The relationship between professional service providers and their clients is of great importance to many service industries including educational, financial, consulting and healthcare services. The aim of this research enquiry is to identify, generate and describe a theoretical explanation of how a client engages in and manages their relationship with their health professional over a period of time. Fifteen participants living with chronic medical conditions were interviewed over a period of four months with data collected via unstructured in-depth interview sessions, and analysed using thematic analysis. The analysis reveals three major themes, nature of relationship, degree of control and service satisfaction. Of central concern is the longevity of the relationship between the healthcare client and his/her service provider. If the service provider is willing to share their authority and relinquish some of the control to the client, the client feels empowered. The client is then willing to provide information and effort to co-create effective service episodes. This sharing of authority enables the client to have better control on their service consumption. The sharing of authority also has an impact on the client’s propensity to remain engaged with their service provider. The findings of this study have implications for our knowledge and understanding of professional service delivery and how it differs from the delivery of consumer services. The study clearly indicates a shift in the role of a client as an empowered entity who wants to be part of, not just the service consumption, but service production as well. The key lessons from this study may inform other types of services including financial, educational and consulting services.

The relationship between professional service providers and their clients is of great importance to many service industries including educational, financial, consulting and healthcare services. The aim of this research enquiry is to identify, generate and describe a theoretical explanation of how a client engages in and manages their relationship with their health professional over a period of time. Fifteen participants living with chronic medical conditions were interviewed over a period of four months with data collected via unstructured in-depth interview sessions, and analysed using thematic analysis. The analysis reveals three major themes, nature of relationship, degree of control and service satisfaction. Of central concern is the longevity of the relationship between the healthcare client and his/her service provider. If the service provider is willing to share their authority and relinquish some of the control to the client, the client feels empowered. The client is then willing to provide information and effort to co-create effective service episodes. This sharing of authority enables the client to have better control on their service consumption. The sharing of authority also has an impact on the client’s propensity to remain engaged with their service provider. The findings of this study have implications for our knowledge and understanding of professional service delivery and how it differs from the delivery of consumer services. The study clearly indicates a shift in the role of a client as an empowered entity who wants to be part of, not just the service consumption, but service production as well. The key lessons from this study may inform other types of services including financial, educational and consulting services.

The purpose of this study is to critically evaluate the performance of tour guides in Thailand and their impact on the tourist experience. The research objectives include a: review of the literature on service quality and tour guide performance; a survey of tourists’ expectations and satisfaction with tour guides in Thailand; a critical evaluation of tour operators’ and tourists’ perspectives on the variables that constitute a high standard of performance for tour guides; analysing how the performance of tour guides influences the experiences of foreign tourists; and understanding the attributes of tour guides that influence the satisfaction of foreign tourists. The sample in this research comprised 400 tourists in Thailand who were currently on or had previously been on a group package tour in Thailand within the past two years. The survey took place in 2014 between January 1 and July 31and was conducted in the cities of Bangkok and Chiang Mai. A convenience sampling technique was utilised, with respondents being requested to provide a range of demographic variables. Descriptive analyses of these variables were conducted to examine tourists’ demographic profiles in order to understand tourists’ characteristics and their behaviours. The results of the questionnaires were analysed using statistical methods including factor, regression and multivariate analyses. Based on the results, a tour guide service quality evaluating model (TGSQEM) was developed, composed of eight dimensions: reliability (informative); personal traits; empathy1 (service-oriented mind); assurance1 (knowledgeable); professionalism; attitude; assurance2 (able to generate an atmosphere of trust); and empathy. The results identified the various factors that affect tour guide performance whilst enhancing the understanding of the perceptions of tourists’ expectations of tour guide performance and associated service quality. Using quantifiable data, these were then calculated and plotted into a graph utilising the Important Performance Analysis (IPA) technique. This investigation of the variables that influence the service quality performance of tour guides in Thailand has subsequently been used to create a theoretical framework that can be utilized to enhance the service quality of tour guides and contribute to a more successful tourism industry in Thailand. The development of this model represents a furthering of the knowledge about the performance of tour guides and, whilst constituted in a specific cultural context, it is envisaged that it would have generic transferability to tour guiding elsewhere.

This article reports the results and managerial implications of a Turkish study which investigated relationships between service quality, background characteristics and, customer satisfaction and selected behavioral outcomes.

Sports organisations must continuously assess how better to meet or exceed consumer expectations and perceptions of their experience in order to maintain and increase the number of spectators and loyal fans attending their sporting events. This study aims to enhance our understanding of which characteristics of a service attribute will best define its quality and impact on spectator behaviour by understanding the causal relationship between perceived service quality (PSQ) and satisfaction.

Yes / The continuous use of eGovernment services is a de facto for its prosperity and success. A generalised sense of citizens' self-efficacy, expectations, and satisfaction offer opportunities for governments to further retain needed engagements. This study examines the factors influencing citizens' continuance use of eGovernment services. Through the integration of Social Cognitive Theory, Expectation Confirmation Theory, DeLone and McLean IS success model, and E-S-QUAL, a survey of 471 citizens in the UK, engaging in online public services, found that prior experience, social influence, information quality, and service quality, personal outcome expectation, and satisfaction, are significant predictors of citizens' intention to use eGovernment, when they are regulated, through citizens' self-efficacy. The present study extends the roles of pre-adoption and post-adoption by offering a self-regulating process. Therefore, it demonstrates how critical it is for the government's leaders to understand the patterns of the long-term process for electronic systems continually. / There is a corrigendum for this paper at https://doi.org/10.1016/j.giq.2020.101492. Elvira Ismagilova was not included as an author on the original record when she should have been.

Published Article / This paper reports on further attempts to develop and validate instruments to improve the measurement of higher education quality, more especially postgraduate research service. A 26-item postgraduate research service quality (PGSQUAL) instrument as well as a six-item postgraduate service experience (PGSERVEXP) instrument were developed and validated among recent postgraduates at a large research university in South Africa. From a response rate of almost 53%, after subjecting the data to factor analysis and, determining the Cronbach's alpha values, it was ascertained that the respective research instruments were found to be fairly reliable and valid measures of postgraduate research service quality and of the overall postgraduate research service experience.

O e-learning, como uma das metodologias de ensino a distância, está em grande expansão e despertando interesse de estudos em várias áreas. Uma das preocupações relativas ao método de ensino é a qualidade, ou seja, como pode ser avaliada a qualidade em e-learning. Essa dissertação aborda a qualidade sob o ponto de vista do aluno como cliente e o e-learning como uma prestação de serviços. Dessa forma foi adaptado, o modelo de avaliação de qualidade de serviços, e-servqual, para cursos de pós-graduação on-line, com o intuito de proporcionar uma ferramenta para melhoria da qualidade dos cursos, satisfazendo de uma melhor forma os clientes. Como base para adequar o modelo e-servqual para os cursos de pós-graduação on-line, foi realizada uma revisão bibliográfica sob os assuntos: serviços, qualidade de serviços e modelos de qualidade de serviços. A técnica de pesquisa Focus Group foi utilizada para consolidar o referencial teórico e adequar o modelo e-servqual para os cursos de pós-graduação on-line. / The e-learning, as a methodology of distance education, is in widely expansion and waking interest of studies in several areas. One of the worries related to this education method is the quality, in other words, how could be evaluated the quality in e-learning. This dissertation approaches the point of view of student as a client and the e-learning as a service rendering. In this way was adapted, the model of evaluating service quality, e-servqual, for on-line post graduation courses, with the purpose of supplying a tool to improve the quality of courses, satisfying in a better way the customers. As a support to adapt the model e-servqual for on-line post graduation courses, was realized a bibliographic review of: services subjects, quality of services and models of quality services. A Focus Group research was used to solidify the theoretical part and adapt the model e-servqual for on-line post graduation courses.

Aim: The aim of this study is to examine and compare the importance of services and products in grocery store and to study the effects of services and products on customer retention. Method: This study is quantitative and data is collected by conducting a survey. Primary data is collected through questionnaires by visiting the stores in two cities of Sweden, namely Bollnäs and Gävle. In order to study the importance of service and products, importance scale is used in the questionnaire. Comparative analysis is used to analyze the data. Results & Conclusions: The results show that customers are more concerned about the quality of products rather than quality of services. Further, it is found that among all service elements, personal interaction is considered more important whereas, among products elements, quality of products has most influence on customer decisions. After the comparison of services and products, we found out that product quality influences customer retention to a greater extent. Suggestions for future research: Research always continues and could be followed up with more perception dimensions either from customers’ perspectives or from managerial perspectives. Future research can be conducted to study managerial perception of service and product quality. Furthermore, future research can be conducted to find out other factors that determine customer retention. Customers from multiple stores and larger cities can also be the theme for future researches. Contribution of the study: This study helps retail business to build strong customer base by focusing first on quality of products and then services. Further this helps firms to know how customer’s decision making is affected. Firms with limited resources can first focus on product improvement then on services.

This paper investigated the relationship between e-service quality and consumer loyalty in the context of consumer electronic retail industry in Sweden. E-service quality is found to be a prime determinant of consumer loyalty which is very important for the growth of any business regardless of the industry. On this study, we have selected four most important dimensions of e-service quality which are: Reliability, Responsiveness, Ease of use, and Security. We adopted a quantitative approach for this study and our survey took place in the area of Umea University. We reached a total of 200 respondents who are used to with purchasing electronic products online. After collecting the data we analyzed it with the help of statistical tools and then interpreted the results in connection to our theoretical framework. We found that all the four dimensions of e-service quality have strong relationship with consumer loyalty which means that they have considerable impact on building and maintaining the loyalty of consumers in electronics retail industry. We found out that the consumers give the highest priority to the organization of website contents and security of transaction. If the company present the e-retailing website convincingly and ensure safety of transaction, the consumers are more likely to show loyalty towards that company. We also found that reliability is less important than the three other factors according to multiple regressions analysis result; though all the four factors found to be significant according to simple regression. This study fulfills the lack of industry-specific study on the relationship between e-service quality and loyalty for consumer electronic goods industry. However, the study suggests a number of future research possibilities including reassessment of the e-service quality dimensions, measurement of the impact of social media on the relationship between e-service quality and consumer loyalty and so on.