Business Commons^™

Consumer Attitude Toward Physician Practice Ownership: Propositions For Future Research, Gary Futrell

Association of Marketing Theory and Practice Proceedings 2024

Employed physicians now outnumber self-employed doctors, with approximately one-third of all U.S. physicians working for a hospital-owned or hospital-affiliated practice and many others employed at larger practices with 11 or more physicians. Consequently, the number of physicians working in small independent practices (those with 10 or fewer physicians) has dropped to nearly 15%. Management literature suggests that ownership of a firm can affect consumer attitudes. Specific to health care, significant research attention has been given to the implications of practice ownership from an operational, managerial, outcomes, and human resources perspective. However, little can be found to address the implications of …

Text Mining With Network Analysis Of Online Reviews And Consumers’ Satisfaction: A Case Study In Busan Wine Bars, Wei Fu, Eun Kyong Choi, Hak Seon Kim

Faculty and Student Publications

With the growth of internet technology, customers are sharing up their experiences. Hence, these types of customer experiences are spreading rapidly as a source of online reviews. For this reason, online reviews have become a critical source of information that influences customers’ purchase intentions and behavior. Thus, businesses should monitor online reviews to understand the customer experience and increase customer satisfaction and loyalty. This study attempts to identify essential characteristics for positive online reviews of wine bars and examine the structural relationships of these attributes. To accomplish this purpose, a total of 1,337 online reviews were collected from Google Travel …

Bank Consolidation And Its Effect On Service Quality, Thomas L. Powers, William S. Spears, Seongwon Choi

Association of Marketing Theory and Practice Proceedings 2022

The perceived quality of customer service plays a significant role in high involvement products and services. Previous research in the area of bank service quality suggests that as a bank is acquired the quality of service at the new larger bank does not equal what customers received at their old smaller bank. In addition, a newly consolidated bank may eliminate tailored services and create customer dissatisfaction due to higher fees, lower levels of service, and credit availability. Although prior research has focused on specific aspects of bank services, a contribution to the literature can be made by examining this topic …

To Fee Or Not To Fee? Satisfaction, Service Quality, And Support Of An Entrance Fee Of A State Park System, Hund-Ling Stella Liu, I-Chun Nicky Wu, Michael J. Bradley

Faculty Publications - Tourism

In the past decade, state government appropriation reductions have forced park agencies to seek other sources of revenue to support park operations. To overcome shrinking budgets, many public park agencies embrace private-sector business models and investigate customer satisfaction, service quality, and user fee structures. The purpose of this study was to obtain public input regarding service quality, general satisfaction, and experience use history of state park visitation. A total of 382 Oklahoma state park users completed an online survey and were sorted into Pro-Fee (n = 200,52%) and No-Fee (n = 182,48%) groups for one-way multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) …

Assessing The Market Niche Of Eurasian Rail Freight In The Belt And Road Era., Xu Zhang, Hans-Joachim Schramm

Articles

This paper presents an overview of the recent development of Eurasian rail freight in the Belt and Road era and further evaluates its service quality in terms of transit times and transport costs compared to other transport modes in containerised supply chains between Europe and China.

A trade-off model of transit time and transport costs based on quantitative data from primary and secondary sources is developed to demonstrate the market niche for Eurasian rail freight vis-a-vis the more established modes of transport of sea, air, and sea/air. In a scenario analysis, further cargo attributes influencing modal choice are employed to …

Understanding The Operating Landscape Of The Global Airline Industry: A Dea Integrated Alternating Conditional Expectation Approach, Joyce M. W. Low, Kum Khiong Yang

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

Purpose: This study investigates the relationships between service efficiency in 5 major cost centres (namely, business orientation, network coverage, physical resources, maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO), and human resources) and profitability in the global airline industry. Design/methodology: The study integrates the Slack-based Model (SBM) of Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) with the Alternating Conditional Expectation (ACE) regression to understand the relationships between an airline’s profitability and its efficiencies in 5 identified operations areas. Findings: Based on the observational data obtained from 75 international airlines, the relationships between operational performances and profitability are found to be curvilinear and contingent on an airline’s …

The Effects Of Loyalty Programs On Profits And Customer Retention, Kennylyn Miranda

Senior Capstone Projects

The purpose of study is to do an empirical analysis of the effects of customer loyalty and how it relates to customer retention and increases overall profits, particularly in the hospitality industry. The hospitality industry is continually changing and is encompassed in a highly competitive environment. Loyalty Programs are a form of marketing strategies that are set to attract, maintain, and enhance customer relationships (Yoo, 2011). The discussion of the study indicates that there is a significant increase in company profits due to customer retention and loyal customers.

In any business customer loyalty is a factor that drives the overall …

A Systematic Review Of Quality Of Student Experience In Higher Education, A Tan, B Muskat, A Zehrer

Business Papers and Journal Articles

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to identify and synthesize major streams of research on quality of student experience in higher education, in order to present an agenda for future research.

Design/methodology/approach: A systematic review of high quality journals published during the period 2000 to 2014 in the areas of quality of student experience and higher education was performed.

Findings: Findings highlight current research trends on the quality of student experience in higher education. Results show five prevailing research streams: 1) exploration of learning experience; 2) exploration of student experience; 3) gender differences in assessment of higher education experience; …

Examining The Relationship Between Customer Service, Efficiency And Financial Performance: An Application On The Egyptian Public Sector Banks, Madiha Metawie, Dalia Ahmed Elmosalamy

Business Administration

A sound, well-functioning banking system has an essential role in the economic development and sustained growth of any country. Egypt has faced two unexpected shocks; the global financial crisis at the end of 2008 and the recent 2011, January revolution. The Egyptian banking system in general and public banks in specific have shown resilience to the unexpected shocks in terms of solvency and liquidity. This study is important, examining the banking sector in an emerging Arab market that is rarely studied despite its growth potential and in a period of rapid political and economic changes. It tends to investigate empirically …

Data Envelopment Analysis In Service Quality Evaluation: An Empirical Study, Seyedvahid Najafi, Saber Saati, Madjid Tavana

Business Systems and Analytics Faculty Work

Service quality is often conceptualized as the comparison between service expectations and the actual performance perceptions. It enhances customer satisfaction, decreases customer defection, and promotes customer loyalty. Substantial literature has examined the concept of service quality, its dimensions, and measurement methods. We introduce the perceived service quality index (PSQI) as a single measure for evaluating the multiple-item service quality construct based on the SERVQUAL model. A slack-based measure (SBM) of efficiency with constant inputs is used to calculate the PSQI. In addition, a non-linear programming model based on the SBM is proposed to delineate an improvement guideline and improve service …

Hotel Guest E-Questionnaires: Implications For Feedback And Relationships, Alfred Ogle, Nadine Henley, Michelle Rowe, Sybe Jongeling, Stephen Fanning

Research outputs 2013

This paper examines the reliability and efficacy of hotel guest e-mail questionnaire compared to the paper questionnaire in the Asian Pacific context. Conducted in Perth, Singapore and Penang, cities with mature hospitality and tourism industries and a representation of chain and independent deluxe hotels, this exploratory qualitative study examines hotelier views of e-mail guest communication derived from content analysis of guest questionnaires format and content and in-depth interviews with senior hoteliers. The findings indicated that e-questionnaires manifested as e-mails, as a direct replacement of the paper questionnaire, appear to be premature given divergent hotelier views and shortcomings in email response …

Exploratory Factor Analysis, Daire Hooper

Books/Book Chapters

Factor analysis examines the inter-correlations that exist between a large number of items (questionnaire responses) and in doing so reduces the items into smaller groups, known as factors. These factors contain correlated variables and are typically quite similar in terms of content or meaning. Unlike other methods discussed in this book, exploratory factor analysis (EFA) does not discriminate between variables on whether they are independent or dependent, but rather it is an interdependence technique that does not specify formal hypotheses. It is in this sense it is ‘exploratory’ in nature as it allows the researcher to determine the underlying dimensions …

The Role Of National Culture On Relationships Between Customers’ Perception Of Quality, Values, Satisfaction, And Behavioral Intentions, Chao Wen, Hong Qin, Victor Prybutok, Charles Blankson

Faculty Research & Creative Activity

The purpose of this paper is to examine the influence of individualistic cultures (such as the American culture) and collectivistic cultures (such as the Chinese culture) on the interrelationship among service quality, food quality, perceived value, customer satisfaction, and behavioral intentions in the fast-food industry. First, the authors provide empirical evidence of the robust relationships among the constructs across diverse cultures. Second, they investigate how moderator variables such as customer age, gender, and national culture affect customer behavioral intentions. Moreover, they examine how national culture, as a moderator, affects the magnitude of the relationships among these constructs. Using survey data …

The Role Of National Culture On Relationships Between Customers’ Perception Of Quality, Values, Satisfaction, And Behavioral Intentions, Chao Wen, Hong Qin, Victor R. Prybutok, Charles Blankson

Faculty Research & Creative Activity

The purpose of this paper is to examine the influence of individualistic cultures (such as the American culture) and collectivistic cultures (such as the Chinese culture) on the interrelationship among service quality, food quality, perceived value, customer satisfaction, and behavioral intentions in the fast-food industry. First, the authors provide empirical evidence of the robust relationships among the constructs across diverse cultures. Second, they investigate how moderator variables such as customer age, gender, and national culture affect customer behavioral intentions. Moreover, they examine how national culture, as a moderator, affects the magnitude of the relationships among these constructs. Using survey data …

Optimal Service-Based Competition With Heterogeneous Suppliers, Ehsan Elahi, Saif Benjaafar, Karen L. Donohue

Management Science and Information Systems Faculty Publication Series

We investigate how a competition can be designed to maximize expected profit for a buyer who wishes to allocate demand among a diverse set of suppliers when his profit is dependent on the supplier’s service levels. The candidate suppliers are heterogeneous in their capacities and cost structures, and compete for shares of the buyer’s demand based on their promised service levels. To characterize the optimal competition, we first identify a family of allocation functions that are service maximizing, meaning they can intensify the competition to a point where each supplier provides its maximum feasible service level and the outcome of …

High-Versus Low-Context National Cultures: Preferences For Type Of Retailer And For Human Interaction, Gregory E. Osland, Bela Florenthal

Scholarship and Professional Work - Business

A purpose of this research is to investigate differences between low-and high-context national cultures in retail settings. In particular, we examined cultural differences in preference for human interaction while shopping, "emotional warmth" characteristics, perception of quality service, and retail channel preferences. As businesses more frequently employ multi-channel strategies in global settings, this topic of national culture gains importance and can shed light on key factors that shape consumers' retail preferences. Our findings indicate that national cultures differ in terms of retail channel preferences, preference for human interaction, and relationships between the two. Managerial implications and future research are addressed, as …

Clarifying The Ambiguities Between The Servicescape And Service Quality: A Field Study, Daire Hooper, Joseph Coughlan, Michael R. Mullen

Conference Papers

Service quality is commonly described as a multi-dimensional concept under which a range of dimensions are subsumed. The number of these dimensions can vary widely with no consensus as to what should be considered as a service quality sub-construct. The American stream of thought has drawn heavily on Parasuraman (1991; 1985; 1988) and his colleagues’ SERVQUAL model which consists of five key dimensions. While replications of the dimensional structure have proven difficult (Babakus and Boller 1992; Cronin and Taylor 1992; Finn and Lamb 1991; Gagliano and Hathcote 1994) the tangibles dimension has appeared repeatedly in service quality studies and almost …

The Influence Of The Servicescape On Post-Consumption Processes, Daire Hooper

Doctoral

The physical and atmospheric cues in service environments have long been accepted as potent contributors to consumers’ overall evaluations of their service experiences. Theoretical frameworks conceptualising how these environmental cues impact on both emotional and cognitive processes have been put forward, yet the empirical work supporting these theories has become highly disjointed with a great deal of confusion regarding what should be classified as an environmental stimulus. By integrating the extant literature, this dissertation attempts to overcome theoretical ambiguities and proposes a second order factor model of service environments, also known as the servicescape, which is subsequently tested using a …

Outsourcing Via Service Competition, Ehsan Elahi, Saif Benjaafar, Karen Donohue

Management Science and Information Systems Faculty Publication Series

We consider a single buyer who wishes to outsource a fixed demand for a manufactured good or service at a fixed price to a set of potential suppliers. We examine the value of competition as a mechanism for the buyer to elicit service quality from the suppliers. We compare two approaches the buyer could use to orchestrate this competition: (1) a Supplier-Allocation (SA) approach, which allocates a proportion of demand to each supplier with the proportion allocated to a supplier increasing in the quality of service the supplier promises to offer, and (2) a Supplier-Selection (SS) approach, which allocates all …

Service Quality From The Other Side: Information Systems Management At Duquesne Light, Pratyush Bharati, Daniel Berg

Management Science and Information Systems Faculty Publication Series

Service organizations are continuously endeavoring to improve their quality of service as it is of paramount importance to them. Despite the importance of understanding the relationship of service quality and information systems, this research has not been pursued extensively. This study has addressed this gap in the research literature and studied how information systems impacts service quality. A research model is developed based on IS success model. System quality, information quality, user IT characteristics, employee IT performance and technical support are identified as important elements that influence service quality. An in-depth case study from the electric utility industry is used …

Understanding The Interfaces: How Ocean Freight Shipping Lines Can Maximize Satisfaction, Srinivas Durvasula, Steven Lysonski, Subhash Mehta

Marketing Faculty Research and Publications

Physical distribution services are becoming increasingly important as supply chains strive to become more efficient in the logistical flow of goods to industrial customers. Performance of these services, however, takes place during encounters that customers have with various interfacing departments within the firm. These encounters may ultimately determine the level of satisfaction clients have with the service and the concomitant perceived quality. While previous research in this area has focused on service quality assessment, little attention has been given to determining the pattern of interfacing departments that maximize service satisfaction. This study examines a sample of shipping managers in Singapore …

Testing The Servqual Scale In The Business-To-Business Sector: The Case Of Ocean Freight Shipping Service, Srinivas Durvasula, Steven Lysonski, Subhash Mehta

Marketing Faculty Research and Publications

A key question is whether the instruments developed for consumer services can accurately gauge the service quality perceptions of organisational customers. Reports psychometric testing of the SERVQUAL as a measure of service quality in ocean freight services. Based on a survey of a cross-sectional sample of 114 business organisations in Singapore, which regularly utilise ocean freight services for their export needs, this study found that the psychometric properties of the SERVQUAL scale are at variance with those found in consumer services settings. Further, the SERVQUAL perceptions scores were found to be a better predictor than the SERVQUAL gap scores. In …

Relationships Between Servqual Dimensions And Organizational Performance In The Case Of A Business-To-Business Service, Subhash C. Mehta, Srinivas Durvasula

Marketing Faculty Research and Publications

A growing recognition of the critical differences between industrial and consumer services requires additional research emphasis on marketing of services in business-to-business context. Presents an application of SERVQUAL as a measure of service quality in Ocean Freight Services. Based on a cross-section sample of 114 business organizations in Singapore, which regularly utilize ocean freight services for their export needs, the study asked shipping lines for their heaviest used export routes and provide their overall evaluation of services provided by their preferred suppliers. Respondents also evaluated various interfacing departments in the shipping line and SERVQUAL measures on various service quality dimensions. …

Quality Managment In Services: Analysis And Measurement, Uday Apte, Uday Karmarkar, Richard Pitbladdo

Historical Working Papers

A methodology is proposed for analyzing and measuring service quality that will ensure that services reflect the preferences and expectations of customers.