service quality when a firm’s global competitive advantage is considered. Originality/value This paper takes the first attempt to formulate service quality’s influence on firm’s global competitiveness with a consideration of specific situational factors.

Accommodating ethnic minority consumers during service encounters: the fine line

2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Sarah Mady ◽  
John B. Ford ◽  
Tarek Mady
Keyword(s):  
Service Quality ◽  
Ethnic Minority ◽  
Service Providers ◽  
Service Encounter ◽  
Service Encounters ◽  
Service Firms ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Quality Perceptions ◽  
Language And Ethnicity ◽  
The Impact

Purpose This paper aims to examine the effect of intercultural accommodation efforts on service quality perceptions among ethnic minority consumers. Specifically, the paper postulates that during an intercultural service encounter, the impact of the service provider’s language and ethnicity on the consumer’s service quality perceptions is moderated by the level of service involvement, consumer acculturation and perceived discrimination, which, in turn, influence purchase intent. Design/methodology/approach A 2 × 2 between-subjects experimental design with an online nationwide consumer panel of Hispanic consumers was conducted where 377 participants were randomly assigned to a series of service encounter scenarios in the banking service context to manipulate accommodation efforts (yes vs no) and the level of involvement with the service (high vs low). Findings When such language and ethnicity accommodations were offered, highly acculturated minority consumers regarded the service encounter less favorably than low acculturated minority consumers. Moreover, during low-involvement service encounters, intercultural accommodations positively impacted consumer’s service quality perceptions compared to situations involving high-involvement services. Also, minority consumers with perceptions of past discrimination had less favorable evaluations of the service quality than when such perceptions were nonexistent when intercultural accommodation efforts were made by the service provider. Research limitations/implications The findings add to the sparse literature that examines the effectiveness of intercultural accommodation and focuses on the combined use of service provider’s language and ethnicity as a means to enhance service quality. Practical implications The study delivers cautions for service firms not to generalize the receptivity of intercultural accommodation efforts. Given the increasingly sizable segments of minority customers, this study offers insights for service providers to develop suitable recruitment strategies and training programs when devising effective ethnic targeting strategies. Originality/value This research is among the first to explain why the effect of target marketing is not homogenous by expanding the research on intercultural accommodations toward a new context considering service involvement levels among varied minority consumer groups.

An Uncertain Decision Making Process Considering Customers and Services in Evaluating Banks

2014 ◽  
pp. 1115-1150
Author(s):  
Fatemeh Akbari ◽  
Hamed Fazlollahtabar ◽  
Iraj Mahdavi
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Service Quality ◽  
Customer Relationship ◽  
Fuzzy Decision Making ◽  
Decision Making Process ◽  
Service Firms ◽  
Fuzzy Dematel ◽  
Fuzzy Anp ◽  
Network Process ◽  
Good Relation

In today's changing environment two properties are required to service namely good relation with customers and service quality. Nowadays no organization can get great achievement unless it can attract sufficient customers providing better service quality is important for service firms. This paper proposes a novel combined approach utilizing group decision making process to evaluate and rank criteria influencing the customer relationship management and service quality of four banks in Iran based on fuzzy decision making trial and evaluation laboratory (Fuzzy DEMATEL) and fuzzy analytic network process (Fuzzy ANP). Defuzzification of decision makers' judgments is handled by Converting Fuzzy data into Crisp Scores (CFCS) method. Fuzzy DEMATEL is applied to deal with inner dependencies among criteria. Fuzzy ANP is used to compute final ranking of four banks as an empirical example. An empirical study is presented to illustrate the application of the proposed method.

An Uncertain Decision Making Process Considering Customers and Services in Evaluating Banks

2013 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 48-78 ◽  
Author(s):  
Fatemeh Akbari ◽  
Hamed Fazlollahtabar ◽  
Iraj Mahdavi
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Service Quality ◽  
Analytic Network Process ◽  
Customer Relationship ◽  
Fuzzy Decision Making ◽  
Decision Making Process ◽  
Service Firms ◽  
Fuzzy Dematel ◽  
Fuzzy Anp ◽  
Great Achievement

In today’s changing environment two properties are required to service namely good relation with customers and service quality. Nowadays no organization can get great achievement unless it can attract sufficient customers providing better service quality is important for service firms. This paper proposes a novel combined approach utilizing group decision making process to evaluate and rank criteria influencing the customer relationship management and service quality of four banks in Iran based on fuzzy decision making trial and evaluation laboratory (Fuzzy DEMATEL) and fuzzy analytic network process (Fuzzy ANP). Defuzzification of decision makers’ judgments is handled by Converting Fuzzy data into Crisp Scores (CFCS) method. Fuzzy DEMATEL is applied to deal with inner dependencies among criteria. Fuzzy ANP is used to compute final ranking of four banks as an empirical example. An empirical study is presented to illustrate the application of the proposed method.

Does haste always make waste? Service quantity, service quality, and incentives in speed-intensive service firms

2018 ◽  
Vol 13 (2) ◽  
pp. 289-304 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chanho Song ◽  
Sungha Jang ◽  
Jennifer Wiggins ◽  
Edward Nowlin
Keyword(s):  
Service Quality ◽  
Service Firms

The synergetic effect of after sales service, customer satisfaction, loyalty and repurchase intention on word of mouth

2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Mohd Nasir ◽  
Mohd Adil ◽  
Aruna Dhamija
Keyword(s):  
Customer Satisfaction ◽  
Service Quality ◽  
Customer Loyalty ◽  
Word Of Mouth ◽  
Synergetic Effect ◽  
Business Environment ◽  
Recent Experience ◽  
Service Firms ◽  
Repurchase Intention ◽  
Content Type

Purpose Under a dynamic business environment that is seen today, organizations need to adopt the right blend of strategies to attract, retain and maintain customers. Extant marketing literature has shed light on some key roles that after-sale service and the larger customer support system could play in attaining the same. Specifically, this paper aims to attempt to model the linkages between after-sales service, service quality, customer satisfaction, customer loyalty and word of mouth (WOM). Design/methodology/approach A structured questionnaire was used to collect data from 280 two-wheeler owners, who had a recent experience of after sales service at their respective authorized service centers, through purposive sampling method. Findings The findings reveal that both customer loyalty and repurchase intention significantly and positively mediate the relationship between customer satisfaction and word of mouth. This indicates that satisfied customers are more likely to be loyal to the service firms and would spontaneously engage themselves with positive word of mouth. Originality/value Despite the increasing importance of after-sales service, empirical researches on this subject have been quite limited. This study aims at filling the void in extant literature by examining the inter-relationships between after-sales service, service quality, customer satisfaction and WOM.

Bringing a Client Focus to International Marketing: A Change Management Case Study

2000 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
pp. 44-55
Author(s):  
Paul Patterson
Keyword(s):  
Service Quality ◽  
Change Management ◽  
Information Transfer ◽  
Management Program ◽  
Professional Services ◽  
Service Industries ◽  
Professional Service ◽  
Service Firms ◽  
Wide Range

AbstractConsumers the world over are becoming more homogeneous thanks to the unifying forces of travel, media, technology, information transfer and the like. Furthermore, today customers have higher expectations than ever before regarding the quality of service they should receive from a wide range of service organisations (professional as well as non-professional). As customers are increasingly exposed to world best practice in a wide range of service industries, expectations spiral upwards. Slow, discourteous, unresponsive and unprofessional service will no longer be tolerated - but especially when the service is highly customised, complex, costly and high involvement, professional service.Few, if any, studies have examined service quality issues for professional services in an international context. Hence, this case study documents the problems experienced by the Australian Trade Commission's (Austrade) Bangkok, Thailand Post in providing a level of service consistent with clients' (and senior managements') expectations, the steps taken to overcome these long standing service quality shortcomings, as well as the key lessons to be learnt from the process. Today Austrade provides a professional consulting service and thus possesses similar characteristics to many professional service firms (project management, engineering consulting, general management consulting, etc.) and thus the lessons from this successful change management program may be generalisable to other professional services. Furthermore, the lessons should prove invaluable for Australian firms operating in South-East Asia staffed by expatriates and local nationals.

Quality management for high-contact professional service firms: a multiple-case evidence from Indian law firms

2020 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Anupama Prashar
Keyword(s):  
Quality Management ◽  
Service Quality ◽  
Service Operations ◽  
Professional Service ◽  
Law Firms ◽  
Service Firms ◽  
Professional Service Firms ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Multiple Case ◽  
Indian Law

PurposeThis paper presents an exploratory study to understand the distinctive quality dimensions of high-contact Professional Service Firms (PSFs) and develop a conceptual model for Quality Management (QM). The paper is based on empirical evidences from multiple cases in leading Indian law firms.Design/methodology/approachThe paper adopted an exploratory, multiple, embedded and comparative case study design. The empirical evidence from multiple case studies in 10 law firms (data includes 42 individual interviews, archival records, field notes) was used to explore the QM dimensions for PSFs.FindingsThe results showed that QM in PSFs is a multifaceted and continuous process rather than a straightforward and episodic one. The findings reveal three distinctive dimensions of QM for PSFs: managing the firm's image; managing the client-firm interaction and support processes and; managing the perceived value of service outcome. Further, the results showed a significant variation in the design of QM practices in a relatively homogenous group of PSFs (law firms). This reflected the influence of personnel and organizational characteristics on the QM.Research limitations/implicationsThe research is based on evidences collected from 10 Indian law firms and the research design is exploratory in nature. The future research is suggested in terms of extending the scope and research design.Practical implicationsThe insights obtained from the paper have implications for managers working on the design of service operations and particularly service quality in high-contact PSFs similar to law firms. While the study does not prescribe a standard design of QM systems for PSFs, it seeks to foster the thinking of managers by helping them conceptualize the broad quality-control checkpoints and quality attributes specific to PSF settingsOriginality/valueThe academic research in the management of professional service quality is dominated by conceptual/theoretical models for customer evaluation of service provider's performance and the issue of operationalization of QM in PSFs is still needs further investigation. This paper contributes to the theory of service operations management (SOM) by focusing on the structure of QM systems in PSFs.

scholarly journals The telephonist and the service quality gap

1992 ◽  
Vol 23 (3/4) ◽  
pp. 82-89
Author(s):  
Jay Owens ◽  
Terese Loggenberg
Keyword(s):  
Service Quality ◽  
Customer Orientation ◽  
Service Firms ◽  
Telephone Service ◽  
Quality Model ◽  
Customer Expectations ◽  
Customer Perceptions ◽  
Communications Skills ◽  
Regular Measurement ◽  
Perceptions And Expectations

With this research customer perceptions and expectations of the in-house telephone service were investigated in four service organizations. Service quality was measured by means of a multiple item scale for measuring customer perceptions. The findings were supported by inputs from the managers and telephonists of these firms. The results showed that overall the quality of the service, provided by the in-house telephone service in the companies investigated, lagged behind customer expectations. The indicators for the gaps on the conceptual service quality model correlated well with the overall quality scores. Recommendations are made that the managements of service firms should include the telephonists in their overall service quality management, and provide more training on communications skills on service and customer orientation for the telephonists. Telephonists should also receive more support from management and staff since they feel left out of the organization. The regular measurement and monitoring of service quality should also include this very important function as first contact with any service company.Met hierdie navorsing word kliente se persepsies en hul verwagtinge van die binneshuise telefoondiens in vier diensorganisasies ondersoek. Diensgehalte is deur middel van 'n veelvoudige item-vraeboog bepaal wat klientepersepsies meet. Die bevindinge is ondersteun deur insette vanaf die bestuurders en die telefoniste van die bogenoemde firmas. Die bevindinge dui daarop dat die algehele gehalte van die diens wat deur die binneshuise telefoondiens aangebied word, nie aan klienteverwagtinge voldoen nie. Die gapings van die diensgehalte-model, korreleer goed met die algehele dienstellings. Aanbevelings word gemaak dat die bestuur van die firmas die telefoniste behoort in te sluit in hul algehele diensgehaltebestuur, en dat meer opleiding in kommunikasiekundigheid, in diens, en opleiding in klientegerigtheid vir telefoniste aangebied behoort te word. Telefoniste behoort meer ondersteuning van beide bestuur en personeel te ontvang, aangesien hulle voel dat hulle nie altyd deel van die organisasie is nie. Die gereelde bepaling en waarneming van diensgehalte behoort ook hierdie baie belangrike funksie, as eerste kontak met enige diensmaatskappy, in te sluit.

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