To streamline and improce their service delivery systems, service organizations have much to learn from their manufacturing counterparts in the use of quality and process improvement tools. The purpose of this article is to present a practical framework which integrates these tools in order to enhance the efficiency and customer orientation of service delivery systems. Two examples are used to illustrate the application of the framework. Also practical guidelines to facilitate the implementation of the proposed framework are offered.

A service recovery performance model is proposed and tested with data from frontline bank employees in Turkey. The model is derived from Bagozzi's (1992) reformulation of attitude theory. The empirical results suggest that top management commitment to service quality, as manifested by frontline employees' appraisal of training, empowerment, and rewards, has a significant effect on their perceptions of service recovery performance. The influence of management commitment to service quality on service recovery performance is mediated by frontline employees' affective commitment to their organization and job satisfaction. Implications of the results and further research avenues are discussed.

By employing a multi-stage, multi-phase, and multi-sample approach, this paper reports on the construction of a service quality scale. Customer perceptions of service quality of retail banks in Northern Cyprus serve as the study setting. The parsimonious 20-item four-dimensional scale consisting of service environment (four items), interaction quality (seven items), empathy (five items), and reliability (four items) exhibits sound psychometric properties. Scale development procedures and managerial applications of the derived scale are discussed.

The service sector is the fastest growing segment of the economy, responsible for 75% of the GNP, and still growing. Its success is important to the global economy. Nonetheless, throughout the 20-year evolution of services marketing literature, research that guides theory, methodology, and practice for service success has remained underrepresented. Published research regarding the effect of customers' justice perceptions on customer satisfaction is primarily experimental and focuses only on service recovery after a service failure, providing insufficient information about how the justice experienced in a service encounter affects a customer's satisfaction level. Proactive and reactive service recovery research abounds; service failures have overshadowed service success. This is the first empirical research to investigate across service outcomes the effects 1) of interactional, distributive, and procedural justice on overall justice and customer satisfaction and 2) of overall justice on customer satisfaction. The theoretical model of the customer's path to loyalty adapts previous models of the service profit chain, customer satisfaction with service failure and recovery, and complaint handling relationships. It is a simplified version of the author's in-work conceptual model. The theoretical model has conceptual and practical value to researchers and service company executives. It considers all possible service encounter types and the heterogeneity of outcomes. It is supported by attribution and equity theories (the underpinnings of customer's justice judgments) and by behavioral intentions research. A cross-sectional written survey was used to gather data relevant to the eight hypotheses proposed and shown on the measurement model. Sixty percent of the 302 respondents recalled satisfying service encounters and 40% recalled dissatisfying service encounters. MANOVA testing supported the hypothesis of a positive relationship for extant prior experience to each of the justice constructs. The tested path analysis model showed direct and positive effects for the justice constructs on overall justice and customer satisfaction and for overall justice on customer satisfaction. When providers fairly address the people, outputs, and processes in service transactions, expectations are more likely to be met, delight is possible, and trust and commitment, possibly even loyalty, may arise. Disappointment and disconfirmation resulting from gaps in performance expectations can lead to non-attritive defection and lost profits. This research provides practical information that can lead to a better understanding of customers' evaluation methods and be used to guide the formation of improved service strategies that provide justice, a key to satisfaction. / Ph. D.

Abstract Customers are the main reason behind every companies’ survival in the market. And winning their interest has now become the concern for company owners and managers as well. However, many factors can affect the customer's satisfaction in the marketing environment. Among the determinants, service quality takes the most substantial part. Many Scholars have also identified the underlying relationships between these two constructs. Notably, the perception-expectation gap is a useful cue to determine their link. Thus, this research mainly relies on uncovering the customer's perception of service quality. As a result, the study is conducted in one of the biggest chain restaurant named Pizza Hut. And the author chooses the research location to be in Uppsala. Purpose This study has a two-fold research purpose in that it aims at measuring the perception of customers in the restaurant industry and examining the validity of DINESERV in Sweden's cultural context. Design/Methodology/approach The author has employed a convenience sampling technique to conduct the research and pre-developed questionnaires from the so-called DINESERV instrument. Additionally, factor analysis and Cronbach's alpha were used to check the validity and reliability of the model, respectively. The gap score was also computed using the means. Then finally, a spearman's correlation coefficient was calculated to test the strength of the relationship between the customer's satisfaction and service quality dimensions. Finding The analysis carried out proved that DINESERV is a valid instrument to measure customer's perception of service quality in Sweden's cultural context. Besides, the correlation between service quality dimension and customer satisfaction were validated using a spearman's rho. Lastly, the result from the gap score indicates that the two dimensions (i.e., responsiveness & reliability) were perceived as inferior by the customers. Research implications The theoretical finding suggests that DINESERV is the right instrument to measure the service quality of restaurants in Sweden's context. And the practical implication approves that pizza hut in Uppsala has two inferior dimensions that need continuous improvement. Lastly, the demographic characteristics of the respondents show that most of the customers are categorized under the younger age group (i.e., 18-36), and this information can be used for marketing purposes by the company. Key Words – DINESERV, Service quality, Customer satisfaction, Restaurant

This dissertation studies the potential paradoxical effects of alliance participation. Over the past two decades, alliance participation has become a popular firm strategy to obtain benefits that are difficult for a firm to obtain on its own. Yet, as firms increasingly participate in alliances, boundedly rational managers may not effectively manage all aspects of alliances to achieve intended alliance outcomes. Paradoxically, alliance participation may cause harm to the participating firms. To unveil an alliance paradox, this dissertation first examined the relationships between alliance portfolio attributes (i.e., alliance portfolio size, multilateral alliances, alliance partner country diversity, and alliance type) and customer service quality in the U.S. airline industry. Further, I examined whether alliance experience moderates the relationships between alliance portfolio attributes and customer service quality. Altogether, five hypotheses were tested. This dissertation relied exclusively on the longitudinal quarterly data of nine U.S. major airlines over a 20-year period between 1988 and 2007 that include Alaska Airlines, American Airlines, America West, Continental, Delta, Northwest, Southwest, United Airlines, and U.S. Airways. Data pertaining to alliance variables were collected from the Securities Data Company (SDC) database. Quarterly service quality data pertaining to customer complaint, mishandled baggage, on-time arrival, and involuntary denied boarding were collected from the Air Travel Consumer Report published by the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT). To detect the temporal effects of alliance portfolio attributes on service quality, a three-month lag was created between the alliances data and the service quality data. The results show that although the relationship between alliance portfolio attributes and service quality seems to be more complex than initially proposed, the overall finding confirms the existence of an alliance paradox in that increases in alliance portfolio size, partner country diversity and channel-dominated alliances (versus backward competitor-dominated alliances) are associated with decreases in certain key dimensions of service quality. This dissertation seeks to make several important contributions. First, by exploring the alliance paradox, this dissertation attempts to demonstrate that despite the anticipated alliance benefits such as cost reduction or revenue enhancement, managers need to be aware of the cost of alliance participation with respect to customer service quality, which has paramount impact on firm performance. Second, this dissertation also contributes to services marketing literature by investigating alliance portfolio attributes as antecedents of service quality. Third, this dissertation investigates whether firm-level alliance experience moderates the relationship between alliance portfolio attributes and service quality.

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