Maxwell K. Hsu

Service quality, customer satisfaction, and behavioral intentions in the service factory

Purpose – This study seeks to investigate, through the development of an operationalized service quality construct in the context of a service factory, whether the typology to which a service belongs may explain the nature of the service quality (SQ) construct and its relationship to customer satisfaction (SAT) and behavioral intentions (BI).Design/methodology/approach – An exploratory factor analysis used a sample from undergraduate student respondents. Then, a more representative sample of hotel guests was used, in a second‐order confirmatory factor analysis.Findings – The dominant dimensions of SQ construct in the service factory were found to be: Tangibles, Recovery, Responsiveness, and Knowledge. Further results indicate that, although the direct effect of SQ on BI is significant, the indirect effect (with SAT playing a mediating role) is a stronger driver for BI in the context of the service factory.Research limitations/implications – A notable limitation is that the present study focuses only on th...

An Exploratory Examination of the Influence of National Culture on Cross-National Product Diffusion

This study examines the direct influence of national culture on the cross-national diffusion of innovations. Focusing on seven technological innovations across 13 European countries, the authors use Hofstedes multidimensional approach to culture to investigate this relationship. They find support linking four cultural dimensions—individualism, masculinity, power distance, and long-term orientation—to cross-national product diffusion. The findings suggest that national culture explains a relatively sizable amount of variation in cross-national diffusion rates. The authors discuss theoretical and practical implications of these results, including prescriptive guidance with respect to product launch strategy and tactics.

Modeling service encounters and customer experiential value in retailing

Purpose – The purpose of this study is to explore the impacts of service encounters on customer experiential value and subsequently on customer behavioral intentions in a shopping mall context in Taiwan.Design/methodology/approach – Data were gathered using mall intercepts at three large shopping malls in northern Taiwan. Structural equation modeling was employed to assess the proposed research model empirically.Findings – The empirical results revealed that: personal interaction encounters positively influenced perceptions of efficiency and excellence value; physical environment encounters positively affected perceptions of playfulness and aesthetics; and all dimensions of customer experiential value (i.e. efficiency, service excellence, playfulness, and aesthetics) positively affected customer behavioral intentions.Originality/value – Following Bitners suggestion in 1990, the present study classified service encounters into two dimensions – personal interaction encounters and physical environment encou...

A typology analysis of service quality, customer satisfaction and behavioral intentions in mass services

Purpose – This paper aims to investigate the possibility that the typology of a service as well as the operationalization of the service measurement scale may determine the nature of the service quality (SQ) construct and its relationship with those of customer satisfaction (SAT) and behavioral intentions (BI).Design/methodology/approach – The study utilized the service classification scheme developed by Schmenner and concentrated on the mass service category as an example to illustrate the concept with data from retail banking.Findings – Confirmatory factor analysis indicated that “Responsiveness,” “Tangibility,” “Reliability,” “Knowledge,” and “Accessibility” dimensions contribute significantly to service quality. It was further observed that SAT fully mediates the impact of SQ on BI.Research limitations/implications – A notable limitation is that the present study focuses only on mass service and uses only one industry (retail banking) to illustrate the findings. Future research should examine other se...

The Relationships of Destination Image, Satisfaction, and Behavioral Intentions: An Integrated Model

ABSTRACT Built upon the tourism and marketing literature, a conceptual model depicting the relationship among tourism destination image components, satisfaction, and behavioral intentions was proposed. A conceptual model consisting of six hypotheses was empirically tested using survey data from 550 Chinese tourists who visited Zhang-Jia-Jie, a major Chinese tourism destination shown on the list of the World Natural Heritage. The empirical findings reveal that: (a) overall tourism destination is reflected by both cognitive image and affective image, and (b) overall tourism destination image has an indirect impact on behavioral intentions through satisfaction. Theoretical and managerial implications are discussed before the article concludes with limitations and directions for future research.

CRITICAL INCIDENTS IN TOURISM: FAILURE, RECOVERY, CUSTOMER SWITCHING, AND WORD‐OF‐MOUTH BEHAVIORS

As an evolving area of academic investigation, service failure and recovery research is particularly relevant in the tourism field but research is still lacking. This study identifies and classifies commonly experienced service failures and recovery strategies as perceived by tourism customers that result in overall (dis)satisfying encounters. The effectiveness of service recovery strategies is assessed via behavioral responses. Specifically, switching behaviors of (dis)satisfied consumers, the extent of word‐of‐mouth engaged in, and its valence are investigated.

Grocery store image, travel distance, satisfaction and behavioral intentions: Evidence from a Midwest college town

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to study the interrelationships among grocery store image, travel distance (TD), customer satisfaction, and behavioral intentions (BI) in a college town setting.Design/methodology/approach – Surveys are given to undergraduate college student grocery shoppers in a Midwest college town. The 400 usable questionnaires are randomly divided into two parts: one subsample was used for exploratory factor analysis while the other (larger) subsample was used for confirmatory factor analysis and subsequently the structural path analysis.Findings – Grocery store image is identified as a second‐order construct reflected by the three key components of merchandise attributes (MEA), store ambience and service (SAS), and marketing attractiveness (MGA). Although store image is an important driver of BI, its indirect effect through customer satisfaction is found to be substantially greater than its direct effect on BI. Interestingly, TD is positively related to satisfaction, which highl...

Service Fairness, Consumption Emotions, Satisfaction, and Behavioral Intentions: The Experience of Chinese Heritage Tourists

ABSTRACT Drawing on the cognitive appraisal theory and the justice theory from the marketing and tourism literature, this study attempts to illuminate the embedded impact of tourist experience on overall satisfaction and behavioral intentions in a cognitive-affective-behavioral framework. The findings suggest that service fairness is an antecedent of consumption emotions (positive and negative) that, in turn, influence satisfaction and behavioral intentions in the context of Chinese natural heritage tourism. Notably, the results highlight the mediating role of tourists’ consumption emotions. This article concludes with a discussion of the theoretical and practical implications to heritage tourism researchers and managers.

The Effect of Recovery Locus Attributions and Service Failure Severity on Word-of-Mouth and Repurchase Behaviors in the Hospitality Industry

Based on a survey of 377 American hospitality customers, this study examines the effect of recovery locus attributions and service failure severity on customer word-of-mouth and repurchase behaviors. Findings indicate that for satisfactory recoveries attributed to a hospitality firm, relative to employee or customer attributions, the customer is more likely to discuss the encounter, share information with a wider social network, and both convince others to use the service provider and to have repatronized the firm. The results also suggest that the more severe the initial failure, the greater the likelihood that a critical incident had been discussed with a wider social network and the greater the likelihood of warning and convincing others to not patronize the hospitality organization. For unsuccessful (i.e., dissatisfactory) hospitality-based recovery attempts, the recovery locus attribution was not significantly associated with the word-of-mouth and repurchase behaviors investigated in this study.

Career satisfaction for managerial and technical anchored IS personnel in later career stages

Information system (IS) personnel have exhibit high incidence of technical and managerial anchors. It has been proposed that IS personnel with technical anchors have difficultly moving into a more advanced career stage that requires a greater emphasis on managerial skills (e.g., leadership) and activities. Using the data from a survey of IS professionals, we find that career satisfaction is positively and significantly correlated with career stage. Moreover, managerially anchored IS professionals are found to be more satisfied in the mentor stage than those who are technically anchored. However, no clear relationship between career anchors and career satisfaction was found in the sponsor stage. It appears that the combined effects of career anchor and stage is a more complex relation than previously thought in the literature. The results indicate that career programs discussed in the literature may need to be adjusted to accommodate advancement for those with a technical career anchor.