Assessing citizenss satisfaction with the public administrative services at chuong my district, hanoi city

ASSESSING CITIZENS’ SATISFACTION WITH THE PUBLIC
ADMINISTRATIVE SERVICES AT CHUONG MY DISTRICT,
HANOI CITY

A DISSERTATION
Presented to
the Faculty of the Graduate Program of the College of Arts and Sciences
Central Philippine University, Philippines
In Collaboration with
Thai Nguyen University, Vietnam

In Partial Fulfillment
Of the Requirements for the Degree
DOCTOR OF MANAGEMENT

By
NGUYEN VAN DUY
March 2018


ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

During the learning process, carrying out the research and completing the
dissertation, the researcher has been given the precious guidance and support from his
professors, relatives and friends. With his deepest gratitude, he would like to send his
regards to:
The administrative board of Thai Nguyen University of Economics and
Business Administration has created many favorable conditions to support him in the
process of study and fulfilling the dissertation;
Dr. Reynaldo Nene Dusaran, his academic supervisor as well as his beloved
teacher, has enthusiastically supported, guided, encouraged and created the

convenient conditions for me during the process of learning and completing the
dissertation;
Dr. Hoang Van Hao, his friend, is a respected person in his job as well as in
his life. He has encouraged, supported and consulted him much so that he can
complete this dissertation;
MA. Dang Thi Nam, Vice Chief of Office and all the staff at the One-StopShop Part of the People’s Committee of Chuong My district have guided and created
every favorable condition for him in the process of investigating and collecting data
so that I can complete this dissertation;
He would like to express my special thanks to the teachers in the dissertation
evaluation committee who have given many valuable contributions to fulfill this
dissertation;
He would also like to send his regards to the citizens using the public
administrative services at Chuong My District People’s Committee who have
answered the questionnaires in order to provide him with the research data;
His special thanks are also sent to his classmates in the PDM1 doctor class
who have encouraged and helped him in his difficult times.

i


Last but not least, he would like to express his gratitude to his parents, siblings
and his beloved wife who are always by his side to help him with his study and this
dissertation completion.
The Researcher

ii


TABLE OF CONTENTS

PAGE
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

i

LIST OF FIGURES

iii

LIST OF TABLES

iv

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS

v

CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION

1

Background and rationale of the study

1

Objectives of the Study

5

Hypotheses

6

Theoretical Framework

7

Conceptual Framework

17

Operational Definitions of variables

21

Significance of the Study

23

Scope and Limitations

24

CHAPTER II REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE AND STUDIES

26

Related Literature

26

Related Studies

39

CHAPTER III RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

46

Research Design

46

Population, Sample Size and Sampling Technique

48

Research Instruments

49

Data Gathering Procedure

53


Data Processing and Analysis

54

CHAPTER IV DATA PRESENTATION, ANALYSIS AND
INTERPRETATION

56

Demographic Characteristics of Respondents

56

Information Related to Usage of Public Administrative Services

58

Respondents’ Perception of Quality of the Public Administrative
Services and Emotional Value

61

Respondents’ Percieved Satisfaction with Public Administrative
Services

68

Relationship between Quality of Public Administrative Services,
Emotional Value and Citizens’ Satisfaction

69

Differences in Citizens’ Satisfaction by their Demographic
Characteristics

77

Differences in Citizens’ Satisfaction by their knowledge, experience and
sectors of public administrative services

80

CHAPTER V SUMMARY, CONCLUSIONS AND POLICY
RECOMMENDATIONS

84

Summary

84

Findings

84

Conclusions

85

Policy Recommendations

87

REFERENCES

97

APPENDIXES

107


`

LIST OF FIGURES

FIGURE

PAGE

Figure 1. 1. Conceptual Model of Service Quality by Parasuraman ........................10
Figure 1. 2. Performance Only Model (SERVPERF) (Martinez and Martinez, 2010)
...................................................................................................................................14
Figure 1. 3. Four Dimensions of PERVAL by Jillian C. Sweeneya and Geoffrey N.
Soutar ........................................................................................................................17
Figure 1. 4. Conceptual Framework of the Study .....................................................20
Figure 2. 1. The Kano Model ....................................................................................33
Figure 2. 2. The American Customer Satisfaction Index Model ..............................35
Figure 4. 1. Sources of Information about the Public Administrative Services which
Citizens Used ............................................................................................................61
Figure 4. 2. Result of Confirmatory Factor Analysis ................................................71
Figure 4. 3. Result of SEM at the Second Analysis ..................................................74
Figure 4. 4. Model of Factors Affecting Citizens’ Satisfaction with Public
Administrative Services ............................................................................................76

iii


LIST OF TABLES

TABLES

PAGE

Table 3. 1. List of Variables and Initial Items in the Survey Instrument ..................50
Table 3. 2. Results of Reliability Test of Scales .......................................................53
Table 4. 1. Distribution of Respondents as to Demographics Characteristics ..........57
Table 4. 2. Distribution of Respondents as to Information Related to the Use of
Public Administrative Services .................................................................................59
Table 4. 3. Descriptive Statistics of the Different Items in the Components of Public
Administrative Services Quality and Emotional Value ............................................64
Table 4. 4. Descriptive Statistics for Different Items of Citizens’ Satisfaction ........69
Table 4. 5. The Result of Standardized Regression Weights of CFA .......................72
Table 4. 6. The Results of Testing the Effect of Six Factors to Satisfaction ............73
Table 4. 7. The Results of Testing the Effect of Four Factors to Satisfaction ..........75
Table 4. 8. The Result of Standardized Regression Weights of Final SEM .............75
Table 4. 9. The Result of affects of independent variables .......................................76
Table 4. 10. Mean Citizens’ Satisfaction Score by Demographic Characteristics ...78
Table 4. 11. Mean Citizens’ Satisfaction Scores by Sectors, Experience and
Knowledge of Public Administrative Services .........................................................81

iv

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS

Symbol

Explanation

AMOS

the Analysis of Moment Structures

ANOVA

Analysis of Variance

CFA

Confirmatory Factor Analysis

CFI

Comparative fit index

GFI

Goodness of fit index

ISO

International Organization for Standardization

IT

Information Technology

KMO

Kaiser - Meyer - Olkin measure

NPM

New Public Management

OLS

Ordinary Least Square

OSS

One - Stop - Shop

PERVAL

Perceived Value

QFD

Quality Function Deployment

SEM

Structural Equation Modeling

Sig.

Significance

RMSEA

The root mean square error of approximation

SIPAS

Satisfaction index of public administrative service

SPSS

Statistical Package for the Social Sciences

TLI

Tucker and Lewis index

VFF

The Vietnam Fatherland Front

VAVN

The Veterans Association of Vietnam

v


ABSTRACT
ASSESSING CITIZENS’ SATISFACTION WITH THE PUBLIC
ADMINISTRATIVE SERVICES AT CHUONG MY DISTRICT,
HANOI CITY

NGUYEN VAN DUY
This study was conducted to evaluate the citizens' satisfaction with the
public administrative services at People’s Committee of Chuong My district. Data
were gathered from 460 respondents who used the public administrative services
at One-Shop-Stop (OSS) part of Chuong My district. The survey instrument was
tested for its reliability using the Cronbach’s Alpha. Confirmatory Factor Analysis
(CFA) was used to test how well the measured variables represent the number of
constructs.

The instrument was translated to Vietnamese to allow easy

understanding of the respondents and conducted in two month – February and
March 2017. All the data collected were processed using SPSS AMOS version
22. Analysis made use of descriptive statistics and Structural Equation Modeling
(SEM), t-test and Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) to test the hypotheses of the
study. The study revealed that most if not the majority of the respondents were
females, not more than 45 years old, university educated and working as
employee, civil servant or freelancer. The majority of the respondents at Chuong
My district used public administrative services of Certification of house ownership
and land use rights, once used public administrative services at OSS part of district
and have little knowledge of the services. The perceived satisfaction of the
respondents of the public administrative services of Chuong My district is

considered as “high”. There are no significant differences in the satisfaction of
respondents with the public administrative services by their demographic
characteristics, experience and knowledge level of public administrative services
as well as by sectors of public administrative services. Only four components of
public administrative services quality including Tangibility, Assurance, Empathy
and Emotional Value were significant determinants of satisfaction. Among the
vi


four factors, Assurance appeared to be the major determinant followed by
Empathy while Tangibility and Emotional Value showed to be the least.

vii


CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTION

BACKGROUND AND RATIONALE OF THE STUDY
Few would disagree with the premise that citizens want to be satisfied when
interacting with government. According to Oliver (1997), satisfaction itself was
defined as “a desirable end state of consumption and patronization” and “a
reinforcing, pleasurable experience.” Although this was mentioned by Oliver from a
customer’s perspective, this argument undoubtedly could be applied to citizens. Life
satisfaction of citizens should be a worthy goal for government.
One of the most significant challenges facing services organizations today is
to provide consistently high quality services. The delivery of consistent service
quality is arguably the most vital factors that contribute to the establishment of
credibility and reputation of the organizations in the eyes of the public. It is well
recognized that providing high quality services has a beneficial effect on the bottomline performance for the organization. Indeed, there is a growing body of empirical

evidence indicating that providing top quality services enhances profitability,
improves productivity, spreading positive word-of-mouth, increases market share and
return on investment, and reduces costs (Sachdev & Verma, 2004). Like many other
services organizations, public services organizations specifically those ones operating
at local government level, are not immune to the pressures to improve the quality of
their services on a continuous basis. Municipal authorities for example, face more
daunting tasks than those in the private sector in their efforts to provide excellent
service and maintain citizen satisfaction. A wide variety of influences are effectively
bringing about awareness of quality issues, and of concepts such as quality
management. Some of these influences arise directly from local authorities’ genuine
desire to enhance their public image by improving the quality of those services
provided to the community, while others come “imposed” or “forced” either by
means of public initiatives or through an increase in consumers’ awareness of their
rights. Quality is a pivotal factor for the transformation of municipal services and a
critical driving force for better citizen satisfaction (Rodríguez, Burguete, Vaughan &
1


Edwards, 2009). Efficient and effective delivery system becomes the main focus of
the government of many countries due to insistence and hopes from society for local
authorities giving their services up to the quality standard as expected by the tax
payers (Wan Yusof, Ismail & Newell, 2008). However, providing high quality and
cost-effective public services is not an easy task. It involves creating organizations
with the right approaches, establishing clear ways of how to deliver services and
putting the right people in place to respond to the needs of citizens. It also requires a
combination of good policy development, successful implementation, a good
understanding of citizens’ needs and expectations, appropriate resources and
technology, a responsive organizational culture and well trained staff. At the same
time, municipalities must balance the revenue they received with the high cost of
providing more efficient services demanded by citizen. Understanding exactly what

the citizens expect is the most important step in defining and delivering quality
service. Gaining citizen feedback provides valuable insight into how well the
municipal authority meets their customers’ needs. The information can be used in
quality improvement programs to help municipal councilors recognize opportunities
to improve services and creation of a positive perception among citizen. Quantitative
assessments of service quality can also identify gaps between citizens’ perceptions of
municipal services and that of councilors. Finally, service quality assessments can be
used as a strategic tool for marketing municipal services.
Expectations regarding the role of public administrations in modern societies
have radically changed during the last decade. Globalization and the rapid
development of information and communication technologies have contributed to a
new dynamics of social development, as well as to a new perception of the methods
of public administration. Instead of the traditionally hierarchical, authoritative and
regulatory model of public administration, a new model is gaining importance; one
based on negotiations, dialogue and partnership with various social actors working
jointly for public good. Vietnam, as well as many other countries, has been trying to
reform public administration. It is both urgent and long work. Public administration
reform in Viet Nam, which was embarked on from the 1990s, has aimed to improve
the country’s public administration system to make it respond better to the needs for
more effective governance when Vietnam is building the socialist oriented market
2


economy. The ultimate objective of the reform process is to build a public
administration system that is democratic, clean, strong, professional, modernized,
effective and efficient; a socialist rule by law state of the people, by the people, and
for the people; a force of civil servants capable and qualified to fulfill assigned tasks,
contribute to develop a healthy and well-oriented society, proactively serving the
people in their daily life, and promote the lifestyle of obeying the law in work and
life. In order to achieve the reform goals and objectives, public administration reform

has been put in place as an objective requirement with a view to creating
preconditions for and promotes economic reform (Le Dan, 2011).
Chuong My is a suburban district situated in the southwest of Hanoi and 20
kms far away from the centre of Hanoi capital; with a population size of 337,600
citizens. The overall natural size of this district is 232.9 km2 and is the third largest
size district of the city. This district has 32 administrative units at communal level
including 30 communes and 2 townships. The Kinh ethic group accounts for the
majority, the Muong ethnic group has a hamlet (Dong Ke hamlet belonging to Tran
Phu commune); besides, there are some minor ethnic groups living unevenly in
communes and townships. The administrative centre of this district is situated in Chuc
Son township.
Currently, Chuong My District People’s Committee has announced and
carried out the quality management system at the District People’s Committee
compatible with the national standard TCVN ISO 9001:2008 in delivering the public
administrative services. As the current requirement, Chuong My District People’s
Committee delivers public administrative services at district level on main fields such
as justice, culture-sport and family, planning-investment, traffic-transportation,
environmental resources, industry and trade, labour-society and some other fields.
Among of them, the field resources-environemnt (mainly Certification of house
ownership and land use rights), finance-planning and urban management are the
fields with most deals. Some public administrative services are implemented at
specialized parts of district and most of the public administrative services are
delivered by Chuong My district via OSS mechanism and Inter-agency OSS
mechanism, under Regulation to implement OSS and Inter-agency OSS mechanism
3


at public administration agencie (Decision No. 07/2016/QD‐UBND dated March
08th 2016 of People’s Committee of Hanoi City). According to this, at the District
People’s Committee has “Receiving and Giving Back the Results Part” (OSS part) in

delivering public administrative services. This part is under the control and
management of People’s Committee Office and Chuong My District People’s
Committee. A deputy chief of this office is responsible for activity of this part.
Carrying out the regulations of Hanoi city, The People’s Committee of Chuong My
District has delivered the decision No 7066/QD-UBND on the 27th of September in
2016 which promulgates the rules and regulations in delivering public aministrative
services to citizens. In 2016, OSS part of Chuong My District has received 36 433
files of citizens (has solved 36 232 files and 201 files have been received to be
solved). Among 36 232 files which have been solved, the number of files with results
given back to the citiens on time is 36 200 files (accounting for 99,9%) and there are
only 32 files (accounting for 0,1% of the files solved).
Realizing the difficulties and obstacles in delivering the public
administrative services, the District Committee Permanent Board has decided a
matter considered to be a decisive change to the new “face” of the current ‘onestop shop’ part. The resolution number 05 - NQ/HU (2011) clearly pointed out the
disadvantages and weaknesses as the requirements of innovating the administrative
procedures in district areas. The objective of innovating the administrative
comprehensively with a focus is to create a remarkable improvement and enhance
the effectiveness of the state agency. The District People’s Committee has built and
carried out the project of innovating and completing the cooperation mechanism
clearly, boosted the building, arrangement the apparatus and staff; innovated the
public administrative; modernized the administrative mission on the basis of
applying the IT.
At Chuong My district, public administration reform over the past years have
resulted in significant improvements and step-by-step change in the organization and
operation of the public administration apparatus, which have promoted reform and
renovation in every walk of life and significantly contributed to social - economic
development of the City. However, considering seriously, people and local leaders
4

still have not been satisfied with the result of the administrative reform at present.
There are still shortcomings and weaknesses, such as unsystematic and inconsistent
institutions, unclear mandates and tasks in public administration at the macro level,
backward operation styles and manners. The propaganda is still weak in the public
administration system which is embedded with legacy of the central planning period
and which fails to keep pace with the requirements of the new era. People and
businesses are still having trouble, inconvenience in many areas, such as applying for
a certificate of residential use, residential and building permits.
Therefore, innovating public service delivery and improving quality service
delivery in the public sector are extremely important. Besides state management
function, the serving function of the state to provide necessary services for people to
realize their rights and their obligations should be focused now more than ever. In
recent years, even though administrative procedures have been reformed, but they
have still caused difficulties, inconveniences and troubles to citizens and
organizations. For these reasons, the evaluation of the quality of public services that
government agencies provide is still an important concern. Thus, the topic “Assessing
Citizens’ Satisfaction with the Public Administrative Services at Chuong My
District, Hanoi City” as a dissertation to assess the quality of the public
administrative services and level of satisfaction of citizens with these services at
Chuong My district, Hanoi city is deemed necessary.
This study is carried out to address these following research questions:
- How do citizens perceive public administrative services at the People’s
Committee of Chuong My district?
- What are the factors related to citizens’ satisfaction with the public
administrative services provided by the Chuong My district?
- What are some recommendations for improving the citizens’ satisfaction
with the public administrative services at Chuong My district?
OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY
The main objective of this study was to evaluate the citizens' satisfaction with
public administrative services at People’s Committee of Chuong My district. The

5


results would be used to identify appropriate solutions to improve the quality of
public administrative services, improve the citizens' satisfaction in the future.
Specifically, the study aimed to:
1. Describe the socio-demographic profile of the respondents;
2. Determine the perceived quality of public administrative services of the
People’s Committee of Chuong My district in term of Tangibility, Reliability,
Responsiveness, Asurance, Empathy and Emotional value;
3. Determine the citizens’ satisfaction with the public administrative services
at the People’s Committee of Chuong My district;
4. Examine the differences in the citizens’ satisfaction according to their
personal characteristics;
5. Identify the factors affecting the satisfaction level of citizens with public
administrative services at the People’s Committee of Chuong My district;
6. Propose appropriate recommendations to increase level of satisfaction of
citizens who use the public administrative services at Chuong My district.
HYPOTHESES
Based on the objectives of the study, the following hypotheses were tested:
H1. There is no significant relationship between the citizens’ perceptions of
dimensions of public administrative services quality (as reliability, tangibility,
responsiveness, assurance, empathy) and the citizens’ satisfaction with the public
administrative services at Chuong My district;
H2. There is no significant relationship between the citizens’ perceptions of
emotional value and the citizens’ satisfaction with the public administrative services
at Chuong My district;
H3. There are no significant differences in the satisfaction of the citizens with
public administrative services at Chuong My district by their demographic
characteristics such as gender, age, educational attainment, occupation;

6


H4. There are no significant differences in the satisfaction of the citizens with
the public administrative services at Chuong My district by sectors of public
administrative services, their knowledge about and their experience on public
administrative services.
THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK
Customer satisfaction has been recognized as one of the most important
elements of contemporary marketing thought, particularly in the case of service sector
and one of the main goals in marketing. Because satisfied customers tend to maintain
their consumption pattern or consume more of the same product or service, customer
satisfaction has become an important indicator of the future behavior. Due to its
centrality, various theories and models have been developed in an effort to define the
construct and explain satisfaction in different products/services and consumption
stages.
Marketing scholars are divided over the antecedents of service quality and
satisfaction. Some researchers believe that service quality leads to satisfaction while
others think otherwise. Empirical studies regarding this issue support the assertion
that service quality is the antecedent of satisfaction. Within this causal ordering,
satisfaction is described as a post-consumption evaluation of perceived quality. It is
an emotional state that results from experiencing a service quality encounter and
comparing that encounter with what was expected. Rust and Oliver (1994) offer
support for this position in their suggestion that quality is “one of the service
dimensions factored into the consumers’ satisfaction judgment”. As consumer
perceive a widening gap between expected and desired levels of service, feeling of
dissatisfaction will increasingly develop.
As a result of the prominence given to service quality evaluation, the leading
models used are destined to come under close scrutiny with respect to applicability

and serviceability application. This is because no one model will be ideally suited to
a particular application. Extensive research has been conducted to improve on the
service quality measurement. The problem of service quality evaluation is

7


complicated for two reasons: human presence and service intangibility, and the
dependence on the delivery process (Parasuraman et al., 1996).
Defining an evaluation standard independent of any specific service context
has resulted in several methodologies (Carman, 1990). According to Franceschini,
Cignetti and Caldara (1998), a vast array of literature provides insight to the service
quality evaluation methodologies typically used in practice. Several models have
been developed, and it seems that no one model has been adjudged superior and
applicability is determined after final data analysis. Of the models most
recommended, a process of analyses and elimination was duly followed and resulted
in a choice between the SERVQUAL (Parasuraman et al., 1988) and SERVPERF
(Cronin & Taylor, 1992) models.
SERVQUAL model
SERVQUAL is a conceptual model that was originally developed in 1985. It
is a concise multiple-item scale with good reliability and validity that firms can use
to better understand the service expectations and perceptions of their customers
(Campbell, 1960 and Peter, 1981 in Parasuraman, et al. 1988; Zeithaml et al., 1990).
Service quality is evaluated by calculating the gap difference between what the
customer expects and what they really perceive. Following SERVQUAL refinement,
Parasuraman et al., (1991) added an extra section that is designed to measure the
importance of each service quality dimension. This refined model also saw the
removal of the nine negatively worded (reverse scoring concept) statements in the
responsiveness and empathy dimensions. The development of the SERVQUAL
instrument followed a similar process which resulted in a generic instrument with

good reliability and validity and broad applicability. It was designed to serve as a
diagnostic methodology to identify areas in an organization’s service quality
shortfalls and strengths (Parasuraman et al., 1991). According to Parasuraman et al.
(1988), the conceptual foundation for the SERVQUAL scale was created by a small
group of researchers (Sasser, Olsen & Wyckoff, 1978). Thereafter, Parasuraman et
al. (1985) undertook a vast qualitative study that enabled them to define service
quality and develop the dimensions to facilitate consumer perception and evaluation

8


measurement. They assert that service quality can be understood, measured, and
positively changed.
One of the most useful measurements of service quality is the dimensions from
the SERVQUAL model. In the creation of this model for the very first time,
“Parasuraman et al. (1985) identified 97 attributes which were condensed into ten
dimensions. They were found to have an impact on service quality and were regarded
as the criteria that were important to assess customer’s expectations and perceptions
on delivered service. The scale purification verification can be conducted by the
statistical technique of factor analysis (amongst others, for example multiple
regression). Typically, a test study is conducted with a sample and the listed
individual attributes will be grouped and loaded into a number of categories or factors
which will later acquire appropriate labels relevant to that particular factor
(dimension). The relative strength of the relationship between the single item attribute
and the variable can then be identified. The dependent variable is usually a customer
satisfaction index. The individual attributes showing a weak relationship with overall
customer satisfaction can then be removed from the list. The closer the relationship
and distinctive factor grouping, the better the indication of validity (Naumann & Giel, 1995).
Factor analysis is described (Asubonteng et al., 1996) as a tool used to
determine which of the individual item statements are measuring dimension number

one, number two and so on, and which questions do not distinguish between
dimension or the number of dimensions in the data set. As mentioned previously,
questions that were not clearly related to a dimension are deleted.

9


Word-of-mouth
Communications

Personal Needs

Past experience

Expected Service

Gap 5
Perceived Service

PROVIDER

Service Delivery

Gap 4

External
Communication To
Customers

Gap 3

Gap 1

Service Quality
Specs
Gap 2
Management
Perceptions of
Customer Expectation

Figure 1. 1. Conceptual Model of Service Quality by Parasuraman

The SERVQUAL scale which is also known as the gap model (Figure 1.1) by
Parasuraman, et al. (1988) has been proven to be one of the best ways to measure the
quality of services provided to customers. This service evaluation method has been
proven consistent and reliable by some authors (Brown et al., 1993). They held that,
when perceived or experienced service is less than the expected service; it implies
less than satisfactory service quality; and when the perceived service is more than
expected service, the obvious inference is that service quality is more than
satisfactory (Jain et al., 2004). From the way this theory is presented, it seems that
the idea of SERVQUAL best fits the evaluation of service quality from the customer’s
perspective. This is because when it is stated “perceived” and “expected” service, it
is very clear that this goes to the person, who is going to or is consuming the service;
who definitely is the consumer/customer.
10


Gap 1: The first gap is about the difference between actual customers’
expectation and the idea of the management team about customers’ expectations. The
reasons for the gaps may be the lack of marketing orientation. The organizations are

not able to provide their customers a clear view of the services they are going to
provide. It may be also inadequate information from the company to the costumers.
The other factor is the structure of the organizations which includes too many levels
of management. In order to reduce the first gap of the model, the organizations should
enhance the research activities so that they can observe and recognize the customers’
needs and wants.
Gap 2: This gap is about the wrong service quality standards provided by the
organizations. In other words, it explains the inconsistency of quality specifications
with supplier’s perceptions of the quality expectation of the customers. The reason
for this gap is the insufficient dedication towards the service quality. The planning in
the organizations may be poor and also it may lack of goal-setting. This problem is
also associated with the first gap of the model. It can also be possible that the
management has the sufficient information about customers’ expectations, but the
planning may still fail. The management of the organizations should be in good
contact with the service provider when making plans so that the plans that they make
can be smoothly implemented.
Gap 3: This gap is about the uncertain role and role conflict. It also means that
the quality services are not met by employing unskilled or wrong person in the
organization. They should be well trained and highly skilled for the jobs. The reason
of the existence of the gap could be lack of technology and perceived control. Lack
of team work also affects the service of the organization. The improvements can be
made through changing the control systems to be more uniform by training the staff
and good team work.
In many cases, even the skills and attitudes of the staff cause problems. As
there could be the people who cannot adapt to the requirements of the systems, it is
necessary to make the improvement in the recruiting procedures.
Gap 4: This gap in the model illustrates the inconsistency of the promises of
the delivered service to the customers. A gap may be formed if the marketing and
11

production are not managed in a proper way. Mostly the customers are influenced by
what they hear and see about the company. Therefore, the people will go for it rather
than choosing other organizations hoping to get the quality service. But sometime the
company cannot fulfil all the requirements of the customers which are mentioned in
the campaigns. This could be another reason for widening the gaps. For the
improvement, there should be external marketing communication campaigns with
service production and service delivery. Over promising should also be avoided in
order to narrow the gap. If this gap is not taken into consideration, then it can lead to
negative customer perception.
Gap 5: This gap shows the difference between the customers’ expectation and
their perceptions of the delivered service. Customers expect certain kind of services
from certain companies. Customers’ expectations are influenced by personal needs,
word of mouth recommendation and experience of past service. This gap in the
companies can bring negative influences on the image of the company.
The use of the SERVQUAL model makes it easier to assess the service quality
from the customer’s perspective and also helps in tracking the customers’
expectations and perceptions over time and also the differences between them. It also
allows the organizations to compare their service with other competitors providing
the same service and hence to improve in their service for better quality and customer
satisfaction. In the SERVQUAL model there are five different gaps which show the
weaknesses of the company in fulfilling customer needs. Gap analysis is used to
identify and correct gaps between the desired level of the customers and the actual
level of performance provided by the organizations.
In practice, the SERVQUAL instrument forms the service quality framework
and when utilized, it should as far as possible be maintained in its entirety
(Parasuraman et al., 1991). The same authors further suggest that it may be
appropriate to make minor changes to the original wording in order to align it to a
specific application. They also state that during such a refinement process, specific
content may need to be added to supplement the instrument. These new items would

however need to be similar in form to the existing items. Parasuraman et al. (1998)
advise that while items may be relevant to a specific application, the same may not
12


be true for a different service provider’s application which may require the rewording
to some of the item statements. This adaptation comes under regular scrutiny and
criticism, and is associated with the positive and negative wording dilemma of the
original SERVQUAL 22-item pair statements. The negative wording format is in
accordance with the recommendations for scale development. This requires
approximately half the 22-item statement pair to be worded positively and the
remainder negatively (Churchill, 1979). According to Babakus and Boller (1992),
“this procedure is assumed to reduce the potential “yea” and “nay” saying from
respondents”. Babakus and Boller (1992) claim that this procedure could produce
method factors that will ultimately lead to the two SERVQUAL dimensions of
responsiveness and empathy being completely loaded with negatively worded items.
They also claim that this aspect could compromise the factor structure and trait
validity of the SERVQUAL instrument. In order to evaluate the effects of negative
wording on factor structure, Babakus and Boller (1992) conducted factor analysis test
that produced evidence to illustrate distinctive loading patterns for the positively and
negatively worded statements. From their findings, they suggest that the direction of
wording can create data quality problems and the potential for respondent errors
which could generate a method factor. Together with their own study results, and
based on their observations on the factor structure of SERVQUAL as provided by
Parasuraman et al. (1988), Babakus and Boller (1992) suggest that SERVQUAL may
have validity problem and that users must exercise caution. According to their
research on the measurement literature, they also suggest caution with respect to
analysis of data obtained from mixed item wording (negative and positive) and the
use of the difference scores approach (difference scores = perceptions –
expectations).

According to the developers (Parasuraman et al., 1991), SERVQUAL can be
used as a diagnostic measure to identify all areas of a company’s service quality
strengths and weaknesses. The intent of Parasuraman et al., (1988) during scale
purification of the original SERVQUAL instrument was to produce a scale that would
have general applicability across a broad spectrum of service organizations. Apart
from its many potential applications, Parasuraman et al., (1988) suggest that
13


SERVQUAL can be used periodically to track service quality trends which in turn
will supplement other forms of service quality measurement.
SERVPERF Model
Service quality can be measured by the performance-based SERVPERF scale
as well as the gap-based SERVQUAL scale. Cronin and Taylor (1992) developed
SERVPERF which is a performance-only model for measuring service quality with
empirical studies in banking, pest control, dry cleaning, and fast food sectors. They
have developed a service quality scale in respect to the dimensions of expectation (22
items-same as SERVQUAL), performance (22 items-same as SERVQUAL),
importance (22 items-same as SERVQUAL), future purchase behavior(1 item),
overall quality (1 item), and satisfaction (1 item) which were measured by sevenpoint semantic differential scale. This study showed that service quality was
measured as an attitude, the marketing literature supported the performance-based
measures, and the SERVPERF explained more of the variation in service quality than
SERVQUAL. SERVQUAL had a good fit in banking and fast food sectors whereas
SERVPERF had an excellent fit in all four industries-banking, pest control, dry
cleaning, and fast food. Brady et al. (2002) mentioned that SERVPERF was the most
superior model among all service quality models and they performed a replication
and an extension of SERVPERF and supported the results of Cronin and Taylor
(1992) in different sectors such as spectator sports, entertainment, health care, longOverall service
quality (P)

Dimension l

Dimension k

(P)

(P)

Figure 1. 2. Performance Only Model (SERVPERF) (Martinez and Martinez, 2010)
14


distance carriers, and fast food. Stafford et al. (2011) assessed the fit and stability of
service quality models, and emphasized that service quality can be measured using
both expectations and perceptions (SERVQUAL) or perceptions alone (SERVPERF).
Emotional Value by Jillian C. Sweeneya and Geoffrey N. Soutar
The use of the concept of perceived value has become an interested topic since
decades ago, yet the consensus regarding its definition and the concept has not been
obtained and remains unclear. It has been proven that the use of the concept of
customer perceived value does not only result in creating more satisfied customer,
but more importantly it is also found to have direct effect on customer repurchase
intention and loyalty (Lin et al., 2005). In simple words, the more benefits the product
or the service offer, the more satisfied the customer, thus the higher chances that lead
to positive behavior. According to Hartnett (1998), if a company contents its
customers’ wants, it can be said that this company is supplying value that gets it in a
much powerfull status in the long term.
The lack of agreement related to the definition and conceptualization of
perceived value among the scholars have indicated that perceived value can be
described as the complex construct (Lapierre, 2000). The differences of opinions can
be seen from two major perspective or view of perceived value; those are as

unidimensional construct and multi-dimensional construct (Sanchez-Fernandez and
Iniesta-Bonillo, 2007). Although the majority of the researchers agree that perceived
value should be considered as multi-dimensional construct. Sanchez-Fernandez and
Iniesta-Bonillo (2007) concluded that the critics among the researchers have
contended that multidimensional construct are conceptually ambiguous, the
dimensions explained are less variant and the relationships between the dimensions
and other construct somehow are confound. However, this lack of agreement does
not mean to have no consensus at all in conceptualizing perceived value. The general
concept that can be understood is that perceived value involves the relationship
between customer and the product (Holbrook, 1996) which is strongly related to the
utility or benefits the customer get in return for the money or any other cost they
spend (Zeithaml, 1988) including both cognitive and affective aspect Holbrook and
Hirschman (1982). As defined by Zeithaml (1988), perceived value is “... the
15