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Since its launch in 1985, SERVQUAL has become a widely adopted technology for measuring and managing service quality. Recently, a number of theoretical and operational concerns have been raised concerning SERVQUAL. Reviews these concerns and proposes a research agenda.

The publication of the first results of the SERVQUAL instrument provoked a debate on how best to measure service quality. With more than a decade since the publication of those results many researchers have attempted to demonstrate the efficacy, or not, of the SERVQUAL instrument, or to develop their own measurement methods. This paper reviews this debate in relation to six key aspects: the purpose of the measurement instrument; the definition of service quality; models for service quality measurement; the dimensionality of service quality; issues relating to expectations; and the format of the measurement instrument. The main areas of agreement and disagreement are identified. As a result the continued use of the SERVQUAL instrument is called into question, and areas for further research are identified.

A small group of pioneering founders led the creation and early evolution of the service research field. Decades later, this article shares timeless service wisdom from ten of those pioneering founders.

Bowen and Fisk specified three criteria by which to identify a pioneering founder. In total, 11 founders met the criteria (Bateson, Berry, Bitner, Brown, Chase, Edvardsson, Grönroos, Gummesson, Parasuraman, Schneider and Zeithaml) and were invited to join Bowen and Fisk – founders that also met the criteria as coauthors. Ten founders then answered a set of questions regarding their careers as service scholars and the state of the field.

Insightful reflections were provided by each of the ten pioneering founders. In addition, based on their synthesis of the reflections, Bowen and Fisk developed nine wisdom themes for service researchers to consider and to possibly act upon.

The service research field is in its fifth decade. This article offers a unique way to learn directly from the pioneering founders about the still-relevant history of the field, the founders' lives and contributions as service scholars and the founders' hopes and concerns for the service research field.

The aim of this paper is to identify the dimensions of Automated Teller Machine (ATM) service quality and to evaluate customers’ perceptions of the relative importance of these dimensions.

A structured questionnaire gleaned from the literature and focused group studies was used to collect data from 530 ATM customers of 15 banks in Ghana. Descriptive statistics, exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis, as well as multiple regression, were used to identify the relative importance of the dimensions of ATM service quality.

The paper identified five dimensions of the “ATMqual” model. In order of importance, these dimensions are reliability, convenience, responsiveness, ease of use and fulfillment.

The variables of the ATMqual scale provide practical levers for bank managers to improve customer experience with ATMs. The relative importance of the factors identified in the study also provide managers with a guide as to which issues to focus on in order to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of the ATMs.

The paper provides a theoretical basis for conceptualising ATM service quality. The resulting dimensions, referred to as the ATMqual, thus address the paucity of a robust research in conceptualising and testing the dimensions of ATM service quality. Apart from the improved theoretical insight, the dimensions identified also provide bank managers with better understanding of and means to better manage customers’ ATM experiences.

The paper aims to focus on an augmented SERVQUAL instrument that was used to measure private patients' service expectations and perceptions.

A questionnaire was administered to 750 and 34 per cent responded.

A new service quality instrument called PRIVHEALTHQUAL emerged from the study, based on factor and reliability analysis. The “reliability and fair and equitable treatment” factor was found to be the most important healthcare service quality dimension.

Adds to the existing body of research on service quality and demonstrates that SERVQUAL is not a generic service quality measure for all industries.

Much of the earlier empirical work in service management has suggested that the dimensions of service quality may be stable in terms of their relative importance. In particular, the works of Zeithaml et al. postulate that service reliability matters most to customers and that empathy and the tangible aspects of services matter the least. Shows arguments, both conceptually and empirically, so that this observation is not based on strategic thinking nor on a particularly sound set of experiments. The relative priorities of service organizations must be established through the strategy formulation process and are likely to vary, quite logically, according to market choices and operations process characteristics.

Excellence and quality would be regarded by most managers as worthy objectives. These managers would also, in all likelihood, agree on the importance of imbuing their organisation with a market orientation, and believe that these factors contribute to corporate performance. A sterner interpretation of this, however, would necessitate a more in‐depth understanding of these constructs. What is excellence? Is there a link between excellence and a market orientation? Is the market oriented service firm more concerned with understanding and managing customer expectations and delivering a reliable service? How do these variables affect corporate performance? While there are studies linking a number of these individual constructs to performance, (Berry and Parasuraman, 1991; Peters and Waterman, 1982; Narver and Slater, 1990; Narver, Park and Slater, 1992; Jaworski and Kohli, 1993) less work appears to have been done on investigating the more complex relationships between these constructs. The objectives of this article are to propose the existence or otherwise of relationships between excellence, market orientation, expectations management practices, “being reliable”, and corporate performance, and, to suggest ways in which these can be studied in service firms.

According to the Parasuraman‐Berry‐Zeithaml conjecture, the greater the importance of a given quality dimension, the thinner the corresponding tolerance zone would be. This paper seeks to test the conjecture when attribute items are individually considered. The original data have been collected to assess the quality of postal services in Brazil. A qualitative stage yielded a list comprising 39 attribute items. In the quantitative stage the three‐column format of a SERVQUAL questionnaire was employed to permit the computation of importance weights and tolerance widths for each attribute item. The questionnaire was mailed to a sample of some 5,900 firms. About 10 per cent (540) of mailed questionnaires returned and were considered valid. The values obtained for the correlation coefficients were significantly negative and consistently close to each other. The inverse association between importance and tolerance of service quality attributes was then accepted. The most interesting consequence of this finding is that simply ordering the computed width of attributes’ zones of tolerance will yield the most important attributes. Other implications are also discussed.

The purpose of this study is to draw on expectancy disconfirmation theory (EDT) to explore e‐service quality and the factors influencing an individual's loyalty intention towards online auctions.

The authors conducted an empirical study and data were collected from a total of 619 bidders in online auctions. A structural equation modeling (SEM) is used to assess the relationships of the research model.

The findings show that e‐service quality dimensions including efficiency, privacy protection, contact, fulfillment, and responsiveness have statistically significant influences on buyer's disconfirmation. Besides, buyers' disconfirmation of online auctions is positively associated with their satisfaction, and their satisfaction is positively associated with loyalty intentions.

The auctioneer should focus on purchase efficiency and protect the buyer's privacy. The seller should actively make contact with the buyer, fulfill order delivery, and respond to problems. Thus, the performances of auctioneer and seller are the true reassurance to buyers.

This study, which aims to shed light on e‐service quality in online auctions, is the first study that has applied an EDT‐based model to investigate the determinants of buyer's loyalty intention in online auctions.