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The objective of this paper is to propose a model for assessing the quality of service at various interfaces of supply chain using third party logistics.

Based on a rich combination of extensive literature review and insights gained through exploratory interviews, gap analysis methodology is used in developing the model. This was followed by an in‐depth analysis of gaps at various interfaces in supply chain. Further, both qualitative and quantitative techniques are suggested for data collection and analysis.

The key gaps in both the directions (forward and reverse) that are likely to affect the service quality at different levels are extensively defined. These gaps may exist between a 3PL service provider and the manufacturer, the marketing function and the 3PL service provider, etc. The paper also proposes frameworks such as data envelopment analysis for measurement of these gaps. A set of possible performance indicators is also proposed at various interfaces in supply chain.

This proposed model is an attempt to explore the relatively less explored area. It is expected that this research will further motivate researchers to work in this area. This supply chain service quality tool will be beneficial to practising managers in identification of opportunities for improvements in service quality.

This paper explores some critical issues in the less explored area and offers practical help to researchers and practitioners in providing a direction for supply chain service quality improvement.

The main objective of the study was to utilize SERVQUAL for identifying gaps in the chain of services provided by the information technology (IT) resources. SERVQUAL was applied to IT services in higher education institutions in the United Arab Emirates.

Because of the many concerns and reservations raised with regard to using perception scores or gap scores, the appropriateness of the SERVQUAL measure to verify the anticipated structure of the instrument was also examined. Using confirmatory factor analysis, the structure of the perception scores (performance‐based model) and the gap scores (performance minus expectation‐based model) were examined.

The evaluation of model‐fit provided mixed results, but, in general, the results favored the perception scores. However, some statistical fit‐tests suggested that both models lacked the features necessary for a good fit. On the other hand, based on their feedback, respondents felt that SERVQUAL is a useful indicator for IT center service quality in institutions of higher education. SERVQUAL identified gaps in service quality for the three institutions. Empirical results of SERVQUAL scores for the IT centers in the three institutions are also presented.

The paper reassesses the structure and validity of the SERVQUAL model given its wide use and criticism, and applies the model to an important set of related, yet distinct service organizations such as information technology centers.

The purpose of this paper is to propose the microeconomics concept of elasticity to estimate the SERVQUAL gap elasticity to derive important insights for service providers to develop the right strategies to bridge the overall gap in service.

The dimensions of SERVQUAL adopted from Parasuraman et al. (1988) and Kumar et al. (2009) are first verified for their unidimensionality using structural equation modeling and reliability in the context of United Arab Emirates banking industry. Furthermore, the technique of dominance analysis is used to derive the relative importance of dimensions for different groups of banks. Finally, the stepwise log-linear regression models are used to estimate the gap elasticity to measure the responsiveness of the overall SERVQUAL gap to a change in customers’ perception on different dimension.

The results reveal that the dimension which is prioritized as the most important dimension need not to be the one to be targeted under the resource constraint to react faster to the changes of customers’ banking behavior.

This is probably the first attempt to examine the service quality through gap elasticity. This method is especially useful when the traditional approach to measure relative importance of critical factors fails to clearly discriminate between two or more dimensions, which, in turn, may lead to failure in decision making to choose the right strategies to bridge the overall gap in the service.

The Hospital Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems (HCAHPS) has been recognized as a “gold standard” set of “practical standardized measures” for assessing hospital service quality. Beginning with the HCAHPS, the purpose of this paper is to extend efforts to assess patient-centered communication (PCC) and the quality of healthcare and presents a scale for measuring patient perceptions and expectations of service quality in an emerging economy context.

A self-administered survey of patients in private hospitals (N = 171) was conducted to test the proposed framework. Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses were used to establish the measurement model. Multiple regression analysis was used to explain the scale's predictive ability. ANOVA was used to analyze service quality gaps and rank patients' priorities.

Five components of PCC are identified. Among these, nurse affective communication has a significant positive effect on patient satisfaction. The gap analysis shows that patients have high expectations for doctors' affective communication, while they perceive a low level of service performance in the realm of nurse affective communication. The study highlights a new means of measuring “reliability” in healthcare. Important findings on patients' priorities are evaluated and discussed.

Healthcare organizations and practitioners can improve patient-centered care by stressing the dimensions of PCC, including clinicians' affective and instrumental communication.

The study expands the understanding of HCAHPS instruments in an emerging economy context and opens avenues for more widespread use of the measures. The research contributes to the literature on patient-centered care and healthcare service quality by proposing a scale for managing specific practices and interactions in healthcare.

This study aims to find the differences in the service quality (if any) between two types of banks, namely conventional and Islamic, in terms of common critical factors after re‐examining the SERVQUAL model, originally pioneered by Parasuraman. Further, the technique of dominance analysis is used to examine the relative importance of the critical factors in closing up the overall service quality gap in these two types of banks.

The sample is made up of 308 bank customers, consisting of the customers from both Islamic and conventional banks from different parts of Malaysia. The data have been collected by using the structured questionnaire, which consists of three parts. Part 1 deals with consumers' usage of banking channels and their banking behaviour. Part 2 contains 26 statements related to service quality dimensions based on past literature. Finally, Part 3 contains the questions related to the socio‐demographic profiles of respondents.

The modified SERVQUAL model consists of four critical factors (dimensions) as detected by factor analysis: tangibility, reliability, competence, and convenience. The results reveal that the expectations on competence and convenience are significantly different between conventional banks and Islamic banks, whereas the perceptions on tangibility and convenience are found to be significantly different between these two types of banks. The application of dominance analysis in the SERVQUAL model indicates that the difference between the two types of banks is in terms of degree and not pattern. Competence and convenience are found to be the relatively more dominating factors in both the types of banks. These two dimensions together can help to reduce the overall service quality gap to an extent of 72 per cent in the case of conventional banks and 85 per cent in the case of Islamic banks.

The application of dominance analysis in the SERVQUAL model could be more meaningful in determining the relative importance of the factors when dimensions are interdependent. It permits direct comparison of measures and allows one to predict the level of influence of one factor in comparison with other factors. The study could be quite useful from the policy perspective in providing the guidelines to develop proper strategies and acknowledge the changes in customers' banking behaviour more quickly.

The major aim of this investigation is to propose a novel approach for evaluating the implementation of the European Quality Award, i.e. the model of European Foundation for Quality Management (EFQM).

The EFQM model includes both enablers and results, while in the service quality gaps model, only the gaps between the organization and customer are studied. In this paper, a new approach has been proposed to assess seven determined gaps in implementing the EFQM model based on the concepts of the service quality gaps model and the ServQual approach. The new approach to the EFQMQual has been examined in Isfahan Province Gas Company using different viewpoints of senior and middle managers and senior experts on four elements of determined gaps. These include perceptions of goals, expectations of goals, perceptions of assessment and expectations of assessment.

Findings indicate that leadership and key results criteria have the lowest and the highest gap values, respectively. In addition, the fifth gap, i.e. the difference between expectations of assessment and perceptions of assessment, has the lowest average, while the seventh gap, i.e. elements of the EFQM model, has the highest average. With regard to the correlation among the seven gaps, it became obvious that there is a significant correlation among the first, fifth and sixth gaps; and also between the fourth and fifth gaps. Finally, based on the Pareto rule, the priority of the criteria related to each of the gaps has also been determined.

One of the limitations of this study is the complexity of the concepts in the questionnaires, which makes it difficult for respondents to understand the items of the questionnaires. To overcome this, therefore, the researcher has attached a guideline to the distributed questionnaires.

As the literature review indicates, there has not been any research on integrating the concepts of the service quality gaps model, the ServQual approach, and the EFQM model, while also analyzing the weak and strong results obtained from implementing the EFQM model based on such an integrated approach. The significance of the study lies further in the fact that based on an approach similar to the proposed EFQMQual, such concepts can be applied for evaluating the implementation of other quality award systems.

Marketing “from the intra‐organizational perspective” has been comparatively untouched by the critical turn in organization studies. The objective of the present paper is to contribute to a critical examination of marketing as a change discourse by focusing on service management scholarship. In particular, the paper focuses upon the gap‐model.

Foucault's disciplinary power concept is used to analyze how the gap‐model tends to objectify, subjectify and normalize.

Focusing on service management contributes to the scarce critical examination of marketing in general and the almost non‐existent critical examination of service management in particular. Further, the paper contributes to the investigation of the potential production of subjectivity and normalization as an effect of marketing technologies.

This paper suggests empirical exploration of subjective responses to marketing discourse and associated technologies.

Critical examinations of marketing discourse in general, and service management in particular, are very scarce. Specifically, the paper contributes to the understanding of how service management intends to fixate the subject.

The purpose of this paper is to highlight the importance of the concept of service quality in a supply chain and present a framework for its measurement.

A literature review was conducted on key service quality models and measurement issues. Various dimensions related to the quality of service were explored. This was followed by in‐depth exploratory interviews at different levels. Based on the insights gained, a conceptual framework for measurement of quality of service in supply chain is presented.

The paper presents a conceptual model of service quality in supply chains based on gap analysis. These gaps are bi‐directional. The bi‐directional gaps cover both inter‐ and intra‐organizational transactions in the supply chain. They include the gap between supplier and focal firm, focal firm and distributor, and distributor and customer. Further, implications of various factors such as economic, politico‐legal, technical, socio‐cultural, competition, demographic are also highlighted. A novel methodology for the measurement of these gaps using various tools such as quality loss function, data envelope analysis, etc. is also presented along with segregating indicators in three categories, namely, quality of service indicators, quality of service and performance indicators, and performance indicators.

The assessment of quality of service in the supply chain is an attempt to cover the relatively less explored area. It is expected that this research will further motivate researchers to work in this area. This service quality framework will be beneficial to researchers and practicing managers in identification of opportunities for improvements in service quality.

This paper explores research in the less explored area and offers practical help to researchers and practitioners in providing a direction for service quality improvement in the supply chain.

The purpose of this paper is to find determinants of the effectiveness of the business improvement processes that create value for services offered to patients in healthcare industries. The words patients and customers are used interchangeably throughout without any distinction. The features that distinguish medical services of different types and their inter-related factors are examined. The aim is to come up with a model of value vs cost that can help healthcare managers examine and use this exercise as an example of improvement micro-projects to help reduce cost and eliminate the patient’s dissatisfaction gaps.

The list of factors or attributes influencing the creation of value of a given medical process or a single procedure is described. The factors in the value creation are examined that will help in the categories for the risk analysis to determine the value-added benefits for the patient outcome. The cost analysis is approached from two angles to include: the cost of the service, and the costs of poor quality of service.

The model describes the value for the patient satisfaction depending on the quality level or grade of the treatment or procedures used and the cost factor. The analysis is done at several levels with special reference to case examples. A search for various analogous models in similar service providing situation used in business process management of other process types is highlighted and discussed.

The model is an interesting generic illustration for considering value vs cost in all patient care strategies. It enables the position of various medical procedures that can be applied to the same disease in order to keep the variations as minimum as possible within the quality control specification limits. The importance in different aspects of check-points or hold points for inspection is also discussed.

In recognising the need to research the concept of customer satisfaction the study aims to develop a strategic approach to measuring a customer′s satisfaction with a particular enterprise. The study is an attempt to (1) develop an overall concept of customer satisfaction; (2) provide a detailed relationship structure for implementation within a company; and (3) identify potential research areas. A basic premiss of the study is that the focus should be on maximising total product value to the customer; and then, second, that customer satisfaction of external customers is inter‐dependent on the satisfaction of internal customers. The framework of the research centres on a proposed model which integrates all aspects so as to maximise the potential of the organisation and all its subsystems to create and sustain satisfied customers. The approach begins with a conceptualisation phase in which the concept of customer satisfaction is explored. Attributes are then classified into services and this is then extended to integrate the internal customer into a total service model; applying gap‐analysis to this model. Enterprise satisfaction provides the basis for extending the total service model; positioning is applied to the customer satisfaction strategy; and operationalising of this strategy is proposed through an implementation model.