Original articleAssessing the effects of quality, value, and customer satisfaction on consumer behavioral intentions in service environments
Section snippets
Conceptual background: quality, value, and satisfaction
A review of the services marketing literature reveals several waves of conceptual research. Although there are many areas of pursuit, these waves seem to begin with the study of service quality, then carry through to satisfaction research, which has more recently given way to the study of service value. The interest in these topics is due to the practical significance of the constructs as each has been tied to either national awards or strategic paradigm shifts. The Baldridge Award, Total
H1
The research model yields a significantly better fit to the data and accounts for a greater share of the variance in behavioral intentions than the three competing models.
H2
Consumers’ service quality and value perceptions have a positive, indirect influence on behavioral intentions.
Data collection
To ensure the cross-validation of results, two studies are reported that investigates six service industries and utilize different samples. The six industries were chosen so that the samples varied on 1) the degree to which the service can be characterized as hedonic (Study 1) versus utilitarian (Study 2), 2) the prominence of tangible (Fast Food) versus intangible (Long Distance) attributes, and 3) the primary (Health Care) versus secondary (Sporting Events) role of the service employees.
The studies were conducted in the same medium-sized metropolitan area; however, different interviewers and subjects were used for each study
Study 1: Study 2: Spectator Sports1 n = 401 Health Care n = 167 Participation Sports n = 396 Long distance Carriers n = 221 Entertainment n = 450 Fast Food n = 309
Data collection procedures were managed by one of the authors. To improve the representativeness of the sample, surveys were gathered in numerous locations in the area and the interviewers were given demographic guidelines to follow. Specifically, quota sampling was used to control for age, gender, and ethnic background. Given the cumulative
Model tests
The first hypothesis predicts that the research model outperforms the three competing models drawn from the literature. We argue that the competing models are constrained only as an artifact of the literature and that a more connected approach to predicting and/or explaining the variance in behavioral intentions should be considered. In comparing the SEM models, we followed the procedures outlined by Anderson and Gerbing (1988). As such, the comparison of the models is determined by calculating
Discussion
The results presented in the preceding section indicate that the research model fits well and outperforms the competing models. They also support the heretofore-untested indirect effects that service quality and values have on behavioral intentions. Collectively, the results both support and build on the extant literature. As to the former, our findings indicate that both service quality and service value lead to satisfaction. Thus, these findings add weight to Bagozzi’s (1992) suggestion that
Conclusion
“Companies increasingly look to quality, satisfaction, and loyalty as keys to achieving market leadership. Understanding what drives these critical elements, how they are linked and how they contribute to your company’s overall equity is fundamental to success.” (AC Nielsen, 2000).
Our objective for this study was to clarify the relationships between quality, value, satisfaction, and behavioral intentions. We suggest that the consumer decision-making process for service products is best modeled
Limitations
As is the case with any research project, the studies presented exhibit limitations that should be considered. First, we stress that this model is not designed to include all possible influences on consumer decision-making for services. We limit our consideration to the identified variables simply because the focus of the investigation is on the composite set of links between consumers’ service quality and value perceptions, the satisfaction they attribute to the service provider, and their
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