The Evaluation of Service Quality by Socially Responsible Customers

Simple item page
dc.contributor.authorWattanakamolchai, Somyoten
dc.contributor.committeechairMurrmann, Suzanne K.en
dc.contributor.committeememberKhan, Mahmood A.en
dc.contributor.committeememberMcGehee, Nancy G.en
dc.contributor.committeememberSevert, Denver E.en
dc.contributor.departmentHospitality and Tourism Managementen
dc.date.accessioned2014-03-14T20:08:30Zen
dc.date.adate2008-04-02en
dc.date.available2014-03-14T20:08:30Zen
dc.date.issued2008-03-17en
dc.date.rdate2008-04-02en
dc.date.sdate2008-03-25en
dc.description.abstractThe socially responsible customer segment is growing. Increasingly, customers are concerned about social, political, and environmental issues. These concerns have been shown to affect their attitudes towards the quality of goods and services as well as their buying behaviors. Nevertheless, there is a paucity of empirical research in the service literature on socially responsible customers. This study investigates the role that social responsibility plays in measuring service quality. Both qualitative and quantitative techniques were used in this study. Focus group and in-depth interviews were conducted to develop a scale measuring the social responsibility dimension in the evaluation of service quality. Confirmatory factor analysis and a multiple regression method were then utilized to test four hypotheses postulated in the study. The social responsibility scale consisted of eight items and was shown to be highly reliable. This scale along with the 22 items from the perception part of SERVQUAL formed the Socially Responsible Customer (SRC) SERVQUAL instrument used in this study. A total of 803 respondents completed the survey. The results of confirmatory factor analysis showed that social responsibility was a salient dimension of service quality and highly socially responsible customers used the concept of social responsibility more pronouncedly than the others when evaluating service quality. The social responsibility dimension alone significantly explained the variance in service quality. However, after accounting for the existing five SERVQUAL dimensions, the social responsibility dimension does not add a significant increment to the variance explained by the service quality regression model.en
dc.description.degreePh. D.en
dc.identifier.otheretd-03252008-170146en
dc.identifier.sourceurlhttp://scholar.lib.vt.edu/theses/available/etd-03252008-170146/en
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/10919/26501en
dc.publisherVirginia Techen
dc.relation.haspartWattanakamolchai_Dissertation.pdfen
dc.rightsIn Copyrighten
dc.rights.urihttp://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/en
dc.subjectService Qualityen
dc.subjectSocial Responsibilityen
dc.subjectSocially Responsible Customersen
dc.subjectEvaluation of Service Qualityen
dc.subjectDimensions of Service Qualityen
dc.titleThe Evaluation of Service Quality by Socially Responsible Customersen
dc.typeDissertationen
thesis.degree.disciplineHospitality and Tourism Managementen
thesis.degree.grantorVirginia Polytechnic Institute and State Universityen
thesis.degree.leveldoctoralen
thesis.degree.namePh. D.en

Files

Original bundle
Now showing 1 - 1 of 1
Thumbnail Image
Name:
Wattanakamolchai_Dissertation.pdf
Size:
814.34 KB
Format:
Adobe Portable Document Format
Download

Collections

Doctoral Dissertations
Theses and Dissertations, Hospitality and Tourism Management (HTM)