scholarly journals Academic excellence as a determinant of self-confidence among graduates of ODL programs

2020 ◽  
Vol 15 (3) ◽  
pp. 411-423
Author(s):  
Maximus Gorky Sembiring

PurposeThis study envisioned plausible influential factors on service quality and academic excellence relatable to graduate self-confidence in an open distance learning (ODL) outlook. The objective was to expose the moderating role of academic excellence (graduate satisfaction) between service quality and self-confidence (engagement, achievement, loyalty and opportunity, EALO). It was also of interest to explore how, in what routines factors involved interrelated.Design/methodology/approachThis study utilized exploratory design. Qualitatively, service quality included acclimation, advising, module, tutorial, assessment, feedback and referral factors. Service quality led to academic excellence (GPA, study length, relevance and recognition). Besides, academic excellence influenced self-confidence. Quantitatively, service quality, academic excellence and self-confidence were the independent, moderating and dependent variables. Respondents were randomly selected through a survey of eligible Universitas Terbuka alumni.Findings11 hypotheses were assessed under structural-equation modeling (SEM). Responses from 122 out of 500 graduates were completed. Eight hypotheses were validated by the analysis. The tutorial was the most influential factor followed by module, assessment and acclimation; advising, feedback and referral were excluded. Academic excellence also led to self-confidence. The study was able to visualize a substantial role of academic excellence in moderating service quality to EALO. Besides, important-performance analysis and customer-satisfaction index (IPA-CSI) recognized 21 out of 32 attributes as the pillars of academic excellence.Originality/valueThree of the hypotheses were invalidated by the quantitative analysis. Further inquiry with much broader coverage is then required to diminish the variance to finally find the ideal framework.

2019 ◽  
Vol 15 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Maximus Gorky Sembiring ◽  
Gayuh Rahayu

Purpose Service quality and satisfaction in the ODL setting related to students’ accomplishments (performance, loyalty and career) were reconsidered. It was aimed at exposing the moderating role of satisfaction on service quality and accomplishment. It was also of interest to scrutinize how, in what routines determinants engaged interdepended. The paper aims to discuss these issues. Design/methodology/approach This study utilized an exploratory design. It was qualitatively identified first that service quality included tangible, empathy, assurance, reliability, responsiveness and referral factors. It preceded to satisfaction (perceived from academic, operational and managerial attitudes). Satisfaction led to accomplishment. Quantitatively, service quality, satisfaction and accomplishment were identified as independent, moderating, and dependent variables, respectively. Respondents, 500 Universitas Terbuka graduates, were randomly pursued to accumulate data by a survey. Methodically, importance-performance analysis (IPA) and customer-satisfaction index (CSI) were used to figure out satisfaction and their importance degree. Nine hypotheses were developed and examined using structural-equation modeling to visualize the loading factors. Findings Replies from 163 respondents were completed. Seven of nine hypotheses were validated. It was distinguished that reliability influencing satisfaction, they were empathy, assurance and responsiveness; excluding tangible and referral. Satisfaction influenced performance, career, and loyalty. IPA-CSI analysis recognized 15 (of 21) attributes as the pillars of service quality. Originality/value Despite the qualitative framework was improperly approved by quantitative procedure, they were methodically reliable. It was supported by the fact that nine cut-off values of goodness-of-fit requirements harmonized. Additional inquiry is therefore required to tail off variances by integrating a more appropriate approach, amplifying theoretical coverage, and/or extending population/sample size.


2020 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Bernhard Fabian Bichler ◽  
Birgit Pikkemaat ◽  
Mike Peters

PurposeQuality in foodservices has become essential, and new methodological ways of determining service quality enable a better representation of service processes and help to increase revisits. This paper focuses on the foodservice context and explores the relationship between staff-related service dimensions, atmosphere, food quality and revisit in a full-service setting.Design/methodology/approachThis study combines an often neglected mystery guest approach with partial least square–structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) to shed more light on customers' service perceptions. The mystery guest approach has been updated with a digitally supported smartphone questionnaire (e-mystery) that provides more reliable results since previous measurements experienced difficulties of feasibility in time-limited settings (N = 247).FindingsThe findings of this study confirm the direct effects of the service quality dimensions reliability, attentiveness and atmosphere on revisit intention and highlight the mediating role of food quality. In detail, the findings showed significant results for service employees' reliability and attentiveness and underlined the role of atmosphere for revisit intention.Originality/valueThe contribution of this paper supplements that mystery guest approaches represent a reliable alternative to convenience sampling, especially in combination with a digitally supported questionnaire (e-mystery). Thereby, this paper suggests the further application of e-mystery for the hospitality and tourism industry. In terms of implications, this study highlights the importance of securing food quality by fostering specialized schools and training programs for career starters. Since the findings stress the importance of service quality and atmosphere, managers need to ensure that employees are trained in culturally sensitive communication and services to excel in service-related dimensions.


2017 ◽  
Vol 35 (1) ◽  
pp. 81-110 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mohammad Reza Jalilvand ◽  
Sirous Salimipour ◽  
Mehdi Elyasi ◽  
Mehdi Mohammadi

Purpose Restaurants with limited promotion budgets depend mainly on word of mouth (WOM) among customers. WOM seems particularly important to the marketing of services. This is because services are experiential in nature and difficult to assess before purchase. In the restaurants context there is little research on WOM. The purpose of this paper is to examine the factors that may influence tourists’ WOM about restaurants implying on the critical role of relationship quality. Design/methodology/approach A comprehensive literature review is conducted to identify the major factors influencing WOM in the context of restaurant industry. The study utilizes self-administered questionnaire survey and the target population are the customers who have referred to the restaurants of Tehran, Iran. A convenience sampling approach was utilized to collect a sample of 326 customers. A structural equation modeling procedure is applied to the examination of the antecedents of WOM. Findings The paper found that food quality, personal interaction quality, physical environment quality, and perceived value influence WOM behavior of customer in an indirect way through relationship quality. Practical implications This research conjectured that an understanding of factors that influence the tourist to talk each other about a given restaurant are worthy of additional research. Consequently, the study helps to understand how these factors can provide alternative sources of marketing to attract the long-term economic sustainability of restaurant industry in Iran. Originality/value To the authors’ knowledge, this research will be the first attempt to explore influential factors on WOM in restaurant industry focusing on the critical role of relationship quality. It is expected that researchers will find this research a contribution to the WOM literature, particularly in restaurant industry.


2019 ◽  
Vol 37 (3) ◽  
pp. 393-410 ◽  
Author(s):  
Flevy Lasrado ◽  
Munyaradzi Nyadzayo

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to examine the mediating role of total quality management (TQM) internalization factors on the relationship between the proposed drivers (internal/external motives) and outcomes (external benefits and financial results). Design/methodology/approach Using a sample of quality managers, this study adopts a two-step methodological approach to explore the key components of TQM internalization via an initial exploratory study followed up with a quantitative study to examine the relationships between the proposed drivers using structural equation modeling. Findings The qualitative study revealed the key components of TQM implementation factors, namely top management commitment, middle management commitment and audits, training and employees’ commitment. The quantitative results show that a positive relationship between external motives and TQM internalization was not supported; yet, the results supported the influence of internal motives on TQM internalization. Further, the results revealed a significant relationship between TQM internalization and internal benefits but not financial benefits. Finally, a strong positive link between internal and financial benefits emerged. Research limitations/implications The study findings are only based on the perceptions of quality managers and future research could test the proposed model using other units of analysis in order to fully capture the role of TQM internalization. Practical implications The findings show that award model adoption is a significant tool for quality improvement in organizations, a procedure that drives both internal and financial benefits. Further, the study points out areas that companies should emphasize in order to successfully implement a quality award model and therefore harvest its potential benefits. Originality/value The paper proposes an empirically tested conceptual framework that examines vital issues concerning the internalization of the TQM approach through award models, thus providing valuable outcomes for decision makers to improve service quality.


2018 ◽  
Vol 42 (7) ◽  
pp. 1048-1064 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mi sook Lee ◽  
Hongbok An

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to identify the antecedent factors – perceived usefulness (PU), perceived switching cost (PSC) and perceived web security (PWS) – affecting learners’ attitude toward online lecture website (ATW), which, in turn, affects electronic word of mouth (eWOM) and finds the factor that online lecture business should focus on the most to make learners have positive attitude. Design/methodology/approach This paper investigates the functional relationship among those five constructs; and examines the moderating role of personal interactivity. Data were collected from learners who had taken online lectures and were using social network sites, and a research model was analyzed using structural equation modeling. Findings The results show that PU and PSC positively influence ATW but PWS has no significant influence on ATW; PU is the most influential factor to ATW; ATW positively influences eWOM; personal interactivity has a moderating effect on some paths; and path coefficients are higher in the high-interactivity group than the low-interactivity group for all the links except the link from PU to ATW. Originality/value This paper contributes to online lecture business by understanding learners’ perception and behavior to the websites. Unlike many previous studies, this study designates eWOM as dependent variable and personal interactivity as moderation variable. This study shows interesting results occurred between low- and high-interactivity groups.


2019 ◽  
Vol 31 (3) ◽  
pp. 1469-1487 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ezgi Erkmen ◽  
Murat Hancer

PurposeThe purpose of this study is to examine the role of other customers in explaining customers’ relation with a brand. A conceptual model, which incorporates other customers along with atmospherics, food quality and service quality, is proposed to better understand how customers form their brand preference for fine dining restaurants.Design/methodology/approachA quantitative research methodology, using structural equation modeling, was adopted to understand the role of other customers along with other restaurant attributes. Data were collected from the customers of fine dining restaurants resulting in 324 usable surveys.FindingsThe findings supported the sequential link for: restaurant experience attributes – brand relationship and brand preference. While all restaurant attributes except other customers explain the satisfaction of customers, only service quality and other customers played a significant role in forming the brand image in the minds of restaurant guests. Overall, this study acknowledged the importance of both other customers and employees in fine dining restaurants’ branding.Research limitations/implicationsThe results suggest that customers in servicescape have a significant role in creating a successful brand image for restaurants. Moreover, service quality is also key to achieve a unique image, thereby suggesting that employees could be a source of differentiation and competitive advantage by managing their brand related behaviors.Originality/valueThis research was one of the first to study the role of other customers in restaurant service experience along with other attributes to assess customers’ brand relation and brand preference for fine dining restaurants.


2018 ◽  
Vol 30 (1) ◽  
pp. 62-83 ◽  
Author(s):  
Muhammad Sabbir Rahman ◽  
Fadi Abdel Muniem Abdel Fattah ◽  
Mahmud Zaman ◽  
Hasliza Hassan

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to examine the influence of service quality, customer’s satisfaction and religiosity on customer’s patronage decision toward health insurance products. The paper also assesses the influence of religiosity on customer’s patronage decision. The influence of customers’ satisfaction as mediation between service quality and customer’s patronage decision was also measured. Design/methodology/approach A structured questionnaire was developed and administered to a sample of 200 respondents. This research applied the exploratory factor analysis, the confirmatory factor analysis and the structural equation modeling to test the proposed hypotheses. Findings The findings indicate that customers’ religiosity behavior has a significant influence on customer’s patronage decision for selecting health insurance products. The results also indicated that the role of customer’s satisfaction as a mediator in between the relationship of service quality and customer’s patronage decision is significant. Research limitations/implications This research is a cross-sectional study consisting of 200 respondents. In addition, the elements of the sample were Malaysian customers using health insurance products and services. Practical implications This study suggests that customers of health insurance products are more concerned with perceived service quality and perceived satisfaction. The role of religiosity also plays a dominant role. As a result, managers of the health insurance service providers need to focus more on benefits of service varieties centered toward their target customers in order to gain higher patronage decision of health insurance products. Originality/value The study sought to address the gap of religiosity aspects in health insurance products through intensive literature and offer a conceptual framework that tested service quality, customer’s satisfaction and religiosity in one integrated model under the perspective of health insurance industry. More importantly, it also examines the influence of religiosity on patronage behavior, thus shedding insights into the opportunities for understanding consumers in detail.


2015 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
pp. 128-155 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yongjian Li ◽  
Dan Shi ◽  
Xiang Li ◽  
Wen Wang

Purpose – This paper aims to analyze the situation of knowledge dissemination in Chinese rural areas and explore factors that affect the efficiency of knowledge dissemination, to provide some suggestions for further improvements. Design/methodology/approach – A survey was conducted to collect data in 17 provinces of China, with 267 questionnaires returned out of 300. Structural equation modeling was used to test the hypothesis with LISEREL 8.8. Findings – The results show that factors of knowledge such as government participation, dissemination capability, learning motivation and trust have a positive effect on knowledge transfer. By contrast, factors of knowledge such as complexity and richness of knowledge carriers do not have a significant correlation with the knowledge sharing level. Research limitations/implications – This paper conducts a cross-sectional analysis while ignoring the longitudinal effects of some factors on knowledge dissemination, such as the reform and opening policy in China. An analysis on a more concrete problem could be conducted for future study. Practical implications – This paper proposes some suggestions to enhance the efficiency of knowledge dissemination in rural areas from the knowledge dissemination mode, knowledge products and the role of government playing. Originality/value – This paper is among the first attempts to conduct comprehensive and systematic research on the influential factors of knowledge dissemination. It contributes to literature by offering a systematical empirical study with the consideration of the role of government in knowledge dissemination.


2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Khalid Jamil ◽  
Zahid Hussain ◽  
Rana Faizan Gul ◽  
Muhammad Asim Shahzad ◽  
Ahsan Zubair

Purpose The knowledge about a specific product develops self-confidence among consumers and facilitates them to share and search for information. This study aims to highlight the effects of consumer’s self-esteem on search and share intentions of information. Furthermore, this relationship was analyzed through the mediation of subjective knowledge (SK). Design/methodology/approach The data were collected from 1,136 Chinese respondents having a perception of purchasing cellphones. To analyze the data, check its normality and validity, analysis of moment structures (AMOS) was used. However, to inspect the relationship of study variables, “structural equation modeling” and Hayes and Preacher’s (2014) model were used to mediate the analysis. Findings The study results revealed that consumer’s self-confidence (information acquisition confidence, persuasive knowledge confidence, personal outcome decision-making and market interface confidence) affect the information search and share the intention of consumers. Additionally, the presence of SK significantly and positively mediates this relationship. Originality/value This study intends to investigate the role of all practical aspects of consumer’s self-confidence in searching and sharing information by mediating the role of SK. Moreover, it used all the possible and useful dimensions, which were ignored by previous studies.


2017 ◽  
Vol 35 (2) ◽  
pp. 174-186 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dhananjay Bapat

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to assess the antecedent of satisfaction and loyalty in the context of a multi-channel banking environment. Multi-channel banking involves both branch and electronic banking channels through which the customers interact with the bank. Design/methodology/approach The study involved a customer survey of 229 respondents, which used a convenience sampling approach through intercepts and interviews held at bank branches. A structured questionnaire was used, and data were analyzed using structural equation modeling. Findings While examining factors such as perceived ease of use, branch service quality evaluation, satisfaction, and loyalty, it is observed, using structural equation modeling, that perceived ease of use and branch service quality are antecedents to satisfaction and satisfaction positively affects the loyalty. Originality/value Although it is realized that digital banking will positively influence loyalty, the role of branch service quality cannot be ignored. The role played by the ease of use is higher than branch service quality evaluations.


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