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In any quality improvement programme, measurement plays a vital role as it provides information for decision making. Finding the characteristics of quality is a prerequisite for the measurement process. Despite recent research on general service’s quality dimensions, little work has been concentrated on public services and in particular higher education. Examines conceptual models proposed for different environments for consistency with higher education. Reviews quality factors found in the relevant literature and presents a new framework for the dimensions of quality in higher education.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate which dimension of salespersons' service quality is of most importance for customer loyalty in a fashion chain stores setting. It also aims to assess the effects of two retail environmental factors (price level and customers' demographic variables) on the customer loyalty of salespersons service quality.

The study uses the SERVQUAL service quality instrument with modification in measuring the salespersons' service quality in the Hong Kong fashion retail environment. In order to measure customer loyalty in fashion chain stores, multi‐item measures were used to collect data on repatronage intentions, word‐of‐mouth intentions, and satisfaction. A total of 232 surveys were administrated to shoppers who were leaving a fashion chain store in Hong Kong.

The results showed that the empathy dimension of salesperson service quality is the most important for customer loyalty in Hong Kong's fashion chain stores but the empathy dimension of salespersons' service quality in fashion retail stores could not be affected by these two retail environmental factors. Furthermore, the salespersons' service quality in the reliability dimension is significantly impacted by the customers' demographic characteristics, but not by price level set by fashion chain stores.

The study was carried out in four popular retail districts of Hong Kong and the results obtained may not be generalized to the country as a whole. The findings that are relevant in a fashion retail setting may not applicable in other retail environments.

The findings can direct fashion retailers to improve the specific service dimensions and work to provide customers with more value through services which will consequently improve internal and external standards of quality and performances in fashion retail settings, thus bringing about repeat customers and increased profitability.

This paper aims to identify the dimensions of service quality in the case of hybrid services.

The service quality dimensions are identified using an exploratory factor analysis (EFA). Next the reliability and validity of the factors are established through confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) using AMOS.

The paper identifies nine service quality dimensions in the hybrid services – customer service, staff competence, reputation, price, tangibles, ease of subscription, technology security and information quality, technology convenience, and technology usage easiness and reliability.

The various dimensions of service quality should be viewed as the levers of improving perceived service quality in the minds of its current customers. Identifying the service quality dimensions in hybrid contexts can offer service providers valuable insights regarding on which aspects of the service to focus in order to improve customer satisfaction, loyalty, and commitment to the firm.

This paper introduces the concept of hybrid services, wherein a mix of technology and human interaction is used to produce and deliver services. Furthermore, since hybrid services have received little attention in the literature, the study addresses this gap by identifying a set of dimensions that are relevant for measuring service quality in hybrid contexts.

Citizen's service centers (CSCs) are front-end delivery public points which aim to reduce bureaucratic procedures and improve citizens' services. The present study, based on the citizens' perceptions, aims to explore the impact of the CSCs' service quality on citizens' satisfaction and also to identify statistically significant differences with regard to service quality dimensions and citizen satisfaction among different groups of citizens.

A questionnaire survey was carried out based on the five dimensions of the SERVPERF model. Random sampling was used to acquire a representative and reliable sample of 1,226 respondents. Descriptive statistics, multiple linear regression analysis, T-test and ANOVA were applied to analyze the data.

According to the citizens' perceptions, the levels of the service quality dimensions and citizen satisfaction are medium to high. The service quality dimensions have a statistically significant impact on citizens' satisfaction. Moreover, statistically significant differences are observed among groups of citizens in terms of the service quality dimensions and citizen satisfaction.

The present study is stimulated by the existing gap identified in the literature in the field of the public sector and more specifically in the CSCs. Building on the public sector literature, the study examines the relationship between service quality dimensions and citizens' satisfaction from the services provided by the Greek CSCs, which are innovative public service organizations operating all over Greece. It also highlights key implications for public organizations and government policy decision-makers based on citizens' demographic characteristics.

The purpose of this paper is to develop and evaluate a service quality measurement scale for a secondary school setting in Mauritius.

Research was conducted in two stages. First, a focus group method with the educators was used to identify the service quality dimensions and scale items. Study 2 used the exploratory factor analysis to group the service dimensions into latent “service factors”. The sample data were collected through a survey among educators from secondary schools.

Factor analysis was used to develop a valid and reliable service quality measurement scale. The results of this study indicated that secondary education service quality is a multidimensional construct made up of five dimensions, namely school facilities, reliability, responsiveness, empathy and assurance-discipline.

Since, the study took place in only one of the four secondary educational zones in Mauritius, increasing the sample base in terms of zones, number of schools and respondents could provide safer generalisations of findings.

This study provided insights for school administrators. The five dimensions clarified how educators form their quality perceptions toward the secondary schools. The study provides a useful tool for regular monitoring of quality in order to identify strengths and areas of improvement in the secondary education setting.

This paper extends the service quality scale into the secondary school context. The proposed new scale expresses main service quality parameters that secondary schools could cater for to evaluate service delivery.

The purpose of this paper is to test a model of service quality of public land transport services, especially paratransit services.

This study used quantitative approach. Data were collected through a survey method using questionnaire. The respondents of the study are 880 passengers of paratransit services in Indonesia. Exploratory factor analysis and confirmatory factor analysis were performed in order to identify the dimensions of service quality and test the convergent and discriminant validity of the dimensions. Cronbach’s α analysis was carried out to test the reliability of the dimensions. In addition, criterion-based validity and the stability of the service quality model were also tested.

A model of service quality of public land transport, namely P-TRANSQUAL, was tested. P-TRANSQUAL consists of four dimensions, which are comfort, tangible, personnel, and reliability. The model has been proven to have good validity, reliability, and stability for measuring service quality of paratransit services in Indonesia.

This research was carried out in a single developing country, namely Indonesia. Hence, the stability of the model needs to be tested in different cultures.

Public transport managers can use P-TRANSQUAL to monitor, measure, and improve the service quality of the public transport they manage.

This paper has tested a new model of service quality for public transport services, especially paratransit services.

To ensure the service quality, it is very important and necessary for a company to systematically identify and prioritize the critical failure modes that result in disservice of quality, and take the required remedial actions before the service is delivered to customers. The purpose of this paper is to propose an approach to enhance perceived service quality by incorporating disservice analysis with failure modes and effects analysis (FMEA).

The approach, first, identifies the potential failure modes that might have explicit effects on the service quality. Subsequently, the risk priority number (RPN) is computed to identify the risk priority for each potential failure mode. Furthermore, a disservice index that represents the extent of composite adverse effect of service failures on quality perceptions is computed to recognize the disservice priority for each quality dimension. Based on which, vital quality dimensions are determined as those quality dimensions that have higher disservice indices. The critical failure modes are, then, confirmed as those failure modes that have higher RPNs in the vital quality dimensions. Finally, the effects and root‐causes of the critical failure modes are determined by thoroughly exploiting the service infrastructure, service design, and service encounter for the company to take effective remedial actions to enhance perceived service quality. A practical case regarding a hypermarket service was used to demonstrate the proposed approach. Managerial implications and suggestions are provided to the case company, the hypermarket industry, and other service industries. Possibilities for future research are also addressed.

The vital quality dimensions are determined as responsiveness and reliability for the hypermarket case. Six critical failure modes are confirmed, by the order of criticality, as “unstable supply of goods/merchandise,” “no goods/merchandise on designated shelf of the sales floor,” “slowness of cashier speed,” “tardiness of warranty/repair goods/merchandise,” “nonconforming quality of goods/merchandise,” and “unable to find first‐line server in the sales floor.” These critical failure modes should be eliminated or reduced in top priority to enhance perceived service quality. Note that the determination of vital quality dimensions and the confirmation of critical failure modes depend on the applicable company resources.

The proposed approach improves both the academic and the practical developments of service quality in five aspects: explicitly identifying potential mistakes or failures of the service system that might result in disservice of quality. Arousing notices and focuses on those failure modes that have higher risk priorities by performing FMEA. Identifying how seriously the service failures adversely affect each of the quality dimensions and determining what the vital quality dimensions are by carrying out disservice analysis. Confirming the critical failure modes as those failure modes that have higher risk priorities in the vital quality dimensions with higher disservice indices. Knowing what actions need to be taken in advance to enhance perceived service quality by identifying the root‐causes that result in those critical failure modes.

The study was undertaken with a purpose to investigate if any generalization in importance of service quality dimensions is possible. Service providers are often not sure of the amount of tangibilisation necessary and the right mix of other service quality dimensions – reliability, assurance, empathy, responsiveness, and the role of price‐added by researcher.

A two stage analysis was deployed. First free listing of important service quality concerns for 16 services across the four service types (as suggested by Lovelock) was done to see if any rank correlation was possible. This was followed by two‐step cluster analysis to reveal natural grouping (or clusters) within a data set for each service quality dimension that would otherwise not be apparent.

Generalization of quality dimensions was not possible among all types of services taken together, however important insights were available pertaining to each service type.

Some generalizations within the service types were possible for different services. Thus, service providers can consider these finding when designing service delivery.

Considering the two important dimensions – tangibility of service act and whether such an action is targeted at the customer or their possessions, the paper details what service quality issues are important for which service type.

Despite the growing consensus that consumers extensively use online reviews and that negative reviews can significantly damage brand equity, it remains uncertain whether negative online reviews that focus on different aspects of a service have a similar or differential effect on brand equity. This study aims to fill this gap and explores the mediating role of emotional contagion and what kind of response helps better deter their negative effect.

This research is conducted through a one-panel study and three experimental studies. SAS enterprise miner is used for text mining analysis and Analysis of variance (ANOVA) and Process macro models are used to analyze the experimental data.

Negative reviews related to the tangibility, responsiveness and empathy dimensions have a more detrimental effect on brand equity than negative reviews related to the assurance and reliability dimensions. The results also provide evidence that emotional contagion is more prevalent when consumers read reviews that are specific to the empathy and responsiveness dimensions. Finally, accommodative responses from the service provider are more effective in deterring the effect of a negative online review on brand equity.

The generalizability of this study is limited to the restaurant and hotel industry.

The findings will also help the brand manager in understanding the comparative effect of service quality-specific negative reviews on brand equity and also the type of responses that brand managers should give to negative reviews.

Despite online reviews receiving increased attention in academic research, Service quality (SERVQUAL) dimension-specific reviews have not been studied until now. This study contributes to the service quality-related literature by providing evidence that not all negative online reviews related to different Service quality (SERVQUAL) dimensions equally affect brand equity.

This paper aims to identify the generic service quality dimensions of technology‐based banking and to examine the effect of these dimensions on customer satisfaction and customer loyalty.

The generic service quality dimensions are identified using an exploratory factor analysis (EFA). Next the reliability and validity of the factors and customer satisfaction and customer loyalty are established through confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) using AMOS 16.0 s/w. The related hypotheses were tested using structural equation modeling using AMOS 16.0.

The paper identifies four generic service quality dimensions in the technology‐based banking services – customer service, technology security and information quality, technology convenience, and technology usage easiness and reliability. It was found that customer service and technology usage easiness and reliability have positive and significant impact on customer satisfaction and customer loyalty. It was also found that technology convenience and customer satisfaction have significant and positive impact on customer loyalty.

These dimensions of service quality should be viewed as the levers of improving perceived service quality with respect to technology‐based banking in the minds of its current customers. Examining the service quality dimensions' impact on customer satisfaction and customer loyalty for technology‐based banking can offer banks valuable insights regarding which aspects of the service to focus on in order to improve customer satisfaction and loyalty towards the firms.

This paper introduces the concept of generic service quality and its significance for customer satisfaction and loyalty in case of technology‐based banking wherein technology is used to deliver services.