The attainment of quality in products and services has become a pivotal concern of the 1980s. While quality in tangible goods has been described and measured by marketers, quality in services is la...

A Conceptual Model of Service Quality and Its Implications for Future Research

The authors investigate the conceptualization and measurement of service quality and the relationships between service quality, consumer satisfaction, and purchase intentions. A literature review s...

Measuring service quality: a reexamination and extension

Assessing the effects of quality, value, and customer satisfaction on consumer behavioral intentions in service environments

https://www.marketingcenter.de/sites/mcm/files/downloads/research/lmm/literature/hennig-thurau_et_al._2004_jim_electronic_word-of-mouth_via_consumer-opninion_platforms_what_motivates_consumers_to_articulate_themselves_on_the_internet.pdf

Electronic word-of-mouth via consumer-opinion platforms: What motivates consumers to articulate themselves on the Internet?

Using the means-end framework as a theoretical foundation, this article conceptualizes, constructs, refines, and tests a multiple-item scale (E-S-QUAL) for measuring the service quality delivered b...

/pdf/e-s-qual-a-multiple-item-scale-for-assessing-electronic-2f9xy8ot5i.pdf

E-S-QUAL: A Multiple-Item Scale for Assessing Electronic Service Quality

Consumer perceptions of service quality: an assessment of the SERVQUAL dimensions

Objective This study examines the relationships among organizational culture, quality improvement processes and selected outcomes for a sample of up to 61 U. S. hospitals. Data sources and study setting Primary data were collected from 61 U. S. hospitals (located primarily in the midwest and the west) on measures related to continuous quality improvement/total quality management (CQI/TQM), organizational culture, implementation approaches, and degree of quality improvement implementation based on the Baldrige Award criteria. These data were combined with independently collected data on perceived impact and objective measures of clinical efficiency (i.e., charges and length of stay) for six clinical conditions. Study design The study involved cross-sectional examination of the named relationships. Data collection/extraction methods Reliable and valid scales for the organizational culture and quality improvement implementation measures were developed based on responses from over 7,000 individuals across the 61 hospitals with an overall completion rate of 72 percent. Independent data on perceived impact were collected from a national survey and independent data on clinical efficiency from a companion study of managed care. Principal findings A participative, flexible, risk-taking organizational culture was significantly related to quality improvement implementation. Quality improvement implementation, in turn, was positively associated with greater perceived patient outcomes and human resource development. Larger-size hospitals experienced lower clinical efficiency with regard to higher charges and higher length of stay, due in part to having more bureaucratic and hierarchical cultures that serve as a barrier to quality improvement implementation. Conclusions What really matters is whether or not a hospital has a culture that supports quality improvement work and an approach that encourages flexible implementation. Larger-size hospitals face more difficult challenges in this regard.

Assessing the impact of continuous quality improvement/total quality management: concept versus implementation.

Two characteristics of services—intangibility of the offering and simultaneity of production and consumption—have important implications for strategic planning. Four of these implications are described.

Life cycle, experience, and market share, which are the usual determinants of profitability that provide guides for strategic planning are not easily applied to the service firm. Therefore growth strategies need to be revised.

In its second part the paper suggests alternative growth strategy paths for service firms. It brings forward three main remarks. First, the service firm should not overuse its delivery system and its image by attempting to serve the needs of too many sociodemographic segments. Second, service development and concentric diversification are not sequential choices; the latter is not so distant from the former as may be commonly perceived. Third, expansion to out-of-country markets represents a risk discontinuity; it should be approached by service firms with considerable flexibility and willingness to interact with different cultures.

Growth strategies for service firms

flicts with the globality of the ecological crisis, and (10) the protection of the welfare state from changes. The ultimate question for Beck is how responsible globalization can be effected. It involves first a radical critique of the neoliberal ideology of globalism. He begins with international cooperation in keeping the TNCs under control. Also, a new definition of the relationship between state, business, and society must be established. Transnational states are created by alliances to develop regional sovereignty beyond the individual states. Thus, to increase their capacity to control, they must give up some individual power. Joint ownership of capital with workers sharing in ownership provides an antidote for increasing unemployment. This can be supplemented by education policies that create a knowledge society commensurate with global capital. Capital must be tied to place and then to products. This avoids capital flight and superfluous production. In addition, the politicization of consumption to constrain corporations would be an integral part of control. To compensate for decreasing industrial employment, new value in civil labor should be developed. He also argues for increased self-employment and an elimination of exclusion, particularly for income reasons. Globalism is irreversible through the efforts of any state, but a transnational structure as large a Europe might offer an opportunity to restore politics. This enables a reregulation of transnational business and an implementation of social and ecological policies. Balanced trade would then minimize the degree to which fewer and fewer get richer and richer while the majority foot the bill. It is clear from Beck’s sociological perspective that globalization is more than the internationalization of business. The book presents his perspective, which differs from the typical business approach to globalization. While it is hard to follow at times, appearing to be a collection of short pieces integrated into a book, it is well worth the effort of working through it. It is of particular interest to the macromarketing world because of the unique sociological perspective focusing on institutional change immanent in globalization. The book would be a good supplement in any graduate-level multinational marketing class but would be a bit daunting for undergraduates. It should be required reading for anyone who teaches in the international area as it would provide new dimensions and an alternative way of thinking about the globalization process including as it does, the political, cultural, and social dimensions of the process that marketing generally plays down or ignores. In combination with others, such as Giddens (1998), Wallerstein (1979), or Held (1995), the macro nature of the globalization process is inescapable as is the neoliberal philosophy that drives it in the quest to reduce the political and cultural to the logic of the world market. REFERENCES

James M. Carman

Papers

Consumer perceptions of service quality: an assessment of the SERVQUAL dimensions

Assessing the impact of continuous quality improvement/total quality management: concept versus implementation.

Growth strategies for service firms

Transition, The First Ten Years: Analysis and Lessons for Eastern Europe and the Former Soviet Union

Service Management and Marketing: Managing the Moments of Truth in Service Competition