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INTERDISCIPLINARY JOURNAL OF CONTEMPORARY RESEARCH IN BUSINESS
The service quality of a firm is tested at each service encounter. Customers form service
expectation from past experience, word of mouth, and advertising. Customers compare
the perceived service with expected service. If the perceived service falls below the
expected service, customers are disappointed. If the perceived service meets or exceeds
their expectations, they are apt to use the provider again (Berry and Parasuraman 1999;
Berry 1995; and Berry 1999).
Various studies have shown that well-managed service companies share the following
common practices: a strategic concept, a history of top management commitment to
quality, high standards, self service technologies, systems for monitoring service
performance and customer complaints, and emphasis on employee satisfaction (Kotler,
2003).
Attempts to measure service quality depend on a synthesis of two underpinning models
of consumption, the attribute model and the disconfirmation model. The first notable
recognition and review of the attribute model is that of Myers and Alpert (1968). The
basic model views quality in terms of attributes of a consumer product. The attribute
model holds that consumers assess quality by allocating value weightings to these quality
attributes, which are mentally ‗averaged‘ to form an overall quality rating. Particular
attributes may differ in their relative importance to individual consumers (Bettman and
Jacoby, 1976). Thus consumers are believed to envisage the attributes of different
product brands as a matrix, with which they weigh potential benefits against potential
sacrifices, such as inconvenience or costs. Swan and Combs (1976) develop the attribute
concept to include product performance attributes acknowledging the model‘s relevance
to service offerings, which have a strong performance component (Johns, 1999) as well
as to tangible products. Thus, the developed attribute model contains three elements:
discrete quality attributes, relative values/ importance which are ascribed to these
attributes and universality i.e. relevance to consumer quality assessment of both goods
and services.
The disconfirmation model (Oliver, 1980; Bolton and Drew, 1991) proposes that
customers perceive quality as a comparison between their expectations and the actual
performance they receive. Positive disconfirmation is deemed to occur when service
performance exceeds expectation and negative disconfirmation when opposite is the case
(Johns, 2002). The disconfirmation model has been incorporated into theories of service
consumption (Parasuraman et al, 1985) and has been further elaborated into a ‗gap
theory‘ of service quality assurance. This proposes four potential gaps at different stages
of service design and delivery, between what the service providers intends and what the
consumer actually receives. Bridging these gaps is thought to ensure that a fifth crucial
gap does develop, between what customers expect and what they actually feel they
receive (Brogowicz et al; 1990).
Parasuraman, Zeithaml, and Berry (1985) formulated a service quality model that
highlights the main requirements for delivering high quality service. The model identifies
five gaps that cause unsuccessful delivery: Gap between consumer expectation and
management perception, Gap between management perception and service quality
specifications, Gap between service quality specifications and service delivery, Gap
between service delivery and external communications and Gap between perceived
service and expected service. The researchers found five determinants of service quality:
reliability, responsiveness, assurance, empathy and tangibles.
COPY RIGHT © 2011 Institute of Interdisciplinary Business Research 95
JANUARY 2011
VOL 2, NO 9