Expected service quality of utility stores in Pakistan

2014 ◽  
Vol 6 (4) ◽  
pp. 309-325 ◽  
Author(s):  
Muhammad Kashif ◽  
Mohsin Abdul Rehman
Keyword(s):  
Service Quality ◽  
Generation X ◽  
Generation Y ◽  
Service Marketing ◽  
Marketing Mix ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Face To Face ◽  
Retail Service ◽  
Generational Marketing ◽  
Retail Service Quality

Purpose – The purpose of this study is to present the Generation X and Generation Y customers’ expectations of utility retail stores in an Asian setting of Pakistan Research studies that advocate a cross-generational perspective to retail service quality have been limited. Design/methodology/approach – Sketching through a naturalistic paradigm, data for this exploratory study is collected from 80 retail shoppers through face-to-face interviews. The data is noted, coded and presented through the genre of service marketing mix theory. Findings – There are significant differences with regards to variety of products offered and time consumed during shopping have been found between generational cohorts belonging to Generation X and Generation Y customers. However, there are a few similarities noted between the two types of customers that challenge the traditional perspective of retail service marketing mix theory. Originality/value – The study is an original contribution towards explaining the retail service quality construct from cross-generational marketing perspective. Pragmatically, the utility stores have never been the subject matter for service quality studies in countries such as Pakistan.

scholarly journals The Effect of Service Quality on Customer Loyalty of Generation Y – An Empirical Investigation on Superstores in Bangladesh

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mirza Mohammad Didarul Alam
Keyword(s):  
Service Quality ◽  
Customer Loyalty ◽  
Generation Y ◽  
Structural Equation ◽  
Equation Modeling ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Physical Aspect ◽  
Gen Y ◽  
Retail Service ◽  
Retail Service Quality

Today, retailers have been struggling to retain their existing customers in the face of severe competition in their business operations. By expanding the service quality, retailers will be able to stand out among the other businesses and create the opportunity to strengthen customer loyalty, particularly within the younger generation. The aim of this study is to propose and empirically investigate the mechanism of increasing customer loyalty of Generation Y (Gen Y) toward superstores by means of enhancing service quality practices. Based on a structured questionnaire, data was collected from 252 Gen Y consumers who have visited four leading superstores in Bangladesh. The data was analyzed through SEMPLS3.0 to test the validity of the measures, and used to examine the hypothesized relationships by employing structural equation modeling. The findings show that the Retail Service Quality Scale (RSQS) is a reliable and valid instrument for assessing service quality in the retail sector of Bangladesh. The structural model indicates that the customer loyalty of Gen Y toward superstores is positively influenced by retail service quality dimensions such as policy, reliability, personal interaction, physical aspect, and problem solving, in the order of influencing strength. This paper provides the research implications and avenue for future research.    

Evaluation of retail service quality using analytic hierarchy process

2014 ◽  
Vol 42 (6) ◽  
pp. 521-541 ◽  
Author(s):  
Madhurima Deb ◽  
Ewuuk Lomo-David
Keyword(s):  
Service Quality ◽  
Analytic Hierarchy Process ◽  
Action Plan ◽  
Sustainable Competitive Advantage ◽  
Analytic Hierarchy ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Customer Preference ◽  
Retail Service ◽  
Retail Service Quality ◽  
Hierarchy Process

Purpose – The deployment of analytic hierarchy process (AHP) to help the retail industry to recognize which retail service quality (RSQ) dimensions require attention to create a sustainable competitive advantage. The purpose of this paper is to use a comparative evaluation model to compare retail stores (supermarkets) across several RSQ dimensions, validated and tested RSQ model in the context of Indian supermarkets and explore the existence of RSQ gap by studying the difference between customers’ perception and expectations. Design/methodology/approach – This study deploys AHP in which the decision problem is broken down into hierarchy; thus customer preference involves the structuring of a hierarchy in terms of the overall objective, the selection criteria and the decision alternatives. AHP technique allows pairwise comparisons to be made among the alternatives with respect to the service dimensions. Findings – This study validated the formal RSQ scale developed by Dabholkar et al., (1996) by a modification that led to making it more suitable to the Indian context. Research limitations/implications – This research does not provide guidance on different course of action to be taken. Though this study identifies which service dimensions require improvement, it does not provide guidance on an appropriate action plan to address deficiencies. Practical implications – Prospective and existing retailers can use this instrument effectively to measure the quality of their services as perceived by customers in comparison to their competition. This work will not only help the supermarkets to improve their competitive positioning in the marketplace but will help them to identify areas of services needing improvement on priority basis. Originality/value – Application of AHP to determine the best customer preference is the first ever done in RSQ studies. It does open up another dimension for further studies.

Evaluation of retail service quality – a fuzzy AHP approach

2015 ◽  
Vol 22 (6) ◽  
pp. 1058-1080 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rema Gopalan ◽  
Sreekumar . ◽  
Biswajit Satpathy
Keyword(s):  
Service Quality ◽  
Integrated Approach ◽  
Service Industries ◽  
Retail Stores ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
Major City ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Retail Service ◽  
Retail Service Quality

Purpose – With the growing importance of service quality in Indian retail, it becomes critical for the retailers to identify the appropriate dimensions for their retail stores. In the process of evaluating service quality the decision maker is often faced with ambiguities due to the imprecise information gained from the respondents. The purpose of this paper is to present an integrated fuzzy (fuzzy analytic hierarchy process (FAHP) approach to help the decision makers/retailers in practicing and judging the priorities of service quality strategies and accordingly benchmarking retail stores in Indian retail environment. Design/methodology/approach – The study incorporated the five basic dimensions of Retail Service Quality Scale proposed by Dabholkar et al. (1996) and the FAHP approach to three leading apparel retail stores of a major city (Rourkela) of Orissa (an Indian state located in eastern part of the country) to determine the weights of criteria and sub-criteria of retail service quality. Findings – The study identified that the dimensions, namely, personal interaction, physical aspects, reliability and policy are perceived as important by the Indian consumers. Merchandise and the store’s willingness to handle returns and exchanges emerge as the most influencing variable affecting the overall service quality of the store. Research limitations/implications – The study was restricted to a major city of Orissa and to three apparel stores. The results obtained may not be extrapolated to the country as a whole. The authors believe that the integrated approach of FAHP could be used by a variety of service industries to evaluate the service quality. The study did not investigate switching behavior among the respondents as they had been visiting all the three apparel stores during the preceding months. Practical implications – The integrated approach of FAHP makes an empirical contribution to the service quality and retail marketing literature by overcoming the uncertainty of concepts those are associated with human beings’ subjective judgments. Social implications – The retailer can improve the quality of service provided by them based on the parameters important in Indian context, which will lead to higher customer satisfaction. Originality/value – This paper can help the retail service providers to identify which of the retail service quality dimensions requires much attention to create sustainable competitive advantage.

Retail service quality in India: construct exploration and measure development

2015 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 129-148 ◽  
Author(s):  
Harsh V Verma ◽  
Ekta Duggal
Keyword(s):  
Service Quality ◽  
Exploratory Research ◽  
Component Structure ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Critical Dimensions ◽  
Customer Care ◽  
Retail Service ◽  
Quality Dimensions ◽  
Service Quality Dimensions ◽  
Retail Service Quality

Purpose – Service quality is a perceptual construct that is likely to differ across industries, customer segments and markets. The purpose of this paper is to explore the construct of retail service quality in the Indian context, and identifies quality components as a precursor to developing a quality measure. Design/methodology/approach – Initially, the construct comprehension was done using exploratory research involving customer depth probes and juxtaposing it with the available literature. After defining the broad contours of retail service quality and surface considerations, the study attempted to discover retail service quality dimensions by factor analyzing the collected data. Findings – It was found that retail service quality construct is composed of seven critical dimensions – ambience and layout, salespeople, merchandise, convenience, services, prices and customer care. Research limitations/implications – The specific quality component structure found in this study highlights the need for managers to prioritise their retail operation and marketing efforts in sync with the uncovered quality dimensions. Originality/value – This paper explored the quality phenomenon in the Indian retail context using a bottom-up approach. This paper provides the much-needed insights to firms that are entering the Indian market on what the quality means and the components it is made up of.

Online Retail Service Quality: Scale Development and Validation

2021 ◽  
pp. 097226292110112
Author(s):  
Biranchi Narayan Swar ◽  
Rajesh Panda
Keyword(s):  
Service Quality ◽  
Technology Acceptance ◽  
Ease Of Use ◽  
Measurement Scale ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Market Place ◽  
Online Retail ◽  
Online Retailers ◽  
Retail Service ◽  
Retail Service Quality

The growth of online retailing has created an opportunity to create a scale specifically for online retail services. At the same time, the increasing rate of internet penetration in India coupled with electronic banking and wallets has formed new market place for many online retailers. In this context, to gain competitive advantage, the online retailers should provide better service quality. Thus, the present research tries to know the various constructs of retail service quality (RSQ) in online format and develop a measurement scale. The study has borrowed the constructs from ‘Retail Service Quality’ (RSQ) and ‘Technology Acceptance Model’ (TAM). For this purpose, we collected data from 600 respondents. The scale has been confirmed and validated by using CFA. The study confirmed that online RSQ (ORSQ) scale consists of four constructs: ‘Ease of Use’, ‘Problem Solving’, ‘Policy’ and ‘Reliability’ with 18 variables. The article has concluded and validated a scale for ORSQ which can help the online retailers to design their service offering. The implications of the ORSQ scale for practitioners, as well as for future research, are discussed in this article.

scholarly journals Evaluation of Malaysian Retail Service Quality

2013 ◽  
Vol 9 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Zalina Ibrahim ◽  
Linda Dana ◽  
Ahmad Faisal Mahdi ◽  
Mohamad Zaid Mohd Zin ◽  
Mohd Anuar Ramli ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Service Quality ◽  
Retail Service ◽  
Retail Service Quality

From service quality to experience – and back again?

2015 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 107-119 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jon Sundbo
Keyword(s):  
Service Quality ◽  
Design Methodology ◽  
Service Management ◽  
Service Marketing ◽  
Service Research ◽  
Experience Economy ◽  
Content Type ◽  
The Past ◽  
Functional Quality ◽  
Original Contribution

Purpose – This paper aims to analyse the movement in the focus on customers within service management and marketing theories and service research that has taken place during the past three decades. The paper addresses the question: How did we, in service research, change from emphasizing quality to emphasizing experience? Design/methodology/approach – The paper analyses developments in service and experience theories. Experience has come onto the theoretical agenda, both in its own right and as a concept within service marketing and management theory. Findings – Experience has increasingly been a concept that has replaced quality in service marketing theories. However, an independent experience economy paradigm has also emerged. Recently, the societal emphasis on productivity may lead back to functional quality re-emerges in theories; however, it will most likely be in a new version. Originality/value – This analysis is a profound theory-critical analysis of the actually very widely used concept experience in service theories. The analysis present an understanding of what experience means in these theories and how it relates to the quality concept. This is an original contribution to a deeper understanding of service marketing and service quality theories.

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