Doctoral Dissertations

Date of Award

12-1995

Degree Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy

Major

Business Administration

Major Professor

Joseph O. Rentz

Committee Members

Robert Woodruff, Pratibha Dabholkar, James Schmidhammer, Mary Frances Drake

Abstract

Understanding of the process that leads from service quality to the bottom line is necessary if managers are to implement service quality improvements that will have a positive influence on business performance. This research investigates the relationships between consumers' perceptions and behaviors and business performance in a retail environment that offers a mix of tangible goods and services. The constructs of consumers' perceptions of service quality, merchandise quality, price, and value, as well as the constructs of consumer responses of attitude, loyalty, word-of-mouth, and repeat purchase behavior are identified, defined, and measured. Proposed relationships among these variables and business performance are depicted in the Process Model of the Business Performance Outcomes of Service Quality. These relationships are tested using a combination of qualitative (i.e., phenomenological and depth interviews, and in-store monitoring) and quantitative methods (i.e., correlation, regression, logistic regression, analysis of covariance, confirmatory factor analysis and structural equation modeling). Findings suggest that consumers' perceptions of service quality, merchandise quality, and price influence their perceptions of value, which, in turn, influences their behavioral responses of attitude, loyalty, word-of-mouth and repeat purchase.However, the indirect relationship between perceived service quality and business performance through the constructs of perceived value and customer retention, as hypothesized in this study, was not supported.

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