Evangelos Tsoukatos

Cultural influences on service quality and customer satisfaction: evidence from Greek insurance

Abstract: Purpose – The purpose of this research is to examine the effect of culture on service quality and customer satisfaction. Design/methodology/approach – By extending GIQUAL, an instrument developed for measuring service quality in Greek Insurance, to measure the culture of individuals, hypotheses on all 25 possible relationships between the dimensions of culture and of service quality are determined and tested. The relationships between the dimensions of service quality and customer satisfaction, in the light of culture, are further examined. Findings – Of the 25 hypothesized relationships between the dimensions of culture and of service quality, 23 are confirmed and the remaining two are directionally supported. The hypothesized importance of the service quality dimensions is also confirmed. However, the expected association between the importance of quality dimensions and the strength of their relationships with customer satisfaction is only directionally supported. Although the typology of Hofstede is used in the study, a culture different from the one specified for Greece by Hofstedes scores is exposed. Research limitations/implications – The main limitations of this study are first, that it is based on a single service industry and secondly, that convenience sampling is used. However, its methodology and conclusions provide a solid basis for future research. Practical implications – Insight on using culture for directing resources where quality investments are needed most is provided to managers. Although weak, the directional support for the hypothesized effect of the importance of quality dimensions on their relationships with customer satisfaction enhances the value of the findings. Different sub-cultures that may be found in varying market segments can be used for determining quality investment priorities. Originality/value – This study explores the effects of culture on service quality and customer satisfaction drawing evidence from Greek Insurance

Key determinants of service quality in retail banking

Purpose – The purpose of this study is to build a retail‐banking specific quality scale and, through its examination and comparison with the SERVQUAL and BSQ metrics that are currently used in banking, to deepen understanding of quality determinants in the industry. Furthermore, the study is set to provide additional input to the debate over generic against setting/industry/time‐specific quality metrics.Design/methodology/approach – The study is implemented through a two‐stage process of literature review and empirical survey. Evidence drawn from Greek retail banking, through a specially designed research tool, is analyzed through reliability, factorial and regression analysis to determine the scales item and factorial structure and assess its reliability and validity.Findings – The BANQUAL‐R metric is introduced, with key elements assurance/empathy, effectiveness, reliability and confidence, a combination of SERVQUAL and BSQ dimensions. Findings back the setting‐specific approach of service quality and ...

On the relationships between logistics service deliverables, customer satisfaction and loyalty in industrial supply chains

This study aims at identifying the main dimensions of logistics service quality (LSQ) and analysing their effects on satisfaction and loyalty in B2B settings. For this purpose an integrative structural model of logistics service performance impact on satisfaction and loyalty is proposed and tested in a self-built logistics setting. On evidence drawn, through a dedicated research instrument, from 213 companies in Greece, the effects of outcome and process elements of LSQ on satisfaction and loyalty are assessed. Results show that customers’ perception about their suppliers’ LSQ level is shaped by both outcome and process elements while outcome quality is further affected by process quality. Both dimensions impact satisfaction with outcome quality being the main driver. LSQ dimensions and satisfaction directly affect loyalty. Satisfaction’s hypothesised enhancing role on the association between LSQ dimensions and loyalty is confirmed. Finally, several implications of the findings are discussed and further r...

A structural equations approach to assessing alternative service quality metrics within an extended service quality, customer satisfaction, customer loyalty model

This study contributes to the setting/industry specific metrics vs. the SERVQUAL metric debate. It also revisits the causality of relationships between customer loyalty dimensions and the effects of customer satisfaction on the latter. Evidence drawn from Greek banking, was analysed under a structural equations approach. Though generic, SERVQUAL was found to outperform all other metrics in terms of both grasping the particularities of the research setting and reflecting service qualitys effects. The banking specific BANQUAL-R and BSQ metrics failed in all above respects. SERVQUAL is capable of providing reliable service quality measurement in banking. Proposed industry specific metrics should be used with extreme caution. Customer satisfactions effects among loyaltys dimensions were found unequal. The causality of relationships between loyalty dimensions runs from word-of-mouth to business extension passing through business retention. Customer satisfaction campaigns should better be targeted at attitudinal rather than behavioural loyalty.

An integrated model of the effects of service evaluation, corporate image, and switching barriers on customer loyalty

ABSTRACT The purpose of this study was to examine the relationships between service evaluation, corporate image, switching barriers, and customers’ intentional loyalty. The proposed model was tested and valuated in the mobile services context. A field survey was conducted using a structured questionnaire about the investigated concepts. To test the proposed hypotheses, a model was constructed and estimated using the method of partial least squares. Findings indicate that service evaluation constructs have both direct and indirect effects, through customer satisfaction and corporate image, on customers’ intentional loyalty. The outcomes suggest that marketers, in their effort to develop more customer-oriented marketing plans, should consider both the pool-in factors, reflecting the value of the provided services, customer satisfaction, and corporate image, and the interactions among them, as well as the push-back factors, as they all impact on customers’ behavioral intentions. The research was limited to one service setting and the proposed model should be cross-validated in other service settings before the relationships among its components are fully clarified. Also, the use of cross-section design reduces inference ability regarding temporal changes in research constructs. This article contributes in adding to the body of the existing knowledge by considering both corporate image and switching barriers, along with service evaluation constructs, as antecedents of consumer’s intentions determination, resulting in a model that has not been investigated thus far.

The role of corporate image and switching barriers in the service evaluation process

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to better predict customers’ behavioral intentions (BI) by developing and empirically testing an integrative conceptual framework that allows us to investigate the mediating role of corporate image (CI) and switching barriers (SB) in the interrelationships among service evaluation constructs (i.e. service quality (SQ), perceived value and customer satisfaction (CS)) and customers’ future intentions. These relationships are explored in the mobile telecommunications service context. Design/methodology/approach – Around 1,000 customers of mobile telecommunication services were questioned using a structured questionnaire. To test the proposed hypotheses, a model was constructed and estimated using the method of partial least squares path methodology. Findings – Findings indicate that the provision of high-SQ and the creation of superior value, through the development of reasonable costs, can result in high-CS; enhanced CI, and either directly or indirectly through SB, in...

Determinants of Customers’ Perceptions of Electronic Services: An Analysis in the Greek Banking Industry

Purpose – To identify the main determinants of customers’ perceptions of electronic banking services, assess the effects of service improvements on customer satisfaction and evaluate banks’ performance regarding key e-banking quality areas. Evidence is drawn from Greek retail banking. Design/methodology/approach – A research instrument based on a 26-items scale of e-banking quality measurement, from the literature and from conducting two focus groups, was used for data collection from a convenience sample of 302 e-banking users in Greece. Factor analysis was used to identify the underlying factor structure of the scale, regression analysis employed for the examination of the effects of service improvements on customer satisfaction and finally importance-performance analysis provided strategic directions for deploying quality resources. Findings – Greek banks need to keep giving priority attention to the dimensions in the “keep-up-the-good-work” quadrant of the IP map, i.e. Accessibility-Convenience and Transaction Security. Special priority should be given to improving security in ATM banking and educating new users. The placement of both these attributes in the “concentrate here” quadrant indicates that customers expect visible improvements in these areas. Although Personalized Service and Innovation are currently located within the “low priority” quadrant, Greek banks should be prepared to face significant quality challenges with regard to these dimensions. Deploying resources to improve their recovery records and services to handicapped citizens would enhance their corporate image for social responsibility. Furthermore, improving connection to the service speed in Internet and Phone banking would improve their innovator image. Finally, banks should be aware that service quality is not static. As technological, economic and social trends affect customers’ preferences and needs, there will be changes in both importance and performance ratings. Frequent monitoring of customers’ perceptions helps firms to synchronize their services with the needs of their customer base. Research limitations – The main limitations of this study is focusing on a single industry and convenience sam-pling that may have affected the generalizability of findings. Further research should be directed towards cross-national/cross-industry repetitions of the study, examining the stability and reliability of the scale, specifying the impact of demographic customers’ differences and alternative forms of e-banking on the findings. Practical implications – The study identifies the factors of electronic banking service experience, and their underlined attributes, that fall into the quadrants of the importance-performance grid. Hence, it recognizes areas critical for service improvement and provides guidance for aptly directing resources in order to maintain and/or improve service delivery. Furthermore, by assessing the impact of factors of service experience the study provides to financial institutions valuable tools for decision making related to the prioritization of resource allocation. Originality/value – Managers can exploit the approach taken by this study to improve service delivery management. Banks must constantly monitor the needs and wishes of their customers regarding electronic service delivery.

The impact of R&D and information technology on innovation performance of Greek SMEs

Drawing on the resource-based view of the firm, investigation on the effects of internal resources and capabilities (R&D and technology) on small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) innovation performance is attempted. Using primary (survey-based) and financial data from 405 Greek manufacturing SMEs, new evidence on the impact of R&D activities, IT and other determinants such as ERP, size and exports on innovation performance is provided. It is found that IT (in terms of knowledge to quality management programs) enhanced positively on firm innovation performance, while R&D activities have no impact on firm innovation performance. In addition, absorptive capacity on innovation, access to finance, patents and firm size induce positively firms innovation performance. The novelty of this study is the introduction of a proxy of innovation measuring overall innovation performance (both product and process innovation), computerisation of firm operation using ERP systems and investments in acquisition of knowledge about quality management programs as proxies of IT.