Carol C. Bienstock

Measuring Service Quality in E-Retailing

To managers of companies with a Web presence, an awareness of how customers perceive service quality is essential to understanding what customers value in an online service transaction. Previous research in e-service quality has primarily focused on the interaction of the consumer and the Web site while missing the big picture that e-service quality is composed of more than Web site interactivity. The goal of this article is to extend the work on e-service quality to encompass not only Web site interactivity or process quality but also outcome quality and recovery quality. A conceptual framework of e-service quality is proposed and empirically tested that combines process, outcome, and recovery dimensions. Contrary to previous service quality studies, formative instead of reflective indicators are used to conceptualize e-service quality. This study found empirical support for the use of formative indicators and the three-dimensional approach to conceptualizing e-service quality.

Measuring Physical Distribution Service Quality

The quality of the physical distribution service industrial purchasers receive from suppliers has been shown to be an important consideration in industrial purchasing decisions. To better understand the criteria used to assess physical distribution service quality, the authors examined the literature on physical distribution and service quality and conducted interviews with purchasing managers. Based on the results of the literature reviews and interviews, plus a two-step data-gathering process, a valid and reliable measurement instrument for perceptions of physical distribution service quality (PDSQ) was developed and refined.

Linking Perceived Quality and Customer Satisfaction to Store Traffic and Revenue Growth

Effects of perceived merchandise and service quality, relative to competition, on retail store performance are investigated using store traffic and revenue growth as outcome variables. A model is proposed and tested using aggregate customer data and store performance outcomes from a group of stores owned by a national retail organization. Results suggest that both service and merchandise quality exert significant influence on store performance, measured by sales growth and customer growth, and their impact is mediated by customer satisfaction. Implications of the results and future research directions are discussed.

Organizational citizenship behavior and service quality

What is the best way for service organizations to evaluate and motivate service employees so that customers are retained and new customers are attracted? What motivates service employees to deliver high quality service? Are there actions a service organization can take, e.g. way of evaluating, training, and rewarding employees, which encourage them to perform to the organization’s advantage? Answers to these questions would enable a service organization to formulate a system that links human resource management policies to desired service employee performance, thus enhancing customer perceptions of service quality and organizational financial outcomes. This research investigated organizational citizenship behavior, with its framework of organizational rights and responsibilities, to explore these issues. The research shows that service employee perceptions of how they are treated by the service organization, i.e. what organizational rights they receive, are positively associated with organizational citizenship behaviors. Furthermore, it demonstrates that these behaviors result in more effective service delivery to organizational standards and enhanced customer perceptions of service quality.

Question order effects in measuring service quality

Abstract Service quality measurement plays an important role in assessing service performance, diagnosing service problems, managing service delivery, and determining employee and corporate rewards. This study examined question order effects on service quality measurement of three services, banking, hair salons, and dental services. We found assimilation effects for overall service quality items in banking and hair salons, and contrast effects for specific questions (SERVQUAL) in banking. Furthermore, the difference in SERVQUAL means was the result of changes in the performance items, not the expectations items. The results highlight the importance of academic researchers and practitioners considering question order when designing and administering service quality questionnaires. Future research should examine the generalizability of these results across other service industries.

Measuring Involvement With the Service: A Further Investigation of Scale Validity and Dimensionality

Existing research on the construct of involvement has concentrated primarily on involvement with tangible products. This paper extends existing research on involvement by systematically conducting a further examination of the reliability, validity, and dimensionality of Zaichkowskys (1994) revised personal involvement inventory across a variety of service contexts. Results of this research provide additional insight into the validity and dimensionality of the service involvement scale, and point out some clear directions for future research on consumer involvement with services.

Model Misspecification: Contrasting Formative and Reflective Indicators for a Model of E-Service Quality

This paper discusses the managerial and theoretical implications of model misspecification-specifically, formative versus reflective construct conceptualization, measurement, and modeling of e-service quality. Service quality has a long history of using reflective indicators in its conceptualization. Recently, researchers have started to question the traditional conceptualization by noting that service quality may be better represented by formative rather than reflective indicators. We undertook a study of e-service quality and analyzed the data using a formative conceptualization, as well as a traditional reflective conceptualization. The results of our comparison demonstrated very different managerial conclusions for the two specifications. Thus, we conclude that the issue of model specification is a topic that needs more attention in the academic community due to the potentially flawed managerial conclusions that can result from model misspecification.

An analysis of how nonresponse error is assessed in academic marketing research

Nonresponse error is a topic that draws little attention but can dramatically affect the ability to generalize results of a research study. The authors carried out an empirical investigation that took a critical look at the marketing discipline to see how nonresponse error was being addressed in three of the top five marketing journals. The data for this study consisted of a content analysis of all articles from the Journal of Marketing, the Journal of Marketing Research, and the Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science from 1999 through 2003 to determine if and how nonresponse error was being addressed in academic marketing research. This article details the findings of this content analysis, i.e., what measures are being used to assess nonresponse error along with the literature cited in support of these measures. The article concludes with an overall analysis of how well this topic is being addressed along with further suggestions for assessing nonresponse in the field of marketing research.

Understanding buyer information acquisition for the purchase of logistics services

During the last several decades, logistics has increasingly emerged as a source of sustainable competitive advantage. This article incorporates recent work in services marketing on customer information acquisition, with research on industrial buying behavior to help logistics service providers understand and manage their customers’ information acquisition and purchase activities for logistics services.

Technology acceptance and satisfaction with logistics services

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to use the technology acceptance model (TAM) from the information technology (IT) literature to investigate the relationships among technology use and acceptance, and perceptions of quality and satisfaction with logistics services among industrial customers.Design/methodology/approach – To test the proposed model, an online survey was prepared using WebSurveyor and an introductory e‐mail with a link to the survey was sent to a sample of members of two professional organizations of industrial purchasing managers.Findings – The findings indicate that both logistics service quality (LSQ) perceptions and satisfaction levels are significantly related to future purchase intentions. In addition, LSQ perceptions mediate the relationship between the two TAM constructs and customer satisfaction.Originality/value – This paper provides additional insight on technology acceptance in the context of logistics and supply chain management. IT is a common thread throughout logistics a...