Search results

The purpose of this paper is to highlight the problems in the measurement of service quality, why management seems to ignore some of the costs of poor service quality, as well as the repercussions of this, and how to implement service quality correctly in organizations.

The paper defines service quality and highlights some of the main points of the literature. The paper then focuses on developing a matrix to categorize quality costs which offers insights as to why more managers have not fully implemented service quality in their organizations.

Utilizing this quality costs matrix, the paper focuses on describing several of the main problems or pitfalls in service quality implementation.

In light of these findings, the paper discusses the practical implications and focuses on recommendations how to implement service quality correctly.

The paper suggests a novel categorization of quality costs and suggests recommendations that will assist managers to correctly implement service quality and eliminate the problems of poor quality. There are also future research recommendations to further the knowledge of service quality theory and implementation.

This paper seeks to assess the impact of consumer ethics and their piracy attitudes on piracy behaviors. The extent of such piracy is difficult to estimate because no worldwide statistics are available, but conservative estimates indicate that it costs manufacturers billions of dollars.

The research was conducted using Israeli consumers through a structured questionnaire. Data were analyzed mostly through regression models.

Attitudes to piracy served as a partial mediator of the impacts of consumer morals and ethics on actual piracy.

The major limitation is the use of a convenience sample and future research should replicate and extend this study using random samples.

First, firms should advertise piracy as unethical. This would result in recognition of unethical piracy behavior by some part of the population. For piracy reduction, such people should recognize the need to “balance the ethical book” within the same context of behavior. In other words, if they have pirated from a company in the past, such people should be encouraged to purchase from the same company in the future.

The paper assesses the impact of consumer ethics and their piracy attitudes and behaviors.

In today's environment, higher education (HE) institutions need to become more efficient and participate in a competitive global market where client expectations are continually rising. In this new reality, quality is critical for success. While the economic benefits of quality have been long established, many HE institutions still ignore them at their own risk. This is especially true for service quality and this paper will focus on HE service quality management and improvement. This paper aims to discuss these issues.

The paper implements Schneider and Bowen's model of the three tiers of service organizations and service quality management and improvement methods, on HE institutions.

An analysis of the service process within HE institutions reveals that the quality of service given to the customer tier (the students) by the boundary tier (all the employees who have contact with the students) is greatly dependent on the coordination tier (top HE management and its various departments). In this service chain, there are several problems and pitfalls that prevent the enhancement of service quality.

In light of the three tiers of service model, the paper discusses practical implications and focuses on recommendations how to manage and improve service quality in HE.

The paper presents a comprehensive approach for managing and improving the service quality chain while addressing the integration between the coordination, boundary and customer tiers, with an emphasis on meeting students' needs and expectations.

This paper aims to examine the variation in Arab/Muslim consumers’ willingness to buy (WTB) from product’s origins (POs) involved in the Arab/Muslim-Israeli animosity case despite their common nationality and religious affiliation.

Qualitative research methodology is used. A total of 30 Arab and Muslim individuals were interviewed, and web documents were analysed. A grounded theory approach is adopted to analyse the data collected.

The results reveal that the variation in WTB from offending PO among Arab/Muslim consumers is influenced by the intensity of animosity (IOA) as perceived by the individual consumer towards the PO. IOA is a variable affected by the antagonistic emotional impact which is evoked by the egregiousness of the PO’s actions (PO involvement) and consumer connection with the political issue (consumer involvement) and is moderated by the time of the PO’s egregious actions.

Politically favourable POs in the Arab/Muslim world need to target consumers who perceive greater connection with the political issue, whereas politically unfavourable POs need to target consumers who perceive weaker connection with the political conflict, in addition to distancing themselves from it.

This is an original attempt to gain insight into the different levels of willingness of fellow nationals to buy a product from an offending nation in the context of Arab/Muslim-Israeli animosity which is explained through the IOA model of foreign product purchase.