Nothing Special   »   [go: up one dir, main page]
Skip to main content
Springer Nature Link
Log in

A measure of service quality for retail stores: Scale development and validation

  • Published:
Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Current measures of service quality do not adequately capture customers’ perceptions of service quality for retail stores (i.e., stores that offer a mix of goods and services). A hierarchical factor structure is proposed to capture dimensions important to retail customers based on the retail and service quality literatures as well as three separate qualitative studies. Confirmatory factor analysis based on the partial disaggregation technique and cross-validation using a second sample support the validity of the scale as a measure of retail service quality. The implications of this Retail Service Quality Scale for practitioners, as well as for future research, are discussed.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Subscribe and save

Springer+ Basic
$34.99 /Month
  • Get 10 units per month
  • Download Article/Chapter or eBook
  • 1 Unit = 1 Article or 1 Chapter
  • Cancel anytime
Subscribe now

Buy Now

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Babakus, Emin and Gregory W. Boller. 1991. “Empirical Assessment of SERVQUAL Scale.”Journal of Business Research 24:253–268.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Babakus, Emin and W. Glynn Mangold. 1989. “Adapting the SERVQUAL Scale to Health Care Environment: An Empirical Assessment.” InEnhancing Knowledge Development in Marketing, edited by P. Bloom, 195. Chicago: American Marketing Association.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bagozzi, Richard P. and Todd F. Heatherton. 1994. “A General Approach to Representing Multifaceted Personality Constructs: Application to State Self-Esteem.”Structural Equation Modeling 1 (1): 35–67.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Baker, Julie, Dhruv Grewal, and A. Parasuraman. 1994. “The Influence of Store Environment on Quality Inferences and Store Image.”Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science 22 (Fall): 328–339.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Berry, Leonard L. 1986. “Retail Businesses Are Service Businesses.”Journal of Retailing 62 (Spring): 3–6.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bowers, Michael and John E. Swan. 1992. “Generic Versus Service Specific Dimensions of Service Quality: Does SERVQUAL Cover Hospital Health Care?” Unpublished manuscript, Birmingham, AL.

  • Brensinger, Ronald and Douglas M. Lambert. 1990. “Can the SERVQUAL Scale Be Generalized to Business-to-Business Services?” InKnowledge Development in Marketing, AMA Educators’ Proceedings, edited by W. Bearden, R. Deshpande, T. J. Madden, P. R. Varadarajan, A. Parasuraman, V. S. Folkes, D. W. Stewart, and W. L. Wilkie, 289. Chicago: American Marketing Association.

    Google Scholar 

  • Brown, Tom J., Gilbert A. Churchill, and J. Paul Peter. 1993. “Improving the Measurement of Service Quality.”Journal of Retailing 69 (Spring): 127–139.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Carman, James M. 1990. “Consumer Perceptions of Service Quality: An Assessment of the SERVQUAL Dimensions.”Journal of Retailing 66 (Spring): 33–55.

    Google Scholar 

  • Cronin, J. Joseph and Steven A. Taylor. 1992. “Measuring Service Quality: A Reexamination and Extension.”Journal of Marketing 56 (July): 55–68.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • ————— and —————. 1994. “SERVPERF Versus SERVQUAL: Reconciling Performance-Based and Perceptions-Minus-Expectations Measurement of Service Quality.”Journal of Marketing 58 (January): 125–131.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Finn, David W. and Charles W. Lamb. 1991. “An Evaluation of the SERVQUAL Scales in a Retailing Setting.” InAdvances in Consumer Research, edited by R. Holman and M. R. Solomon, 483–490. Provo, UT: Association for Consumer Research.

    Google Scholar 

  • Guiry, Michael, Wes Hutchinson, and Barton A. Weitz. 1992. “Consumers’ Evaluation of Retail Store Service Quality and Its Influence on Store Choice.” Working paper, University of Florida.

  • Gutman, Jonathan and Scott D. Alden. 1985. “Adolescents’ Cognitive Structures of Retail Stores and Fashion Consumption: A Means-End Chain Analysis of Quality.” InPerceived Quality: How Consumers View Stores and Merchandise, edited by Jacob Jacoby and Jerry C. Olson, 99–114. Lexington, MA: Lexington Books.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hart, Christopher W. L., James L. Heskett, and W. Earl Sasser, Jr. 1990. “The Profitable Art of Service Recovery.”Harvard Business Review 68 (July–August): 148–156.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hull, Jay C., Daniel A. Lehn, and Judith C. Tedlie. 1991. “A General Approach to Testing Multifaceted Personality Constructs.”Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 61:932–945.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hummel, J. W. and Ronald Savitt. 1988. “Integrated Customer Service and Retail Strategy.”International Journal of Retailing 3 (2): 5–21.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kelley, Scott W. and Mark A. Davis. 1994. “Antecedents to Customer Expectations for Service Recovery.”Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science 22 (Winter): 52–61.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Marsh, Herbert W. and Dennis Hocevar. 1985. “Application of Confirmatory Factor Analysis to the Study of Self-Concept: First and Higher Order Factor Models and Their Invariance Across Groups.”Psychological Bulletin 97(3):562–582.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Mazursky, David and Jacob Jacoby. 1985. “Forming Impressions of Merchandise and Service Quality.” InPerceived Quality: How Consumers View Stores and Merchandise, edited by Jacob Jacoby and Jerry C. Olson, 139–153. Lexington, MA: Lexington Books.

    Google Scholar 

  • Oliver, Richard. 1981. “Measurement and Evaluation of Satisfaction Processes in Retail Settings.”Journal of Retailing 57 (Fall): 25–48.

    Google Scholar 

  • Parasuraman, A., Leonard L. Berry, and Valarie A. Zeithaml. 1991. “Refinement and Reassessment of the SERVQUAL Scale.”Journal of Retailing 67 (Winter): 420–450.

    Google Scholar 

  • Parasuraman, A., Valarie A. Zeithaml, and Leonard L. Berry. 1988. “SERVQUAL: A Multiple-Item Scale for Measuring Consumer Perceptions of Service Quality.”Journal of Retailing 64 (Spring): 12–40.

    Google Scholar 

  • —————, —————, and —————. 1994a. “Reassessment of Expectations as a Comparison Standard in Measuring Service Quality: Implications for Future Research.”Journal of Marketing 58 (January): 111–124.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • —————, —————, and —————. 1994b. “Moving Forward in Service Quality Research: Measuring Different Customer-Expectation Levels, Comparing Alternative Scales, and Examining the Performance-Behavioral Intentions Link.” Working paper, Marketing Science Institute, Cambridge, MA.

    Google Scholar 

  • Pitt, Leyland L., Pierre Oosthuizen, and Michael H. Morris. 1992. “Service Quality in a High-Tech Industrial Market: An Application of SERVQUAL.” InProceedings of American Marketing Association Summer Educators’ Conference, edited by R. Leone and V. Kumar, 46–53. Chicago: American Marketing Association.

    Google Scholar 

  • Reichheld, Frederick F. and W. Earl Sasser, Jr. 1990. “Zero Defections: Quality Comes to Services.”Harvard Business Review 68 (5): 105–111.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rust, Roland T. and Richard L. Oliver. 1994. “Service Quality: Insights and Managerial Implications From the Frontier.” InService Quality: New Directions in Theory and Practice, edited by Roland T. Rust and Richard L. Oliver, 1–19. London: Sage.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sellers, P. 1990. “What Customers Really Want.”Fortune 121 (13): 58–68.

    Google Scholar 

  • Smith, T. 1989. “Nurturing a Customer Service Culture.”Retail Control, October, 15–18.

  • Spreng, Richard A. and A. K. Singh. 1993. “An Empirical Assessment of the SERVQUAL Scale and the Relationship Between Service Quality and Satisfaction.” InEnhancing Knowledge Development in Marketing, edited by David W. Cravens and Peter Dickson, 1–6. Chicago: American Marketing Association.

    Google Scholar 

  • Teas, R. Kenneth. 1993. “Expectations, Performance Evaluation, and Consumers’ Perceptions of Quality.”Journal of Marketing 57 (October): 18–34.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • —————. 1994. “Expectations as a Comparison Standard in Measuring Service Quality: An Assessment of a Reassessment.”Journal of Marketing 58 (January): 132–139.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Westbrook, Robert A. 1981. “Sources of Consumer Satisfaction With Retail Outlets.”Journal of Retailing 57 (Fall): 68–85.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. the University of Tennessee, Knoxville

    Pratibha A. Dabholkar, Dayle I. Thorpe & Joseph O. Rentz

Authors
  1. Pratibha A. Dabholkar
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Dayle I. Thorpe
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Joseph O. Rentz
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Additional information

She received her Ph.D. from Georgia State University. Her research interests include attitude and choice models, service quality and customer satisfaction issues, technology in service delivery, and business-to-business relationships. She has published articles in theJournal of the Academy of Marketing Science, Journal of Business Research, Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Satisfaction, Dissatisfaction, and Complaining Behavior, Journal of Health Care Management, International Journal of Research in Marketing, andPsychology and Marketing, as well as in various conference proceedings.

She also holds a B.S. and an M.S. from Florida State University and an M.B.A. from Mercer University. Her research interests include services marketing, service quality, retailing, and manager-employee relationships. Her publications include articles in theJournal of Consumer Satisfaction, Dissatisfaction, and Complaining Behavior, The Service Industries Journal, and in various conference proceedings.

He received his Ph.D. from the University of Georgia. His research interests include cohort analysis, measurement issues, generalizability studies, and customer satisfaction. He has published articles in theJournal of the Academy of Marketing Science, Journal of Advertising, Journal of Marketing, Journal of Marketing Research, and theJournal of Personal Selling and Sales Management, as well as in several conference proceedings.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Dabholkar, P.A., Thorpe, D.I. & Rentz, J.O. A measure of service quality for retail stores: Scale development and validation. JAMS 24, 3–16 (1996). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02893933

Download citation

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02893933

Keywords

Search

Navigation