Search results

The purpose of this paper is to develop and validate a multidimensional hierarchical scale for measuring “e-service quality variation.”

Based on the psychometric scale-development approach, qualitative and quantitative methods were employed to develop the e-SERVAR scale. A multidimensional hierarchical factor structure of e-SERVAR is proposed, along with a set of preliminary items derived from literature and the qualitative study. Furthermore, the Yahoo website in Taiwan was chosen to be the target e-service website for data collection to develop the e-SERVAR scale. A series of statistical methods (i.e. item-to-total correlations, exploratory factor analyses, CFAs and structural equation modeling) were adopted to verify construct reliability and validity as well as nomological validity of the scale.

A 41-item e-SERVAR scale based on the structure of a hierarchical factor model was developed that contains three primary dimensions (i.e. information, system and fulfillment) and nine subdimensions (information accuracy, information quantity, information timeliness, information usefulness, system reliability, system security, merchandise quality, merchandise delivery timeliness and merchandise security).

The results of this study help managers identify sources of quality variability and design efficacious strategies to reduce such variability in order to improve the overall e-service quality.

Prior research of e-service quality has paid less attention to the role of e-service quality variability. Discussion of e-service quality variability was mainly conceptual in nature. This research presents the e-SERVAR scale as a measurement tool that provides a new avenue for researchers to study how to improve e-service quality by measuring service variability.

Live chat e-service provides a communication platform for online customers to make information inquiries and receive instantaneous assistance from a service representative. It is important for organizations to explore ways to improve their live chat e-service. The purpose of this paper is to propose a new organization–customer communication model (Schema Resonance Model), explicate how schema resonance can be achieved in live chat e-service, and investigate the impact of schema resonance on live chat e-service effectiveness, efficiency, customer satisfaction and intention of continued use.

A post-test only, between-subjects experiment was conducted. A total of 409 participants completed the experiment sessions, and 389 of these participants were used in the analysis.

Research results suggest schema resonance could improve the time efficiency of the live chat e-service while maintaining e-service effectiveness. Schema resonance could increase customer satisfaction with the overall e-service, the communication approach used by the representative and the information provided.

Because a convenience sample was used in the experiment, results cannot be generalized to all live chat e-service users. Future research should include observation of real-world organization–customer live chat e-service sessions.

Organizations can consider applying the Schema Resonance Model in live chat e-service practices to enhance customer satisfaction and increase representatives’ service productivity.

This research proposes and tests a new organization–customer communication model to explore how organizations can improve live chat e-service in response to customers’ information inquiries.

This study evaluates a multidimensional hierarchical scale of smart policing service quality.

Qualitative and quantitative analysis tools were used to develop a smart policing service quality scale based on the integrative psychometric scale development methodology. A multidimensional hierarchical structure was proposed for smart policing service quality; a group of preliminary items selected from literature was used for the qualitative analysis. For data collection, users of smart policing services were selected through the United Arab Emirates (UAE) research centre. Several statistical methods were employed to verify reliability and validity of the construct and nomological validity of the proposed scale.

A smart policing service quality scale of 23 items was developed based on a hierarchical factor model structure. Nomological testing indicated that overall smart policing service quality is positive and significant, thus contributing to user satisfaction, intention to continue using the system and enhanced quality of life.

This study enables managers to evaluate types of policing quality and effectively implement strategies to address security and sustainability issues that exist currently in smart services.

Previous studies on policing service quality have not sufficiently addressed the role of smart policing service quality; the nature of discussion in this area is primarily based around concepts. The development of the smart policing service quality scale provides a measurement tool for researchers to use to enhance the understanding of smart policing service quality.

This paper aims to empirically examine career guidance services in terms of e-service quality, information quality and perceived value. It specifically examines students’ perceptions of quality to explore the effects of e-service quality and information quality on perceived value.

Students from the University of Verona participated in a quantitative survey, and 119 questionnaires were collected to assess the perceptions of respondents on e-service quality, information quality and perceived value about the career guidance e-service.

The results indicate that students perceive high value for the career guidance services; the perceived value depends on both service quality of the e-platform and information quality of the report; and efficiency is the most important dimension of e-service quality, while adequacy appears to be the most important dimension of the report.

These findings reveal that service organisations such as universities should invest in career guidance services, given that such services are appreciated by students and contribute to reducing the gap between education and job opportunities. In the design phase, service organisations should pay attention to students’ career development needs by developing e-platforms that are easy to use, appealing, efficient and with continuous system availability and reports that include relevant, understandable, reliable and adequate information. It is important to provide students with a report after they have completed a questionnaire.

To the authors’ knowledge, this is the first research empirically evaluating the effects of perceived e-service quality and information quality on perceived value with specific reference to career guidance e-services.

This research seeks to extend the work of Dabholkar et al. into the e‐retail domain to assess alternate theoretical frameworks of e‐service quality. Particular focus is placed on e‐service quality and whether elements of e‐service quality should be viewed by dimensions, as antecedents to a global evaluation of e‐service quality, or as a formative configuration to predict behavioral intentions. The mediating role of customer satisfaction is also to be explored in these frameworks.

This paper is premised on an empirical study using cross‐sectional data from actual consumers. Data from a survey of 518 online consumers were used to test the research models through the use of a structured equation modeling (SEM) tool.

The results show support for all three theoretical models, and slightly stronger support for the formative model. Customer satisfaction was also found to play a mediating role on behavioral intentions within these e‐service quality models.

The research is limited to a single e‐retail product category of sport and leisure. The generalizibility of these findings is therefore limited. Further work in other sectors and over longer periods would establish the reliability of the findings. The paper also highlights some limitations in the e‐service quality literature, particularly the emphasis on the use of reflective indicators over formative approaches in the modeling of e‐service quality.

Multiple configurations of e‐service quality exist in the literature, as well as variations on how it is actually measured. The authors provide specific recommendations to improve future research (and practice) involving e‐service quality conceptualization and measurement.

The paper examines three alternate configurations of e‐service quality's antecedents, consequences and mediators. The authors provide a platform for further research to improve the conceptualization and measurement of e‐service quality and its effects.

Service quality is increasingly recognised as an important aspect of electronic commerce (e‐commerce). Because the online comparison of the technical features of products is essentially costless, feasible, and easier than comparisons of products through traditional channels, service quality is the key determinant for successful e‐commerce. A conceptual model of the determinants of e‐service quality is proposed and discussed. Given the exploratory nature of this research, focus groups are used to investigate e‐service quality dimensions. It is proposed that e‐service quality has incubative and active dimensions for increasing hit rates, stickiness, and customer retention. The incubative dimension consists of: ease of use, appearance, linkage, structure and layout, and content. The active dimension consists of reliability, efficiency, support, communication, security, and incentives. The importance and implications of each determinant are presented.

The study focuses on the core issue faced by bankers on how to retain existing customers who have encountered an e-service failure and who are skeptical about the justice received through the service recovery process. It further endeavors to create an internal bench-marking model for assessing e-service recovery satisfaction.

By the experimental study, the authors confirm a measurement model using structural equation modeling for examining the impact of perceived service recovery quality antecedents on e-service recovery satisfaction moderated by perceived justice. In total, responses from 399 e-banking customers, who had experienced a e-service failure, were recorded using a 5-point Likert scale with a structured questionnaire.

The perceived e-service recovery quality antecedents identified were perceived information quality, digital commitment, perceived employee performance and perceived service orientation of organization. The empirical results revealed that “perceived information quality” was the most significant predictor of e-service recovery satisfaction. Perceived justice moderates the relation between perceived service recovery quality and e-service recovery satisfaction.

The research does not contemplate the e-service recovery satisfaction of customers who have undergone multiple service failures.

The conclusions of the investigation suggest that the four antecedents of perceived e-service recovery quality model are suitable instruments for creating benchmarks for e-service recovery satisfaction for banks, and that perceived justice moderates the relationship between e-service recovery quality and e-service recovery satisfaction. Therefore, policymakers in banks can use this model to assess the e-service recovery quality, and they ought to enhance the perceived justice feel of the customers who have experienced a service failure.

There remains scarcity of empirical research focusing on perceived information quality and digital commitment as antecedents of perceived e-service recovery quality and its effect on e-service recovery satisfaction in the banking context. Furthermore, similar studies within the banking sector have rarely considered perceived justice as a moderator variable. Hence, this paper attempts to accomplish the research gap by empirically testing the e-service recovery satisfaction level of a large sample of the population toward four antecedents of perceived e-service recovery quality rendered by banks and create a benchmark model to ascertain e-service recovery satisfaction.

The purpose of this paper is to analyse the influence of culture on the relationship between each of the dimensions of e‐service quality and satisfaction with a web site involving purchase of a tourism service.

A questionnaire was administered to 300 international tourists (150 British and 150 Spanish) who had purchased a tourism product via the internet. The study employs a structural equation model to analyse the effect of cultural dimensions on the relationship between e‐service quality and online tourist satisfaction. The original data were standardised in order to allow comparison.

The results show that the influence of the dimensions of service quality on the tourists' satisfaction with their online purchases is moderated by cultural dimensions, namely uncertainty avoidance and individualism/collectivism.

In this study only two cultures are used to analyse the moderating effect of cultural dimensions on the relationship between quality and satisfaction and only two cultural dimensions are analysed.

The key practical implications of the work lie in illuminating the variations in tourist satisfaction when making an online purchase, and understanding the role played by cultural dimensions in interactions with web‐based businesses.

This paper makes progress in the study of the dimensions of the e‐service quality. Furthermore it is a cross‐cultural study which pays attention to the moderating effect of the cultural dimensions on the relationship of each dimension of e‐service quality with satisfaction with the web site.

Companies have changed their focus from product oriented within marketing (1960s) to demand oriented within quality improvement (1980s) and, today, to an emphasis on customer service, customer loyalty, and customer profitability. Although the significance of customer‐centric services is well established, much of the research that has investigated the effect of customer lifetime value (CLV) has focused on the lifetime value of existing customers only. The purpose of this paper is to devise a novel customer value model (the CV model) to predict internet‐based customers' value by utilizing historical financial data to predict future value.

This research utilizes the concept of operation research, which deploys scientific methods to solve problems and assists in generating strategies in terms of model construction. The authors construct a prediction model for short‐term CV that is also a type of deterministic model and define e‐services as the coverage of free or charged services over the internet environment.

The simulated results reveal that, over the long‐term, CV decreases as the predictive time moves away from the present because of deviations in perception and expectation. The new CV model complements the existing CLV model by addressing CV from a different perspective and provides clues to CV for e‐service industries.

The proposed CV model and the CLV model both come from the customer perspective, but CLV measures CLV without prediction while the CV model provides an avenue by which to consider customer and enterprise perspective simultaneously. Thus, the CV model not only complements the CLV but also assists enterprises in identifying CV and generating superior benefits.

The proposed model makes three contributions: it constructs an equation to measure CV for internet‐based services; it considers the customer and enterprise perspectives simultaneously; and it observes changes in the CV of any specific internet user.

This paper sought to validate a proposed e-service use model that takes into account system's environment and user factors as plausible determinants of an information system's (IS) use that are not accounted for by previous IS use models. The aim is to establish the applicability of the model for e-services and IS design, implementation and use.

This study adopts a quantitative approach to data collection and analysis. Using a systematic multi-stage random sampling, data were collected from 400 university e-library users and analysed using regression analysis to test the hypothesised relationships.

Internal system factors (particularly service quality), user satisfaction, e-service environment factors and user factors (gender, programme of study, level of study and computer/IT self-efficacy) predicted the use of e-services. These findings are partly similar to and partly different from those of the earlier studies, suggesting that more studies are needed to test the comprehensive model of e-services’ use.

This is a replicated study and as such made use of a similar population. These findings, therefore, cannot be generalised to other organisations with users of different demographic profiles.

First, the use of the services provided through an IS is predicted by factors other than user satisfaction, system, service and information qualities. Second, system administrators, designers, library administrators and managers must ensure that these factors are considered during the design, implementation and use of ISs.

The paper argues for the need to design e-services and ISs with consideration for user attributes that may lead to social exclusion if not considered. This is because the environment where an IS is hosted can be a driver of e-services use, especially if management provides the enabling environment in terms of optimal staffing, training, user support and periodic e-service evaluation.

This paper extends research effort in understanding the predictors of use of ISs beyond the traditional system's attributes (information, service and system qualities) to include system environment and user factors.