Market orientation, the manifestation of the marketing concept, is central in services marketing. However, the contemporary market orientation models are less service-oriented in nature. An extension of market orientation that incorporates the service concept is deemed necessary so as to be more effective in influencing the service performance of service organizations. Besides, a customer-defined market orientation is needed in order to demonstrate the real and market oriented spirit of the service providers. / This dissertation proposes an extension of market orientation called the service-driven market orientation (SERVMO) that is found to be potentially essential for improving service quality specifically in the higher education sector. The development of this strategic construct and the analyses on its consequences on service quality are based on the perceptions of 558 customers (students) from a few institutions of higher learning in Malaysia. The items in the survey instrument are generated based on a review of the related marketing literature and Critical Incident Technique. SERVMO is believed to be a valid and reliable measure for service-driven market orientation in higher education. This 32-item scale is a multi-dimensional construct comprising six multi-item components: customer orientation (6 items), competitor orientation (5 items), interfunctional orientation (5 items), performance orientation (5 items), long-term orientation (7 items), and employee orientation (4 items). SERVQUAL is also confirmed to be valid and reliable for measuring service quality, the main criterion variable, in higher education. / There are no significant differences for SERVMO according to the demographic characteristics of the customers, except for the types of institutions the students are from. The public institutions are found to be more market oriented in serving the students and also having higher score for service quality. SERVMO is found to have a positive and significant effect on service quality (SQ). This direct relationship is relatively stronger as compared to its relationships with customer satisfaction and customer loyalty. On the other hand, service quality has stronger effects on customer satisfaction and customer loyalty. SERVMO seems to influence customer satisfaction and customer loyalty indirectly, through service quality. The institution type (public or private) does not significantly moderate the SERVMO-SQ relationship in higher education. / Based on the identified limitations, it is recommended that future research can focus on areas like validation of the proposed SERVMO measure and causal relationships investigations. The present study that merely focuses on the student's perceptions should be complemented with perceptions of other customers like employees. Besides, since higher education services are commonly internationalized, contextual and environmental specific examinations especially in terms of cultural differences should be of great importance. Future research should also widen the scope to include other industries. / Thesis (DBA(DoctorateofBusinessAdministration))--University of South Australia, 2005.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:ADTP/267437 |
| Creators | Ho, Voon Boo. |
| Source Sets | Australiasian Digital Theses Program |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Rights | copyright under review |
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