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Disconfirmation models of service quality have attracted a lot of discussion about how consumers’ expectations are formed, but relatively little about the nature of their perceptions of service performance. This paper seeks to redress the absence of literature on the psychological underpinnings of perceptions in disconfirmation models of service quality. It argues that an individual’s perceptions may not be stable over time and that suppliers should be particularly interested in consumers’ perceptions at the time that the next repurchase decision is made. A model of the time elapsed effects of service quality perception is presented and research reported on a longitudinal survey of hotel customers’ perceptions.

The purpose of this paper is to assess differences in banking service quality (BSQ) perceptions across demographic subgroups of Islamic and conventional Jordanian banking consumers.

Data are collected using surveys. The survey contains items for three different measures of overall BSQ perceptions. The researchers mailed surveys to a random sample of 2,000 banking customers in Jordan. Responses to questionnaire items measuring respondents’ BSQ perceptions were analysed using one-way analysis of variance with Tukey’s honest significant difference post hoc tests to assess subgroup differences in six demographic variables: gender, age, occupation, income, education, and religion.

BSQ perceptions are significantly different in four of the six demographic variables. Age and education do not impact on BSQ perceptions.

The findings indicate demographic effects on Jordanian banking consumers’ perceived BSQ. Study limitations include demographic subgroup underrepresentation and survey structure. Future research should obtain a more representative sample for better generalisability.

The findings suggest that Jordanian banks should structure their services to best accommodate their customers’ demographics. In addition, banks can use the findings to guide the development of demographic-driven marketing to target and attract customers efficiently.

This study is the first to investigate demographic differences in the perceived service quality of Jordan’s Islamic and conventional banking customers. The findings can contribute to future research on BSQ, and guide Jordan’s banking management towards more effective marketing and service provision.

The purpose of this paper is to focus on the use of retail customer service as a value added component and potential success strategy for rural tourism retailers. More specifically, service quality expectations and perceptions as a means for segmenting tourism markets are to be examined.

Data were collected using a case study methodology in an established rural tourism community. Local customers, tourist customers, and retailers participated in the study. A canvassing approach was employed for administering a hand‐delivered, self‐report survey that examined parallel sets of service quality expectations and perceptions among the three groups, along with service satisfaction outcomes (i.e. retailer loyalty and purchase intentions). Descriptive analysis, factor analysis, t‐tests, and regression analysis were conducted.

Local and tourist customers' prior expectations for retail service quality were similar; however, local and tourist customers' post‐experience service quality perceptions differed significantly. A modified version of the SERVQUAL scale represented two service quality perception constructs important to local customers and retailers and one service quality perception construct for tourist customers.

Generalizability of findings may be limited as the in‐depth study was conducted within a single rural tourism community in Iowa.

The study sheds light on service quality perception dimensions that are salient to local customers, tourist customers, and retailers. Results aid in the development of customer relationship management strategies for both local and tourist customers and enhanced competitive options for rural tourism retailers.

Findings provide baseline information regarding customer relationship management strategies aimed at establishing rural tourism retailer sustainability by simultaneously meeting service expectations and enhancing service perceptions for local and tourist customers.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the effects of other customer perception (OCP) (Brocato et al., 2012) on focal customer’s service quality perception and revisit intention in high- and low-involvement services and the effect of customer’s need for uniqueness (NFU) as a boundary condition of the above relationships.

Following a theoretical methodology, hypotheses were developed to analyze the effect of OCP, service involvement and customer’s NFU. A 2 × 2 × 2 scenario-based experiment was designed. Multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) was used to test the hypotheses.

The analysis reveals that the presence of conforming (versus non-conforming) other customers improves service quality perception and revisit intention of focal customers in high-involvement services, but not in low-involvement services. However, the relationship between similarity perception and outcome variables does not hold good for high-NFU customers.

This study suggests that conforming and non-conforming other customers are critical in forming service quality perception of high-involvement services, and highlights the boundary condition of this relationship. If service managers take service involvement and individual differences into account, and strategize their service offering aligned to their target customers, influence of other customers can be managed more efficiently.

As this study is one of the first empirical studies to focus on the effect of OCP on service quality perception and examine its boundary condition, it contributes significantly to the body of knowledge. Future research directions are discussed and managerial implications are proposed.

The purpose of this paper is to analyze differences in airlines service quality perceptions (service content) and visual communication styles (service form) between passengers from a high-context (HC) culture (Iraq) and from a low-context (LC) one (Germany). The theoretical support is based on Hall’s (1976) theory about cultural influences on consumers’ perceptions and on ethnocentric influences.

In this study, the authors compared two groups of passengers from two countries ‒ Iraq (a high-context culture) and Germany (low-context culture) – that gave their opinions about two different airlines (Iraqi Airlines and Lufthansa). In total, 400 personal evaluations were obtained (100 for each company in each country).

The results have demonstrated that, first, regarding service quality perceptions, both groups of passengers differ, not due to the cultural context, but due to the ethnocentristic feeling, that is service quality values are higher when the domestic company is evaluated in both countries. Second, regarding visual identity perceptions, the cultural context explains perception differences, because the Germans evaluations are higher for both, the foreign company and the domestic one.

First, the authors have measured in the same study whether people from an LC culture differ from people from a HC culture with respect to how they perceive both the content of the service (the perception of service quality) and the form of the service (the perception of visual identity). In other words, the authors have compared not just the way a company delivers its services, but also how the company is visually presented. Second, the authors have studied a country that has seldom been analyzed from a marketing perspective, Iraq. Third, the authors have compared not just two cultures, but also two companies (a domestic one and a foreign one), in order to see if consumers tend to have more positive perceptions of a local company, regardless of the culture to which they belong. If this point is demonstrated, then some more implications related to ethnocentrism will be added for a better understanding of how to proceed in the international arena.

This paper aims to build upon the debate in the service quality literature regarding both the theoretical and practical effectiveness of expectations data in the measurement of internal service quality (ISQ). Gap‐based and perceptions‐only approaches to measuring ISQ are tested and their respective benefits and limitations evaluated.

The internal service context used in this study is the provision of e‐procurement software, training, and user support in four organisations. The two approaches are evaluated in terms of reliability and validity, as well as pragmatic aspects of survey administration.

The various tests carried out indicate that both the gap‐measure and perceptions‐only measure are reliable and valid, the latter being the marginally higher performer. Both approaches were found to have benefits and limitations, and so the empirical study, combined with contributions from the literature, generates some understanding of the internal service context in which the two approaches might be appropriate.

The survey was based on an internal e‐procurement service; as such, the variables and dimensions selected to measure ISQ in this context inevitably limit the scope of the research.

For operations managers, the paper clarifies the basis on which they might choose between the two approaches to ISQ measurement.

This study is the first to directly test and compare the relative merits of these two approaches to ISQ measurement. The paper also offers insights as to the operational contexts in which each approach might be appropriate.

Although online health communities (OHCs) and online patient reviews can help to eliminate health information asymmetry and improve patients' health management, how patients write online reviews within OHCs is poorly understood. Thus, it is very necessary to determine the factors influencing patients' online review behavior in OHCs, including the emotional response and reviewing effort.

Based on expectation-disconfirmation theory, this study proposes a theoretical model to analyze the effects of service quality perception (i.e. outcome quality and process quality perceptions) and disconfirmation (i.e. outcome quality and process quality disconfirmations) on patients' emotional response and reviewing effort. The authors test the research model by using empirical data collected from a popular Chinese OHC and applying ordinary least squares (OLS) regression and zero-truncated negative binomial (ZTNB) regression models.

Both service quality perception and disconfirmation have a positive effect on patients' positive emotional intensity in textual reviews, and disease severity enhances these relationships of process quality. Moreover, there is an asymmetric U-shaped relationship among service quality perception, disconfirmation and reviewing effort. Patients who perceive low service quality have higher reviewing effort, while service quality disconfirmation has the opposite relationship. Specifically, patients' effort in writing textual reviews is lowest when perceived outcome quality is 3.5 (on a five-point scale), perceived process quality is 4 or outcome quality and process quality disconfirmations are −1.

This study is the first to examine patients' online review behavior and its motivations and contributes to the literature on online reviews and service quality. In addition, the findings of this study have important management implications for service providers and OHC managers.

The purpose of this study is to examine the actions and interactions that take place before and after purchase between a service provider (service seller) and its customers (service buyers) in complex business relationships. Specifically, it is to examine customers’ expectations of the service provider’s service offer before purchase and the same customers’ perceptions of the service solution offered after purchase in a business-to-business (B2B) context.

This study adopted a mixed methods design, which combined data generated through in-depth interviews (both with service buyers and key informants from the service company), an online customer survey, analysis of textual documents and structured observations of buyer–seller interactions and actions. Both objective and subjective points of view at different stages of the investigation were collected.

The authors’ results show that, contrary to previous evidence in B2C service research, the customers’ perceptions of the service performance were not significantly related to their previous expectations. In this context, characterized by dynamic and constantly evolving processes and many parties (both from the buyer and the seller company) involved in the implementation process, service complexity may cause a lack of well-formed expectations regarding how the service will perform and its relevant performance attributes.

This study suggests that the service models traditionally used to describe and explain customer service expectations and perceptions in relatively simple service contexts with final consumers are difficult to apply in B2B complex business relationships. Rather, scholars need to take a holistic, continuously evolving and adapted perspective when examining the formation of customer service expectations and their perceptions in B2B complex services.

There should be a teleological balance between sales and purchase approaches in B2B contexts to optimize the outcome of complex business relationships between service providers and service receivers. The authors suggest several recommendations to service providers to ensure that their salespeople do not create unrealistic and unachievable expectations in the minds of the service receivers. Service providers are also encouraged to develop formal cross functional teams (e.g. consisting of salespeople, service technicians and service support) based on mutual understanding and information sharing.

This study provides an alternative time-oriented understanding of the way customer expectations before purchase and their perceptions after purchasing a complex software solution in industrial markets formed through the lens of teleological framework. As such, this is the first empirical inquiry with this specific framework in B2B contexts making a relevant contribution to literature.

This paper presents a holistic model of customer retention incorporating service quality perceptions, price perceptions, customer indifference and inertia. Data from a large‐scale postal survey of telephone users in England showed that perceptions of service quality have a direct linear relationship with customer retention even in mass services with low customer contact. Price perceptions and customer indifference too were found to have a direct linear effect on retention. Furthermore, it was also seen how both price perceptions and customer indifference moderated the relationship between service quality perceptions and customer retention. A linear relationship between inertia and customer retention was not found. Furthermore, there was evidence to indicate that inertia was a relatively unstable condition and that reliance by service providers on inertia to retain customers could indeed be a risky strategy.

This paper focuses on the multichannel strategy in the banking sector and its effects on customer engagement. Specifically, the purpose of this paper is to propose a model in which customers’ perceptions of offline and online channels are related to brand trust and brand commitment, which ultimately lead to customer engagement.

An empirical study was carried out on a sample of 306 individuals and data were analysed through partial least squares.

The results show that offline experience is more important than online experience in terms of impact on trust and commitment, which are closely linked to customer engagement. Online experience does not have a significant direct influence on brand commitment and its effect on brand trust is moderated by the customer’s familiarity with the channel.

These findings contribute to the advance in the current knowledge of the joint role of online and offline channels with the aim of strengthening customer relationships. From a managerial viewpoint, customer perceptions formed by their experiences in bank branches are more important than customer perceptions of the website’s performance in the explanation of trust and commitment.