Service quality is an integral part of the product/service offering provided to a customer. Along with continuously identifying customer expectations and perceptions about service quality, it is imperative for service providers to also investigate whether the service quality increases customer satisfaction and their behavioural intentions. This PhD study theoretically contributes by evaluating one comprehensive service quality model, SERVQUAL designed by Parasuraman et al. (1988), for its potential applicability. The study further contributes by identifying a gap in the literature that the original SERVQUAL model does not entirely represent LCC service quality therefore, LCCSQUAL is proposed: a revised conceptual model with twenty-five variables that reflect the industry-specific attributes of LCC services in the Middle East. LCCs became a common feature in the West after the appearance of Southwest airline in 1971, however in the Middle East; LCCs are a relatively new phenomenon. LCCs are growing rapidly due to the current development of the aviation industry, deregulation and open skies policies in many parts of the Middle East. Most research to date has focused on LCCs in Western or Asian culture, whereas limited research has been conducted in the Middle East region, hence, this study will focus on highlighting the historical development of the Middle East’s aviation industry and the phenomenal growth of the region’s LCCs. This research is first of its kind in the Middle East to be conducted on the LCC service quality as well as in a new cultural background and therefore, it is important to consider that passengers’ are influenced by their culture while making decisions, however; the original SERVQUAL model developed by Parasuraman et al. in (1985) does not include culture as one of the influences in consumer. This PhD study, therefore, bridges another gap in the knowledge by testing the LCCSQUAL in Middle Eastern culture. This PhD followed a multi methodology using both inductive and deductive approaches consisting of qualitative (interviews and a focus group discussion) and quantitative (a self-administered survey questionnaire) methods at Dubai International airport, which has a dedicated LCC terminal. A total of 540 questionnaires was distributed; however, only 516 were finally employed for quantitative analysis. For qualitative analysis, nine in-depth interviews with senior executives of LCC airlines and seven LCC passenger interviews was conducted along with one focus group interview with seven Emirati ladies, first time LCC travellers. Content analysis and NVivo 10 were utilised for qualitative findings and descriptive analysis, Spearman’s rank correlation, factor analysis and cross tabulation were employed to examine the quantitative results. Comparing the results of both methodologies indicated that, passengers experienced wider gaps in the tangibility, reliability and responsiveness dimensions of LCC service quality in the Middle East. The findings of the study concluded that LCC passengers have higher expectations of the LCC services due to receiving luxury services for a long time in the Middle East region. The revised model; LCCSQUAL was tested in the Middle Eastern culture with additional variables and is recommended to be further developed to be culture and country specific. Factor analysis results also highlighted that there are gaps between the expectations and perceptions of the passengers travelling with LCC. This study concludes with several recommendations to LCC management, such as, on-time performance, well-trained staff and crew members, providing clear information to the passengers and providing quality services with low fares.

I och med Internets utveckling och utbredning har fler och fler företag tagit steget in i e-handelsvärlden samtidigt som fler och fler konsumenter har börjat handla via internet. För att bli framgångsrik inom detta område krävs inte bara att man har en eftertraktad produkt utan också att den service som omgärdar produkten uppfyller de förväntningar kunderna har.I denna rapport kommer vi att undersöka vilka faktorer som påverkar konsumenternas uppfattning om ett e-handelsföretags nivå av servicekvalitet, vilka krav och önskningar en sittande målgrupp har på dessa faktorer samt hur väl ett urval webbaserade butiker uppfyller dessa krav och önskemål.Genom att gå igenom teorier berörande nischmarknader och därefter gå över till att se vad det är som gör att ett företag lyckas med e-handel, kan vi se vilka faktorer som är viktiga att ta hänsyn till. Vi granskar komponenter så som användarvänligheten och komforten i att använda sig av e-handel, kundanpassning, information kring företag och produkter, säkerhetsfrågor och känslan av trygghet vid köp och kommunikationen både mellan konsumenter och kund och företag. Ytterligare kommer vi titta på hur en hemsidas utseende påverkar köpupplevelsen och känslan av trygghet.Därefter blir det en granskning av hur företag idag arbetar med dessa aspekter, där vi tittat både på företag som vänder sig till en sittande målgrupp och de som vänder sig till icke funktionshindrade för att se skillnader och möjligheter för ett företag som arbetar mot sittande. Här ser vi dock att alla företag försöker arbeta utefter de aspekter vi lagt in i teorin, men de uppfyller de krav som ställs olika. Vi ser att de företag som arbetar mot en sittande målgrupp oftast inte arbetar lika väl med de faktorer som bygger upp en fungerande och framgångsrik e-handel.För att se vad vårt företags målgrupp anser är de viktiga faktorerna, och inte bara vad teorin säger genomförde vi en enkätundersökning som bekräftade att de faktorer teorin berör även är de krav som ställs av sittande. Dock kan vi se att önskningarna på vilka servicetjänster som ska ingå ibland är högre än vad som skrivits, exempelvis finns det önskningar på att få varorna hemkörda och att även returerna ska plockas upp vid dörren. Vi ser att de företag som har en sittande målgrupp bör arbeta betydligt mer med utformningen av sin hemsida, utöka beskrivningen av plaggen och använda sig av mer informativa bilder på plaggen för att möta kundernas krav. Någonting som i dag görs av de granskade e-handelföretag som riktar sig mot en icke funktionshindrad målgrupp.Vi ser alltså att företagen behöver anpassa inte bara sina produkter utefter sin målgrupp utan även de kringtjänster de arbetar med för att möta sina kunders krav och önskemål. Det är således av stor vikt att beakta de faktorer vi i denna rapport beskrivit för att uppnå en väl fungerande e-handel.Vidare önskar vi mer forskning på vissa delar utav e-handel, exempelvis hur man i mindre företag kan arbeta för att implementera kundernas önskningar på ett effektivt sätt som är ekonomiskt hållbart.In this article we will investigate the factors affecting the costumers’ opinions about service quality among e-commerce. We will particularly investigate the demands a wheelchair bound has on these factors and study how a selection of online retailer meets these demands. This we have done by reading articles and studies on niche markets. And after that we have studied which factors making it possible for a company to succeed in e-commerce, what things an online retailer should consider as most important. Here we have found and looked at components such as user-friendliness, comfort, customization, information, security and the sense of security, communication and aesthetics.When we had enough information we stared to investigate how companies are working with service quality at the moment, both those whom have a target group that are wheelchair bound and those whom are working with a target group that has no disabilities. This we have done to see if there are any differences in their work. In these studies we found that most companies are trying to work with the factors we discussed in the theory, even though the level of their reach is very different. We have found that those companies working towards a non-disabled target group has reach further than those with a target group using wheelchairs.Even though the theory support these thought of important factors we decided to try if our target group (wheelchair bound) think the same. Bu using a questionnaire we asked a few from our target group about this and they supported our theories. Sometimes their demands on the service quality factors were even higher than we thought, for example they requested their products to be delivered to their homes and the returns to be picked at their doors. What we can see the companies working towards a wheelchair bound target group should work furthermore with their websites and use better product information than they are nowadays.So from what we can see the companies working towards wheelchair users should use these service quality factors in a better way and should try to meet their customers’ demands even better. / Program: Textilekonomutbildningen

Inom modebranschen växer konkurrensen sig allt större och fler modeföretag satsar på fast fashion som konkurrensstrategi. Konsumenterna har idag ett starkare modeintresse än någonsin vilket gör att företagen genom korta ledtider kan ta fram moderiktiga produkter till ett lågt pris för att tillfredsställa konsumenternas efterfråga. Den ökade konkurrensen gör att det blir viktigare för modeföretagen att samspela med sina olika attribut för att skapa en stark position på marknaden. Företagets tjänster har blivit ett av de omdiskuterade attributen. Där modebutiker bör satsa på att förbättra sin servicekvalitet genom att ge en högre nivå i sitt kundbemötande för att öka kundlojaliteten och konkurrenskraften. Enligt en mystery shopper undersökning av Nylund (2012) visade det sig att många butiker inte uppfyllde en godkänd och acceptabel servicenivå. En av de butiker som uppmärksammades ha en låg nivå i sitt kundbemötande var Gina Tricot.Med bakgrund till mystery shopper undersökningen har vi fått i uppdrag av Gina Tricots huvudkontor i Borås att studera vad kunderna vill ha i ett kundbemötande för fast fashion butiken Gina Tricot. För att undersöka vad kunderna efterfrågar har en kvantitativ studie genomförts i form av en enkätundersökning. Mätinstrumentet SERVQUAL används för att mäta ett företags servicekvalitet och har varit ett hjälpmedel i vår studie. Undersökningen utfördes utanför fyra utvalda Gina Tricot butiker i Borås och Göteborg där ett urval på 200 personer tillfrågades att delta i undersökningen. Datorprogrammet SPSS har använts för att presentera vårt resultat. Undersökningen visar utifrån analysen att det är viktigt för kunden att bli uppmärksammad och att personalen ska visa ett högt engagemang när kunden får hjälp av personalen. Resultatet visar även att personalens produktkunskap är av betydelse för kunden. Utifrån resultatet ser vi att kunderna tycker det är viktigt med service i en fast fashion butik. Undersökningen har hjälpt oss att ta fram viktiga grundparametrar i kundbemötandet för fast fashion butiken Gina Tricot.

ABSTRACT:Healthcare management is a field that is related to management, leadership, and service of anorganization. Due to high competition and change in the environment of healthcare organizations,managers need to embrace the innovation to respond to those changes and make the organizationsuccessful by improving the process, structure, and culture of the organization as well as to provideefficient and effective care that will lead to achieve patient satisfaction. Service quality is one ofthe key factor among the service innovations that contribute to business development and leadingposition in the business world with high competition. Patient satisfaction is important for anyhealthcare organization. Patient satisfaction improves hospital/clinic image, which changes into anincrease in the use of services provided by the healthcare systems and increases market share.Patient satisfaction is dependent on the service quality which is the main factor in healthcareinnovations.Purpose: The purpose of this study is to understand experience levels of the patient satisfaction ofservice quality in Swedish dental clinics, based on the factors affecting dental service quality.Data Sources: Interviews with staff from six clinics in Sweden, 240 patient surveys from twopublic and two private Swedish dental clinic, group interviews with three Swedish dental clinics,Science-Direct, Research Gate, ABI Inform, Google Scholar, Academia.edu.Method: This study is based on the quantitative and qualitative analysis (i.e., mixed methodapproach) and abductive approaches to measure patient satisfaction in Swedish dental clinicsthrough service quality. The problem is analyzed through interviews with the staff in private andpublic dental clinics. The factors affecting the dental service quality are analyzed throughtheoretical and empirical analysis. The patient’s satisfaction was measured by SERVQUAL toolthrough using patients’ survey that consists of 12 questions based on the four factors (tangibility,empathy, responsiveness, and Assurance). Patient survey is conducted in four dental clinics. SPSSwas used to calculate mean and standard deviation for the survey’s result. After analyzing the result,group interviews with clinic 1, clinic 3 and clinic 5 was conducted to understand different valuesin the tool i.e., the value created, value destroyed, and value missed based on the customerperception to analyze the service quality of the dental clinics.Findings: The result from the surveys showed that the factor empathy has highest positive affectand responsiveness has the lowest effect in four dental clinics. The lowest effect in the factorresponsiveness is based on the waiting time to meet a dentist. The group interviews gave us thedifferent values which are based on the idea of the value mapping tool in customer perspective.The value that the clinics gained trust from their patients. The value missed\destroyed is the waitingtime to meet a dentist. The new opportunities are to improve the services by installing newtechnology products and changing the appearance of the clinic.

Mobile service operators are struggling to build strong relationship with their customers. The Saudi Market is described as a highly regulated and competitive sector. Consequently, it is essential that mobile service operators re-evaluate the level of their service quality and understand its critical factors that influence customer eWOM and switching intention through emotional and cognitive responses. According to the literature review, there is a need for studies on customer behaviour to demonstrate whether customer responses are prominent indicators of how customers feel. In addition, there is a lack of empirical study and theoretical modelling of the relationships between customers' emotional response and constructs based on other service experience. The main aim in this research is the investigating customer intentions influenced by service quality using the mediation of emotional and cognitive responses in Saudi Arabia. This research develops a theoretical framework that integrates a set of cognitive and emotional response (pleasure and arousal) to examine the influence of service quality on customer intention by using theory of reasoned action (TRA) and stimulus-organism-response (S-O-R), merged into one framework. Therefore, hypotheses are developed to test the relationship between the framework variables. This research adapts a quantitative methodology along with the positivist philosophical approach to investigate hypothetical relationships within the conceptual framework. This research used online surveys completed by mobile and social media users, including a survey with 601 responses out of 621. To analyse and validate the data, this study applies the structure equation model by using Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) AMOS V. 23. The result indicates that there are significant relationships between service quality dimensions and emotional response (pleasure and arousal). Moreover, subjective norms have a significant relationship with customer intention and emotional response. In addition, emotional response has, both directly and indirectly, a significant relationship with customer intention. The overall results of this research indicate that both the effect of service quality on eWOM and switching intention were mediated by customer attitude and by the pleasure and arousal emotional responses. These research outcomes yield several theoretical and practical implications. A key limitation of this research is its data collection by using a quantitative research approach and cross-sectional methodology; consequently, the data collection was done solely in the KSA.

Made available in DSpace on 2015-04-23T12:42:42Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 antonio marcos.pdf: 2986796 bytes, checksum: 5f1492be2aef7905fcab8432f29097d5 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2012-07-03 / Diversas ações têm sido implementadas no serviço público visando melhorar o processo produtivo em qualidade, produtividade e custo. Busca-se um modelo de excelência em gestão focado no cidadão com a finalidade de conduzir as instituições públicas a elevados padrões de qualidade na prestação de serviços. A partir desse cenário de gestão voltado para o cidadão é que surgiu a problematização desta pesquisa: O conhecimento da percepção dos usuários em relação aos serviços oferecidos pelo Ambulatório Araújo Lima pode contribuir para a proposição de melhorias em seu processo produtivo, visando aumentar a qualidade dos serviços e a conseqüente satisfação do usuário?. Como forma de responder ao questionamento, o objetivo geral deste trabalho é avaliar a percepção do usuário do Ambulatório Araújo Lima /UFAM sobre o serviço oferecido, visando a proposição de melhorias no processo produtivo que contribua para aumentar a qualidade do serviço e a satisfação do usuário. A pesquisa caracteriza-se como exploratória, aplicada e estudo de caso. A técnica de coleta de dados adotada foi a aplicação de questionários do tipo fechado baseado no SERVPERF e os dados coletados foram analisados quantitativamente empregando os procedimentos da estatística descritiva. Além disso, foi analisada a confiabilidade do instrumento de coleta através do alfa de Cronbach e da correlação item-total. Os resultados demonstram um bom índice de confiabilidade, acima de 0,65. A análise do perfil do usuário indica que a maior parte deles reside nas zonas norte e leste de Manaus, é do sexo feminino, tem idade entre 26 e 40 anos e são usuários frequentes dos serviços oferecidos pelo Ambulatório. A dimensão da qualidade melhor avaliada foi a dos aspectos de segurança. Já osaspectos de responsividade, que diz respeito à forma como os serviços são entregues ao usuário, obteve a pior avaliação seguida pela dimensão confiabilidade. Desta forma, os estudo revelou a grande influência do aspecto interpessoal sobre a qualidade percebida pelo usuário dos serviços do Ambulatório, demonstrando a necessidade de implementar programas de capacitação dos funcionários que realizam como alternativa para elevar a qualidade dos serviços.

As tecnologias de informação e comunicação (TICs) têm transformado a forma como a sociedade e o governo se relacionam, proporcionando uma aproximação entre a administração pública e o cidadão por meio da prestação de serviços públicos eletrônicos, sendo essa relação mediada por TICs conhecida como governo eletrônico. A utilização do governo eletrônico propicia uma série de benefícios para a administração pública, como a eficiência pública, melhora na accountability, controle dos gastos governamentais e oferta de serviços públicos eletrônicos de qualidade que proporcionem a satisfação dos usuários. Nesse contexto, o estudo se propôs a analisar a satisfação dos gestores municipais de saúde e os contadores com o Sistema de Informações sobre Orçamentos Públicos em Saúde (SIOPS) e propor um modelo para avaliação desse sistema de satisfação desses usuários. O SIOPS representa um instrumento de controle e acompanhamento da aplicação mínima constitucional de recursos com ações e serviços públicos de saúde. Inicialmente, analisou-se o site, redes sociais e programa do SIOPS, depois entrevistas com gestores federais e órgãos de controle, visando a elaboração de uma matriz SWOT e, por fim, avaliou-se a satisfação dos gestores municipais de saúde e contadores (alimentadores do sistema) com a utilização do sistema. Para obtenção desse objetivo, elaborou-se um modelo de análise dos serviços públicos ofertados pelo SIOPS e avaliação da satisfação de utilização do mesmo. Os resultados obtidos permitiram concluir que o SIOPS executa os objetivos para o qual ele foi criado, que os gestores municipais e contadores estão satisfeitos com o sistema, sendo a eficiência, confiabilidade, liderança estratégica, inteligência competitiva e gestão da tecnologia os atributos que mais contribuíram para a satisfação dos gestores municipais e a eficiência, qualidade da informação/serviço, suporte ao usuário, confiabilidade e gestão da tecnologia no caso da satisfação dos contadores. / Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) have transformed the way society and government relate, providing an approximation between the public administration and citizens through the provision of electronic public services. This relationship mediated by ICTs is known as electronic government. The use of e-government provides a number of benefits for public administration, such as public efficiency, improved accountability, control of government spending, and the provision of good quality electronic public services that provide user satisfaction. In this context, the study to analyze the satisfaction of the municipal health managers and the accountants with the Information System on Public Budgets in Health (SIOPS) in order to propose a model for the evaluation of this system and the satisfaction of its users. The SIOPS represents an instrument for controlling and monitoring the minimum constitutional application of resources with public health actions and services. Initially, the SIOPS website, social networks and program were analyzed, then federal managers and members of control bodies were interviewed in order to elaborate a SWOT matrix and, finally, the satisfaction of municipal health managers and accountants (system feeders) with the use of the system was evaluated. To achieve this goal, a model of analysis concerning the public services offered by the SIOPS and its satisfaction assessment was elaborated. The results allowed us to conclude that SIOPS accomplishes the objectives for which it was created and that municipal managers and accountants are satisfied with the system. The attributes that contributed the most for the satisfaction of municipal managers were efficiency, reliability, strategic leadership, competitive intelligence and technology management, whereas for the accountants\' satisfaction the main aspects were efficiency, quality of information/service, user support, reliability and technology management.

Despite generous universal social health insurance with little formal restrictions of outpatient utilisation, Austria exhibits high rates of avoidable hospitalisations, which indicate the inefficient provision of primary healthcare and might be a consequence of the strict regulatory split between the Austrian inpatient and outpatient sector. This paper exploits the considerable regional variations in acute and chronic avoidable hospitalisations in Austria to investigate whether those inefficiencies in primary care are rather related to regional healthcare supply or to population characteristics. To explicitly account for inter-regional dependencies, spatial panel data methods are applied to a comprehensive administrative dataset of all hospitalisations from 2008 to 2013 in the 117 Austrian districts. The initial selection of relevant covariates is based on Bayesian model averaging. The results of the analysis show that supply-side variables, such as the number of general practitioners, are significantly associated with decreased chronic and acute avoidable hospitalisations, whereas characteristics of the regional population, such as the share of population with university education or long-term unemployed, are less relevant. Furthermore, the spatial error term indicates that there are significant spatial dependencies between unobserved characteristics, such as practice style or patients' utilization behaviour. Not accounting for those would result in omitted variable bias.

El sector servicio, específicamente el sector automotriz, ha tenido un gran crecimiento en la economía y se ha mantenido en la constante búsqueda de métodos para mejorar sus índices de calidad con sus clientes; sin embargo, en esta actividad terciaria es constante la existencia de errores en las reparaciones generales. Este documento aborda un estudio práctico para medir la efectividad del modelo Lean Service Quality (LSQ), que combina el desarrollo de una escala de elementos múltiples para medir la calidad del servicio (SERVQUAL) y un modelo conceptual/práctico Lean Service, con el objetivo de reducir el número de reparaciones técnicas defectuosas en un concesionario automotriz de Lima. El principal resultado de la investigación, se logró definir una guía práctica para la replicación del modelo LSQ y como primera aproximación del modelo se pudo evidenciar que dentro del concesionario en estudio se logró reducir en 5.17% el índice de reparaciones mal realizadas. / The service sector, specifically the automotive sector, has witnessed significant growth in the economy and is constantly searching for methods to improve its quality indexes with its customers; however, errors in general repairs are ever present in this tertiary activity. This document undertakes a practical study to measure the effectiveness of the Lean Service Quality (LSQ) model, which combines the development of a multi-elemental scale to measure service quality (SERVQUAL) and a conceptual/practical Lean Service model, with the aim of reducing the number of poorly performed technical repairs at a Toyota automobile dealership. The main result of the research was defining a practical guide to replicate the LSQ model. In addition, as the model’s first approach, the study demonstrated that, for the dealership under study, the rate of bad repairs was ultimately reduced by 5.17%. / Tesis

The literature suggests that a correlation exists between visitor satisfaction and a visitor's choice to re-experience a product. The higher one's satisfaction level, the more likely he/she is to experience the product again and/or provide positive word-of-mouth advertising to friends and family. The Tian-Cole and Crompton model was chosen because of its acknowledgment and explanation of the differences between Visitor Satisfaction (VS) and Service Quality (SQ) and how their relationship influences satisfaction and contributes to Future Destination Selection. In addition to identifying a theoretical framework that explains why visitors return, it was necessary to identify a survey methodology to be used in developing the Mountain Pine Ridge Forest Reserve (MPRFR) visitor satisfaction surveys. It was determined that a combination of the Relative Performance Assessment (RPA) and Customer Service Questionnaire (CSQ) was an appropriate survey framework for a visitor satisfaction survey. As a result of the research, two visitor satisfaction surveys were developed: Intercept Survey and Mail-back Survey. The Intercept Survey will be administered at a MPRFR site. It was designed to be concise and not take much of the visitor's time. This survey will be used to gather general information about visitor characteristics and level of satisfaction while at a site. The Mail-back Survey will be sent to the visitor after their trip so more time can be devoted to answering a more detailed visitor satisfaction survey. This survey asks visitors to indicate what site characteristics are important to them and then rate their satisfaction with each item. Instruments from the report entitled "A Front Country Visitor Study for Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument" were used as an example of how to format a visitor satisfaction survey and how to use the collected data as a managerial tool. The two main objectives of this research were accomplished and have established a foundation upon which subsequent research efforts will begin. This work serves as a catalyst to improving Belizean site planning, design, and management by better understanding what site characteristics contribute to visitor satisfaction.