Cultural Influences on Service Quality Expectations
TL;DR: In this article, the authors study the effect of consumers' cultural orientation on their perceived service performance and expected service level and find that consumers tend to be more satisfied with perceived service quality than the actual service quality.
Abstract: Service quality has been conceptualized as the difference between perceived service performance and expected service level. The authors study the effect of consumers' cultural orientation on their ...
Citations
More filters
TL;DR: Based on theory from consumer behavior and cognitive psychology, the purpose of this paper is to discuss and test corporate image and customer satisfaction as two routes to customer loyalty as mentioned in this paper, which is consistent with high and low service expertise.
Abstract: Based on theory from consumer behavior and cognitive psychology, the purpose of this paper is to discuss and test corporate image and customer satisfaction as two routes to customer loyalty. Based on data from 600 individual customers categorized as having high or low service expertise of three companies within the package tour industry, a conceptual model is proposed and tested empirically using structural equation modeling. The data used in the study are included in The Norwegian Customer Satisfaction Barometer. The paper concludes by claiming that for complex services, corporate image and customer satisfaction are not two separate routes to customer loyalty. Corporate image impacts customer loyalty directly whereas customer satisfaction does not. This finding was consistent with high and low service expertise. These results challenge the disconfirmation paradigm which predicts customer satisfaction as the primary route to customer loyalty. From a managerial perspective, information regarding the relative strength of the two routes is vital with regard to resource allocation in order to improve customer loyalty.
1,442 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors argue that perceptions of service quality vary across cultural groups, as defined by each culture's position on Hofstede's dimensions, and explicitly map the relationship between service quality perceptions and cultural dimension positions and draw the implications for international service market segmentation.
Abstract: The authors argue that perceptions of service quality vary across cultural groups, as defined by each culture’s position on Hofstede’s dimensions. They explicitly map the relationship between service quality perceptions and cultural dimension positions and draw the implications for international service market segmentation. They also test the hypotheses constituting their theoretical analysis. They show that the importance of SERVQUAL dimensions is correlated with Hofstede’s cultural dimensions. They also used the correlation coefficients to compute a Cultural Service Quality Index that could be used to segment international service markets and allocate resources across segments.
822 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the effects of customer participation on value creation and satisfaction for both customers and employees with different cultural value orientations in the context of professional financial services were investigated using data collected from 349 pairs of customers and service employees in two national groups (Hong Kong and the United States).
Abstract: Emergent perspectives in marketing highlight new opportunities for co-opting customers as a means to define and cocreate value through their participation. This study delineates and empirically tests hypotheses regarding the effects of customer participation (CP) on value creation and satisfaction for both customers and employees with different cultural value orientations in the context of professional financial services. Using data collected from 349 pairs of customers and service employees in two national groups (Hong Kong and the United States) of a global financial institution, this study examines how (1) CP drives performance outcomes (i.e., customer satisfaction, employee job satisfaction, and employee job performance) through the creation of economic and relational values and (2) the effects of CP on value creation depend on participants' cultural value orientations. Promoting CP could be a double-edged sword for firms: CP enhances customers' economic value attainment and strengthens the r...
803 citations
Cites background from "Cultural Influences on Service Qual..."
...This approach avoids the ecological fallacy of using national generalizations to explain individual behaviors (Donthu and Yoo 1998; Patterson, Cowley, and Prasongsukarn 2006) and is reasonable, because a person’s values can be identified in terms of cultural value orientations (Donthu and Yoo 1998)....
[...]
...This scale can successfully capture Hofstede’s (1991) five cultural dimensions at the individual level (Donthu and Yoo 1998; Patterson, Cowley, and Prasongsukarn 2006)....
[...]
...As CP increases customers’ knowledge and control of services, it shifts more power to customers (Donthu and Yoo 1998; Ouschan, Sweeney, and Johnson 2006; Prahalad and Ramaswamy 2000)....
[...]
...…therefore examine the moderating effects of customers’ and employees’ cultural value orientations—namely, individualism–collectivism and power distance (Donthu and Yoo 1998; Hofstede 1980; Steenkamp and Geyskens 2006)—to identify the boundary conditions associated with effective customer…...
[...]
...Moreover, two dimensions (individualism–collectivism and power distance) of the CVSCALE (Donthu and Yoo 1998) measure cultural values....
[...]
TL;DR: Ogden et al. as discussed by the authors proposed a three-step approach to operationalize culture including nationality, Hofstede's cultural dimensions and measuring culture at the individual level, and discussed the advantages of using cultural dimensions.
672 citations
Cites background or result from "Cultural Influences on Service Qual..."
...However, further research should examine the scale's reliability and validity in additional countries and research contexts beyond those studies by Donthu and Yoo (1998) and Soares (2005)....
[...]
...Subsequently, Soares identifies the cultural values scale (CVSCALE) as an alternative (Donthu and Yoo, 1998; Yoo et al., 2001)....
[...]
...This 26-item instrument measures the five cultural dimensions, is applicable to general consumer situations and has adequate psychometric properties (Donthu and Yoo, 1998; Lenartowicz and Roth, 2001)....
[...]
...Finally, several studies replicated Hofstede's study of work values using different scales (e.g., Dorfman and Howell, 1988; Fernandez et al., 1997; Donthu and Yoo, 1998; Furrer et al., 2000; Liu et al., 2001) or his values survey module (VSM; Hoppe, 1990; Heuer et al., 1999; Merritt, 2000;…...
[...]
...The implications of this paper for further research on culture follow Soares (2005) and Donthu and Yoo (1998) as a promising start....
[...]
TL;DR: The authors developed a psychometrically sound measure of Hofstede's culture at the individual level, called CVSCALE, which is a 26-item five-dimensional scale of individual cultural values.
Abstract: Hofstede's (1980 and 2001) renowned five-dimensional measure of cultural values is the overwhelmingly dominant metric of culture. His measure has been used as a contextual variable, but it is often required to directly measure cultural values for individual consumers or managers. The purpose of this research is to respond to the call for developing a psychometrically sound measure of Hofstede's culture at the individual level. Past research in this area has developed a scale for only one of Hofstede's dimensions, a highly work-oriented scale, or a scale with poor reliability. By overcoming every major weakness of past studies, this research offers CVSCALE, a 26-item five-dimensional scale of individual cultural values that assesses Hofstede's cultural dimensions at the individual level. The scale shows adequate reliability, validity, and across-sample and across-national generalizability.
588 citations
Cites background from "Cultural Influences on Service Qual..."
...Researchers adopted the scale to test their theories in which individual cultural orientations take a role, for example, on issues such as service-quality expectations (Donthu and Yoo 1998), marketing ethics (Yoo and Donthu 2002), and consumer ethnocentrism (Yoo and Donthu 2005)....
[...]
References
More filters
TL;DR: The authors constructed a theory of the universal types of values as criteria by viewing values as cognitive representations of three universal requirements: (a) biological needs, (b) interactional requirements for interpersonal coordination, and (c) societal demands for group welfare and survival.
Abstract: We constructed a theory of the universal types of values as criteria by viewing values as cognitive representations of three universal requirements: (a) biological needs, (b) interactional requirements for interpersonal coordination, and (c) societal demands for group welfare and survival. From these requirements, we have derived and presented conceptual and operational definitions for eight motivational domains of values: enjoyment, security, social power, achievement, sehxiirection, prosocial, restrictive conformity, and maturity. In addition, we have mapped values according to the interests they serve (individualistic vs. collectivist) and the type of goal to which they refer (terminal vs. instrumental). We postulated that the structural organization of value systems reflects the degree to which giving high priority simultaneously to different values is motivationajly and practically feasible or contradictory. To test our theory, we performed smallest space analyses on ratings given by subjects from Israel (N = 455) and Germany (N = 331) of the importance of 36 Rokeach values as guiding principles in their lives. Partitioning of the obtained multidimensional space into regions revealed that people do indeed discriminate among values according to our a priori specifications of goal types, interests served, and motivational domains in both societies. Moreover, the motivational domains of values are organized dynamically in relation to one another in both societies, as predicted by the patterns of compatible or contradictory motivation and practical consequences. We have noted additional values and domains possibly needed for a universal scheme as well as potential applications of this approach for comparing the meanings, structure, and importance of values across cultures, for analyzing relations between social structure and values, and for predicting and interpreting relations of values to attitudes and behavior.
3,381 citations
TL;DR: The SERVQUAL instrument and the perceptions-minus-expectations specification invoked by it to operationalize it are discussed in this paper, where the authors respond to concerns raised by Cronin and Taylor (1992) and Teas (1993).
Abstract: The authors respond to concerns raised by Cronin and Taylor (1992) and Teas (1993) about the SERVQUAL instrument and the perceptions-minus-expectations specification invoked by it to operationalize...
2,798 citations
TL;DR: The individualism and collectivism constructs are theoretically analyzed and linked to certain hypothesized consequences (social behaviors, health indices). as discussed by the authors explored the meaning of these constructs within culture within culture (in the United States), identifying the individual-differences variable, idiocentrism versus all-theory, that corresponds to the constructs and found that U.S. individualism is reflected in self-reliance with competition, low concern for groups, and distance from groups.
Abstract: The individualism and collectivism constructs are theoretically analyzed and linked to certain hypothesized consequences (social behaviors, health indices). Study 1 explores the meaning of these constructs within culture (in the United States), identifying the individual-differences variable, idiocentrism versus allocentrism, that corresponds to the constructs. Factor analyses of responses to items related to the constructs suggest that UrS. individualism is reflected in (a) Self-Reliance With Competition, (b) Low Concern for Ingroups, and (c) Distance from Ingroups. A higher order factor analysis suggests that Subordination oflngroup Goals to Personal Goals may be the most important aspect of U.S. individualism. Study 2 probes the limits of the constructs with data from two collectivist samples (Japan and Puerto Rico) and one individualist sample (Illinois) of students. It is shown that responses depend on who the other is (i.e., which ingroup), the context, and the kind of social behavior (e.g., feel similar to other, attentive to the views of others). Study 3 replicates previous work in Puerto Rico indicating that allocentric persons perceive that they receive more and a better quality of social support than do idiocentric persons, while the latter report being more lonely than the former. Several themes, such as self-reliance, achievement, and competition, have different meanings in the two kinds of societies, and detailed examinations of the factor patterns show how such themes vary across cultures.
2,787 citations
TL;DR: In this article, a conceptual model articulating the nature and determinants of customer expectations of service is proposed and discussed, specifying three different types of service expectations: desired service, adequate service, and predicted service.
Abstract: A conceptual model articulating the nature and determinants of customer expectations of service is proposed and discussed. The model specifies three different types of service expectations: desired service, adequate service, and predicted service. Seventeen propositions about service expectations and their antecedents are provided. Discussion centers on the research implications of the model and its propositions.
2,605 citations
01 Jan 1994
2,238 citations