Services offshoring: Does perceived service quality affect country‐of‐service origin preference?

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to determine if consumers exhibit a country of service origin preference and to understand what service quality attributes consumers perceive to be most important when receiving services that originate from abroad.

Design/methodology/approach

Respondents rated their perception of service quality, measured through an expanded version of the SERVQUAL scale considered appropriate for offshore service encounters, for various countries popular for providing offshore services to the USA. Countries, selected from the A.T. Kearney Offshore Location Attractiveness Index, represented various regions of the world, economic development, cultural distance, and near/offshore locations.

Findings

Results, from both regional and national studies, indicate that US citizens possess a country of service origin (COSO) hierarchy based on perceived service quality. Communication, security, and reliability are the most important service quality attributes for consumers when receiving an off‐shored service. Significant differences were identified among countries for each of these service quality attributes.

Practical implications

The findings suggest that firms need to be aware of consumer attitudes and perceptions about countries considered attractive for offshoring. The most preferred countries to consumers for services offshoring are not necessarily the ones with the highest skilled labor, lowest cost, or geographic closeness to the home country.

Originality/value

The paper extends the concept of country of origin (COO) to services and expands the current knowledge base of consumer opinions about services offshoring.

Citation

Thelen, S.T., Honeycutt, E.D. and Murphy, T.P. (2010), "Services offshoring: Does perceived service quality affect country‐of‐service origin preference?", Managing Service Quality: An International Journal, Vol. 20 No. 3, pp. 196-212. https://doi.org/10.1108/09604521011041943