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There is growing recognition that the core economic resources of the current era are human and intellectual capital, rather than physical assets such as inventories, plant, and equipment. Given the increasing importance of human capital and intellectual property as determinants of economic success at both the macroeconomic and enterprise levels, it is clear that the nature of investments made by firms need to shift to reflect the new economic realities. Specifically, if human capital is a key determinant of organizational success, then investments in training and development of people also become critical. In turn, there is a need to develop concepts and tools for monitoring and evaluating management development programs in terms of their impact, results, and value or return on investment. The specific objective of this article is to draw upon the concepts and measurement approaches of the field that has come to be known as “human resource accounting” and show how they, specifically the stochastic rewards valuation model, can be used as tools for the measurement of the value of investments in training programs designed to increase the value of human capital.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate patients’ views toward the perceived service quality of public and private healthcare service providers. Determinants of healthcare service quality were compared by carrying out a GAP analysis to equate perceived and expected services and examined differences in the service quality.

The study sample comprises 310 inpatients of public and private healthcare service providers. Self-administered questionnaires were used along a five-point Likert scale and analyzed through the Statistical Package for Social Sciences. GAP analysis was used to observe the difference between expectations and perceived service quality.

A cross-sectional study revealed significant quality gaps between the expected and perceived services of public and private healthcare service providers; conversely patients’ expectations are not fully met in both types of hospitals. Private hospitals surpassed in terms of overall perceived service quality from their counterparts. Perceived services were found better in terms of physician medical services in public sector hospitals, while rooms and housekeeping services were found better in terms of private sector hospitals.

The result can be used by both public and private healthcare service providers to restructure their quality management practices which could only be possible through effective management commitment, regular patients’ feedback and translucent complaint procedures.

The study conceptualizes the expected and perceived hospital service quality dimensions as an eight-dimensional framework. A comparison between public and private sector hospitals is made to get a better understanding about the differences in the perceived healthcare services among two sectors. Consequences of the study will aid hospital managers and policy makers to get a fuller picture of healthcare services in order to contrive enhancement practices.

The purpose of this paper is to examine whether explicitly communicating the customer’s resource integrating role in value propositions improves or diminishes value proposition effectiveness.

Based on existing research on value propositions, three effectiveness criteria are used: role clarity, expected customer value, and purchase intention. Two experiments manipulating the presence of the customer’s resource integrating role in value propositions test the conceptual model in both an indirect interaction (Study 1, toothpaste, n=207) and a direct interaction context (Study 2, fitness program, n=228). Additionally, Study 2 includes the moderating role of resource availability.

Explicitly communicating the customer’s resource integrating role in value propositions increases customers’ role clarity, which in turn influences customer’s attitude toward the service and purchase intention through a service-related (i.e. expected benefits and expected efforts) and an ad-related (i.e. ad credibility and attitude toward the ad) route. However, these results only hold for customers high in resource availability.

This research provides initial empirical support for the often-stated claim that value propositions should include the (potential) value of the offering as well as the (resource integrating) role of the customer. Taking a broader perspective, this research provides initial empirical support for recent calls to develop marketing communication practices that facilitate value-in-use. This paper’s findings show that adopting service logic in marketing communications seems to improve value propositions’ effectiveness.

This paper aims to conduct a preliminary assessment of patient attitudes regarding important aspects of service dimensions using SERVQUAL. Design/methodology/approach – The SERVQUAL scale is routinely used at the Baskent University Hospitals Network, Turkey. The study consisted of 550 randomly chosen patients who presented to any member of the hospital network during January and February 2006 and received treatment as inpatients or outpatients at those healthcare facilities.

The patients' perceived scores were higher than expected for an ordinary hospital but lower than expected for a high‐quality hospital. Young patients had a high‐expected service score gap and a low adequate service score difference. Highly educated patients had a high‐expected service score difference. Uninsured patients had a low adequate service score difference. Originality/value – Baskent University multidisciplinary healthcare teams have performed periodic patient satisfaction surveys in order to identify strengths and problem areas, formulate the quality improvement objectives and monitor progress towards achieving these objectives. However, patient satisfaction survey results are often highly positive. In these cases, improving care is not easy because measures are not sensitive enough to changes. Therefore a more sensitive measurement tool based on the SERVQUAL scale was developed. The authors believe that patient opinions are extremely important because they provide information that is not necessarily emphasized by managers or health care professionals, resulting in a more complete assessment of past performance and a clearer road map for future action.

The aim of this paper is to document a study, in which the SERVQUAL scale was used to evaluate hospital services, conducting a preliminary assessment of patient attitudes regarding the important aspects of service dimensions.

The SERVQUAL scale was implemented into routine use at the Baskent University Hospitals Network in Baskent, Turkey. The study consisted of 550 randomly chosen patients who presented to any member hospital in that network during January and February 2006 and received treatment as inpatients or outpatients at those healthcare facilities. The SERVQUAL scale was utilised to evaluate hospital services.

A questionnaire was completed by a total of 472 (86.0 per cent) patients. The perceived scores of the patients were higher than expected for an ordinary hospital but lower than expected for a high‐quality hospital. The highest difference between the perceived service score and the expected service score was found at the Alanya Application and Research Center in Alanya, Turkey.

The paper demonstrates the use of the SERVQUAL scale in measuring the functional quality of the hospitals assessed.

The study investigates how the congruence of online deal popularity and star rating influences service quality expectation in online group buying (OGB) websites. It also investigates the role of authenticity perceptions of online cues.

Two experiments are used to assess the effects of congruence between deal popularity and star rating on service quality expectation for service deals in an OGB website.

The findings suggest that a combination of congruently high deal popularity and high star rating has a stronger effect on expected service quality than a combination of congruently low cues. The findings further suggest that expected service quality is greater under the combination of high deal popularity and low star rating than the combination of low deal popularity and high star rating, showing the differences between incongruent cue combinations. The findings also show the moderating effect of consumer authenticity perceptions of cues on the expected service quality.

The novel contribution of the study is to extend cue congruence theory to explain how congruent online information cues and the consumers' authenticity perceptions of the cues influence consumers' judgment of online deals. The contribution is validated empirically in the context of OGB. The findings advance current knowledge concerning how consumers use online information cues.

The main aim of this paper is to report on an examination of the service quality of Dhaka University Library (DUL), a premier public university library in Bangladesh, from its users' viewpoint.

A survey was conducted among faculty, graduate and undergraduate students of DUL using a modified version of SERVQUAL. The gap differences between users' expected and perceived services were calculated. The concept of zone of tolerance was applied to see which items of service quality equal, exceed or fall short of user perception. The study analysed the desired service expectations of the users. Finally, the dimensions of service quality were determined through exploratory factor analysis.

The results of the study showed that DUL services are lagging far behind what is expected by its users. The result of the zone of tolerance showed that most of the items of service quality are not within the range of tolerance. A number of users' desired expectations for service quality are identified. The results obtained through exploratory factor analysis suggest that university library service quality consists of four dimensions – i.e. affect of service (organisational), collection and access, library as a place, and affect of service (personal) – which are different from SERVQUAL's original dimensions.

This is the first time an effort has been made to measure the service quality of a university library in Bangladesh. It is hoped that this study will trigger more research on assessing service quality in various university libraries in Bangladesh.

An attempt is made to detect and analyse changes in the electronics distribution industry with regard to “value‐added” services provided to its customers. The basic areas of interest covered by this research are what kinds of additional services are being offered by the electronics distribution industry and how long these services have been available to customers; to what extent customers have utilised these services; how this is expected to change; how much impact service provision has had on the “bottom line” for electronics distributors; what has motivated distribution when deciding what, if any, services to provide; what problems were encountered in each service area, and finally, what effect service provision has had on the distribution business as a whole, and what changes are anticipated by distributors. The findings indicate that both customers and distributors agree that the previously sales‐oriented posture of the industry is giving way to a more service‐oriented focus. Several problem areas are also discussed.

This paper aims to investigate users' individual differences such as gender and status in service quality assessment of Independent University, Bangladesh Library (IUBL), a top‐ranking private university library in Bangladesh.

A survey was conducted among IUBL users using modified version of SERVQUAL instrument. User responses for minimum, expected, and perceived services were calculated by gender and status. The gap scores between perceived and minimum services (adequacy gap) and perceived and expected services (superiority gap) by different groups were computed. Finally, the gap scores of gender and status groups were compared statistically using Mann‐Whitney and Kruskal‐Wallis tests.

The results showed overall IUBL met minimum service expectations of its gender and status groups. However, desired service expectations were not met though they were close to desired service quality. There were significant differences in gap scores by both gender and status groups. The overall and dimensions superiority gaps were significant between male and female users. Similarly, the overall adequacy gap and dimension‐wise gaps were significant across status groups. These findings suggest that SERVQUAL scores differ across library users' gender and status.

The SERVQUAL modification is done carefully as per local settings. Furthermore, this is the first time an attempt has been made to assess individual differences in service quality of a private university library system in Bangladesh.

In the rapidly growing e-grocery segment, unattended delivery is an emerging practice with the potential to offer a superior delivery experience. The purpose of this study is to contribute to the body of knowledge for unattended grocery delivery services by empirically identifying and describing the forms and determinants of customer expectations.

A multiple case study of potential early adopters was conducted to explore customer expectations of unattended grocery delivery services. Empirical data collected from direct observations and semi-structured interviews with ten Swedish households were coded and put through a single-case as well as a cross-case analysis revealing emerging patterns from which propositions were formed.

The iteration of theory and data in the case study resulted in a conceptual model of service expectations and determinants, containing six propositions. The study reveals a clear pattern that consumers expect to save time, gain flexibility and benefit from the ease of use of the service, while they predict sufficient security. Moreover, consumers’ desire open access features from retailers and service providers, integrated product returns service and nondescript hardware designs. The findings suggest that these service expectations are determined by personal needs, technology literacy and situational factors. The identified personal needs are stress reduction, limiting social interaction and increasing spare time.

To support further theory development, this study presents six propositions for the types, forms and determinants of customer expectations of unattended grocery delivery.

This study provides managers with up-to-date insights into customer expectations and offers guidance in designing and developing unattended grocery delivery services.

This study contains the first in-depth analysis of customer expectations of unattended grocery delivery services, which are increasingly used for last mile e-grocery delivery.