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Relying on the importance-performance theory first established by Martilla and James (1977), this research paper utilizes a unique statistical analysis instrument embedded into the SmartPLS software. It explores the importance and performance of key project management constructs and indicators with a purpose to make practical and actionable recommendations for project managers to identify and improve project management practices.

The data used were derived from 3,130 system delivery projects in the facilities management industry. The data was analyzed with Partial Least Squares Modelling (PLS) software SmartPLS, using its embedded importance-performance functionality.

The findings indicate the importance and performance of the project management constructs and their respective indicator variables in an importance-performance (IPMA) map. All three project management phases (constructs); proposal, installation and commissioning, were significantly related to satisfaction. The installation phase (construct) showed the highest potential for performance improvement in project management. With regard to the specific indicator variables, the variable “Coordinating their work with other contractors (or the owner's staff)” received a strong “Do better” recommendation.

The approach and results provide an easy to use and visual tool for project managers to assess the importance and performance of the various elements of project management. The instrument provides a project management direction for the identification of strategic enhancement areas as it is essential to recognize what facets of project management contribute most to the improvement of project management performance over a longer period of time (Cronin and Taylor, 1992; Palmer, 1998).

The purpose of this study is to demonstrate the potential of importance‐performance (IP) analysis as a decision‐making tool for service management, employing IP analysis to assess the performance of Greek insurance in delivering quality services.

Data were collected in a two‐stage survey. In both stages, respondents were asked to provide importance and performance scores, in identical seven‐point Likert scales, for the 25 service attributes identified for Greek insurance. In order to qualify for the sample, individuals had to be over the age of 25 and have at least one insurance policy and one service encounter with their insurers within the previous three months. The two methodological streams of IP analysis, “gap analysis” and IP maps, were employed to analyse the data.

The value of importance‐performance analysis as a tool for managerial decision making in services was reaffirmed. Contrary to previous findings on insurers' reluctance to respond to their customers' quality requests, Greek insurance was found to have adequate reflexes in this respect. In stage one, the dimensions Responsiveness and Assurance were positioned in the “keep up the good work”, Reliability in the “concentrate”, Empathy in the “low priority” and Tangibles in the “possible overkill” quadrants of the importance‐performance map. In stage two, the industry was found to have taken actions towards keeping‐up with its customers' requirements.

The main limitations of this study are that it was based on a single service industry and that convenience sampling was used. However, its methodology and results are valid for various industries in the service sector and provide a solid basis for future research.

Service managers can exploit the approach taken by this study to improve service management. Greek insurers have to keep considering the needs and wants of their customers regarding service delivery.

The purpose of this paper is to propose a modified Importance-Performance Analysis (IPA) model and calculates the performance of quality characteristic for the purpose of defining quality improvement strategy.

This study developed modified IPA by introducing the Mahalanobis Distance and multiple regression analysis to evaluate the performance gap and implicit importance of quality characteristics. This paper used a large air-conditioning manufacturer in Taiwan as the case analysis and study targets. It discussed and validated the modified IPA analytical results by studying case history and market analysis.

Through the case study, the quality characteristics of air-conditioning product and service needed to be improved immediately are Green product (Q3) and Repair service (Q10), and the Price (Q11) and Serviceability (Q2) could be kept or enhanced to win the market competitive advantages.

This study developed a modified IPA to help organization identifying key quality characteristics of product and service, and choosing its improvement strategies to win the market competitive advantages effectively.

The purpose of this paper is to propose a novel approach of fuzzy importance‐performance analysis (FIPA) to replace conventional importance‐performance analysis (IPA) for determining critical service attributes those really need to improve for achieving superior customer satisfaction.

First, referring numerous studies, conventional IPA has some erroneous assumptions, the customer satisfaction of attribute performance has the characteristic of three‐factor theory and the novel approach which integrates natural logarithmic transformation and partial correlation analysis is feasible for acquiring the implicitly derived importance of attributes. Second, according the fact and nature of fuzziness in human perception, this study applies fuzzy set theory to revise conventional IPA. Finally, the FIPA is proposed and subsequently implemented in a Taiwanese hot spring hotel case study.

The implementation of FIPA shows the determined critical service attributes are almost completely different from those attributes acquired by conventional IPA. Hence, the application of conventional IPA may cause practitioners make incorrect decisions of improvement priorities for service attributes and direct unsuitable quality‐based marketing strategies.

The proposed FIPA which integrates fuzzy set theory, three‐factor theory, partial correlation analysis and natural logarithmic transformation avoids the erroneous assumptions of conventional IPA, considers the nature of fuzziness in human perception and includes the actual importance of service attributes. Therefore, the proposed FIPA can effectively assist business managers in determining critical service attributes to improve service quality or customer satisfaction and to achieve competitive advantage.

The constantly evolving higher education (HE) sector is creating a need for new business models and tools for evaluating performance. In this paper, an overview of the importance-performance analysis (IPA) model and its applicability as a management tool for assessing student satisfaction in the HE sector is provided. The purpose of this paper is to apply IPA in a new and novel manner, undertaking analysis at three levels; the individual student, for individual attributes and at a construct or factor level which combines individual attributes that are correlated. A practical application is illustrated, assessing the gap between the importance placed on specific student satisfaction attributes and corresponding levels of student-perceived performance realised.

The “service product bundle” (Douglas et al., 2006) is refined based on focus group evaluation. Survey responses from 823 students studying across four Malaysian private universities are analysed using factor analysis and the IPA model utilised to identify importance-performance gaps and explore the implication of the iso-rating line as well as alternative cut-off zones.

Factor reduction of 33 original measurement items results in eight definable areas of service provision, which provides a refined and extended management tool of statistically reliable and valid constructs.

The research is undertaken in a private business school context in Malaysia. Further research could focus on other universities or countries, as well as faculties such as computing and engineering or explore other elements of education-based performance.

The research method and study outcomes can support HE managers to allocate resources more effectively and develop strategies to improve quality and increase student satisfaction.

Distinct from other IPA-based studies, analysis is undertaken at three levels; the individual participant, for individual items and at the factor level.

Importance-performance analysis (IPA) is an effective tool for firms to prioritise service quality attributes, but has limitations in evaluating and enhancing service quality within a competitive environment. The purpose of this paper is to present an evolved model of IPA – importance-performance benchmark vectors (IPBV) – as a benchmarking tool and investigate its applicability in the context of hotel service quality.

Empirical studies based on self-completion survey data from 150 customers of two full-service hotels in Taiwan were conducted in to examine the practical utility of IPBV.

Eight key benchmark typologies were identified and expressed as vectors in the IPBV model which are as follows: “sustainable advantage”, “potential strength”, “false advantage or outstanding advantage”, “cease-fire competition”, “false disadvantage or on-hand disadvantage”, “potential weakness”, “dangerous warning” and “head-on competition”.

The paper extends the methodology to more cases, and other service industries to test further the discriminatory power of the model and to explore the descriptors in the IPBV vector model. Alternative seven-point or nine-point Likert scales could be explored to test the discriminant validity using means. The alternative IPA diagonal approach focussing on GAP analysis may reveal alternative interpretations for the IPBV vector model. Other extended models of IPA, which include competitor analysis, should be compared in practice using a data set where both quantitative and qualitative data could be generated.

The paper proposes the two-dimensional IPBV model which retains the advantages of IPA, but also includes competitor or benchmark comparisons which enable organisations to analyse their relative competitive position. The two-part model provides both quantitative information and qualitative interpretation of relativities. The graphical matrix models provide simple quantitative analysis of attributes, whilst the IPBV vector model provides qualitative interpretations of the eight competitive market positions. Vector analysis enables the development of competitive strategies relative to benchmarks, or within a competitive set. Importance is retained and means that organisations can benchmark against a range of competitors prioritising specific attributes for resource allocation.

The interpretive utility of the model should be explored with practitioners and decision makers in the service industries. The model has been designed for practical use in industry to inform operational and strategic decision making, its usefulness in practice should be explored and the attitudes of practitioners to the model should be tested.

Traditional approaches to benchmarking have adopted a one-dimensional approach that does not include a measure of the relative importance of the service quality dimensions in specific markets. This research develops a two-dimensional advanced model of IPA, called IPBV, which is based on vector relationships between key attributes of service quality. These vectors are explored and described in competitive terms and the model is discussed with regard to its implications for industry, practitioners and researchers.

The aim of this paper is to describe and apply a new three‐step approach to prioritizing service attributes in formulating quality‐improvement strategies. In particular, the paper seels to demonstrate the value of impact range‐performance analysis (IRPA) and impact‐asymmetry analysis (IAA) in prioritizing quality attributes for improvement.

The proposed new analytical framework is developed and presented. Data from a survey on satisfaction with airport passenger services are then used to demonstrate the proposed approach. Improvement priorities are derived using a three‐step analytical framework.

This paper raises several conceptual issues concerning importance‐performance analysis (IPA). In particular, the study contends that direct and indirect measures of the “importance” of an attribute are not measuring the same construct.

Managers who use IPA to prioritize the improvement of service attributes might obtain misleading recommendations. In particular, managers should be aware that the impact of an attribute on overall customer satisfaction can vary significantly with different levels of performance of that attribute.

The study proposes a revised approach to IPA in which the traditional measure of “attribute‐importance” is replaced by a measure of the range of attribute‐impact on overall customer satisfaction (RIOCS). Moreover, a new analysis provides detailed information on asymmetric relationships between attribute‐level performance and overall customer satisfaction (OCS).

To analyze the limitations of two methods used in the identification of satisfaction attributes in products and services – importance performance analysis (IPA) and Kano method – and to propose a new method for identification of improvement opportunities based on the competitive analysis of the improvement gap.

A case analyzing attributes of the service “rodizio de pizzas” a kind of pizzeria found in Brazil, was used to illustrate the proposed method. Resulting from a focus group, four attributes, one of them being an innovation, were specifically chosen to include the different categories of the Kano model: basic, performance and excitement attributes. A survey was conducted with a random sample of 110 undergraduate students that eat regularly at pizzerias.

As a major limitation, IPA leads to different conclusions depending on how an attribute's importance is figured. Also, it does not take into consideration the non‐linear relationship between the performance of the attributes and customer satisfaction, possibly misleading improvement decisions and hindering the introduction of innovations. The Kano method identifies the non‐linear relationship between performance and satisfaction, but it does not take into consideration the current level of attributes' performance in the analysis. The proposed method successfully identified improvement opportunities in a service case, including the possible impact of including a new attribute, i.e. an innovative attribute, overcoming limitations of the IPA and of the Kano method.

The paper provides an intuitive and simple method that correctly identified improvement decisions in the case studied, including the introduction of an incremental innovation.

The purpose of this paper is to introduce the importance-performance map analysis (IPMA) and explain how to use it in the context of partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM). A case study, drawing on the IPMA module implemented in the SmartPLS 3 software, illustrates the results generation and interpretation.

The explications first address the principles of the IPMA and introduce a systematic procedure for its use, followed by a detailed discussion of each step. Finally, a case study on the use of technology shows how to apply the IPMA in empirical PLS-SEM studies.

The IPMA gives researchers the opportunity to enrich their PLS-SEM analysis and, thereby, gain additional results and findings. More specifically, instead of only analyzing the path coefficients (i.e. the importance dimension), the IPMA also considers the average value of the latent variables and their indicators (i.e. performance dimension).

An IPMA is tied to certain requirements, which relate to the measurement scales, variable coding, and indicator weights estimates. Moreover, the IPMA presumes linear relationships. This research does not address the computation and interpretation of non-linear dependencies.

The IPMA is particularly useful for generating additional findings and conclusions by combining the analysis of the importance and performance dimensions in practical PLS-SEM applications. Thereby, the IPMA allows for prioritizing constructs to improve a certain target construct. Expanding the analysis to the indicator level facilitates identifying the most important areas of specific actions. These results are, for example, particularly important in practical studies identifying the differing impacts that certain construct dimensions have on phenomena such as technology acceptance, corporate reputation, or customer satisfaction.

This paper is the first to offer researchers a tutorial and annotated example of an IPMA. Based on a state-of-the-art review of the technique and a detailed explanation of the method, this paper introduces a systematic procedure for running an IPMA. A case study illustrates the analysis, using the SmartPLS 3 software.

Employees play a significant role in implementing corporate social responsibility (CSR) practices. This paper aims to examine the perceived importance of CSR practices and identifies improvement areas of CSR practices using the importance-performance analysis from Macao’s casino employees’ perspective.

Based on a literature review of CSR in the hospitality industry and ISO 26000, a comprehensive set of CSR practices including responsible gaming practices was identified. Data were collected from 298 casino employees. Importance-performance analysis as well as exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis were used to identify important CSR practices and the factor structure of CSR in Macao’s gaming industry.

Employees rated “providing good wages and health insurance” as the most important practice, followed by “creating a health and safe working environment” and “be fair and honest with employees.” The importance-performance analysis shows that employees perceived their firms performing well in “providing good wages and health insurance,” “protecting consumer data and consumer privacy” and “providing good consumer service and support.” The results of confirmatory factor analysis indicate that CSR in Macao’s gaming industry encompasses seven factors, namely, “Labor Practices,” “The Environment,” “Fair Operating Practices,” “Consumer Issues,” “Human Rights,” “Community Involvement” and “Responsible Gaming”.

Casino employees shape customer experience, recognizing and understanding how employees view CSR practices can help casino operators refine their CSR initiatives.