Cautions on the Use of the SERVQUAL Measure to Assess the Quality of Information Systems Services

The SERVQUAL questionnaire (Parasuraman, Zeithaml, & Berry, 1988) is one of the preeminent instruments for measuring the quality of services as perceived by the customer. In a recent Decision Sciences article, Kettinger and Lee (1995) suggested the use of a modified SERVQUAL instrument to assess the quality of the services supplied by an information services provider. However, a number of problems with the SERVQUAL instrument are discussed in the literature. This article provides an illustrative example utilizing data collected from 138 executive and information systems professional customers of a multibillion dollar information services provider in order to examine the validity and reliability of Kettinger and Lee's (1995) modified SERVQUAL instrument. Results of analyses do not confirm the findings of Kettinger and Lee. Moreover, it appears that the use of difference scores in calculating SERVQUAL contributes to problems with the reliability, discriminant validity, convergent validity, and predictive validity of the measure. These findings suggest that caution should be exercised in the use of SERVQUAL scores and that further work is needed in the development of measures for assessing the quality of information services.     

A Service Quality Process Map for Credit Card Processing

Evaluating marketing (external) and operations (internal) service quality performance in most organizations is a data-oriented management task that involves many variables for many different types of services. These two diverse sets of service quality information seldom “match up well” because the marketing and operations functions define and evaluate service quality “their way.” Management's interpretation of what the data “mean” often contributes to extra meetings, unnecessary disagreements within and between functional areas, and poor decision making. This situation can affect the quality and timing of decisions, and ultimately, the organization's profitability and market share. This paper quantitatively relates the customer's evaluation (perception) of service quality directly to the activities and performance criteria of the service delivery process for a credit card processing center. Basic statistical analyses and a recursive path analysis model define the relationships between marketing- and operations-based service quality information. The idea of a “service quality process map” is introduced. A service quality process map relates a flowchart of the service delivery process to the customer's perception of service using the power of multivariate data analysis. Management insights gained from an analysis of marketing (external) and operations (internal) measures of service quality performance can be used to allocate resources wisely. The objective is to gain the most improvement in the customer's perception of service for the least cost. Service quality with this type of evaluation capability can be used to gain competitive advantage in the marketplace.     

The Impact of Alternative Vendor/ Buyer Communication Structures on the Quality of Purchased Materials

This paper examines the critical interface between manufacturing, purchasing, and quality assurance by exploring the impact of two alternative structures of buyer and vendor communication on attempts to improve the quality of purchased items. Those two structures of communication are the parallel structure and the serial structure. The research analyzes and compares the advantages and disadvantages of these two specific communication structures; the results have implications for both researchers and managers. The analysis of data suggests that the parallel structure is associated with significantly higher levels of quality than the serial structure. From a managerial perspective, the results of the research suggest that manufacturers must consider the parallel communication structure as a viable alternative for improving the quality of purchased components. While this study has helped frame some key managerial issues, the need and opportunity for further research in related areas is delineated.     

Scheduling to Improve Field Service Quality*

This research addresses the problem of scheduling technicians to travel from customer site to customer site to perform emergency maintenance on office machines, computers, robots, telecommunications equipment, medical equipment, heating/cooling equipment, household appliances, and other equipment. We call this the Traveling Technician Problem (TTP). In its simplest form, the TTP is a multiserver, sequence-dependent, tardiness minimization problem. This research frames the TTP as a service quality maximization problem in which service quality is defined in terms of mean tardiness, mean technician phone response time, mean promise time, and mean response time. Tardiness is defined with respect to contractually guaranteed response times. Industry practice is to use dispatching rules to assign service calls to technicians. This research proposes scheduling procedures to maximize field service quality in a dynamic environment. A simulation experiment was used to compare three dispatching rules and three scheduling procedures for the TTP. The scheduling procedures dominated the dispatching rules on all four service quality measures. The proposed scheduling procedures hold promise for improving service quality in a wide variety of field service organizations and in other scheduling environments as well.     

A Comparative Analysis of Quality Practice in Manufacturing Firms in the U.S. and Taiwan*

The aim of this paper is to determine if there is a causal relationship between multivariate constructs for quality (i.e., customer satisfaction, employee satisfaction, and employee service quality) and organizational performance. The presence of such relationships, as well as the identification of key indicators within each quality construct for different types of firms, are explored in this empirical study on the perceptions of middle managers in Taiwan and the United States. The study found a significant causal relationship between the quality constructs and organizational performance. These relationships are different, however, for the four types of firms based on age and size. Also, within the same firm types, there are differences among countries. For example, for older firms, Taiwanese managers tend to perceive customer satisfaction as the most important quality construct in improving organizational performance, while U.S. managers tend to perceive employee satisfaction as the most important. For younger firms, U.S. managers perceive customer satisfaction as influencing organizational performance, while Taiwanese managers perceive both customer satisfaction and employee satisfaction as doing so. A further breakdown of the quality constructs identified the key indicators within each construct that separates “better performers'’from “lesser performers'’in both countries for the four types of firms. These indicators are dissimilar, thus suggesting that focus on quality constructs may lead to improvements in organizational performance by focusing on different indicators in different environments. These results have implications for the adoption and implementation of quality practices in different countries.     

Vendor Performance and Alternative Manufacturing Environments*

Today, many American firms are demanding a high level of performance from their major suppliers while at the same time reducing the number of them. Vendor performance is an important aspect of maintaining low production costs and high product quality. In this study, we examine the effects of poor vendor quality and vendor lead time uncertainty in a variety of manufacturing environments using a comprehensive simulation model. The results indicate that the effect of poor vendor performance on various manufacturing firms depends on the number of stocking points and the degree of component commonality. Moreover, disruption of the manufacturing system caused by poor vendor performance can be manifested in higher levels of inventory and order backlogs. We introduce the concept of supplyside uncertainty, as it relates to component-part commonality, to demonstrate that in certain environments commonality reduces order backlogs but increases total inventories and creates an environment that is very sensitive to vendor quality problems. Finally, several conjectures are posited for future research.     

Economic Models for Single Sample Acceptance Sampling Plans,No Inspection,and 100 Percent Inspection

Once a process is stabilized using control charts, it is necessary to determine whether this process is capable of producing die desired quality, as determined by the specifications, without the use of some additional inspection procedure such as 100 percent inspection or acceptance sampling. One common method of making this determination is the use of process capability ratios. However, this approach may lead to erroneous decisions due to the omission of economic information. This paper attempts to remedy this situation by developing economic models to examine the profitability of different inspection policies. These models employ the quadratic loss function to represent the economic cost of quality from external failures, which is commonly omitted or overlooked. Moreover, assuming a normal distribution for the quality characteristic allows the use of simplified formulas that are provided. Thus the calculations can be made using standard normal tables and a calculator. Additionally, these economic models may be used to determine if additional inspection procedures should be reinstated if the quality of the process was to decline, to make capital budgeting decisions involving new equipment that produces parts of a higher quality, and to determine the preferred 100 percent inspection plan or acceptance sampling plan.     

Producer's and Consumer's Risk When Proportion Defective Is a Random Variable

In acceptance sampling, producer's and consumer's risk are traditionally based on assumed fixed values of p, the proportion of the lot which is defective. A more useful definition of producer's risk would be the probability of rejecting a lot in which the proportion defective falls within some range of acceptable values. Similarly, a more useful definition of consumer's risk would be the probability of accepting a lot in which the proportion defective falls within some range of unacceptable values. In this paper, we construct measures of these more useful definitions of risk by assuming that p follows either a uniform or triangular probability distribution. The proposed measure yields consumer's risk values, β', which are smaller than the traditionally computed values by a factor of up to twenty times. The proposed measure of producer's risk, α', gives values smaller than traditional values by a factor of two to four times. Decision makers who adopt the proposed measures may be able to reduce sample sizes substantially while maintaining given risk levels.     

Evaluating the Deming Management Model of Total Quality in Services*

This article uses the Deming management model developed by Anderson et al. (1994b) as an initial template to analyze total quality in services. While the literatures addressing quality management have developed separately for products and services, the founders of total quality portrayed this management philosophy as universally oriented. Our study first replicates two earlier studies that tested the Deming management model in manufacturing industries. Using hospitals as our unit of analysis, we realized findings similar to the earlier manufacturing studies. Next, we used contributions from the MBNQA literature to test an enhanced model. Our subsequent findings support the MBNQA concept that “leadership drives the system that creates results” and provides evidence of the ubiquitous importance of leadership for ensuring the success of a quality improvement program. Finally, an anomaly of this study and those published earlier is the inability to find support for the relationship between continuous improvement and customer satisfaction. Integrating the substantial work in the service quality literature focused on customer satisfaction measurement is recommended to future researchers to help resolve this issue and further enhance the model.     

A Framework for Estimating Benefits of Using Auctions in Revenue Management*

We develop a stochastic model to explore the benefits of incorporating auctions in revenue management. To the best of our knowledge the extant literature on modeling in revenue management has not considered auctions. We consider three models, namely, a traditional fixed price (non‐auction) model, a pure auction model, and a hybrid auction model and evaluate their revenue performance under a variety of conditions. The hybrid approach outperforms the other two in all 24 scenarios and yields an average revenue increase of 16.1% over the next best. A surprise finding is that there is no significant difference between the performance of the fixed price and pure auction approaches. A sensitivity analysis reveals that the relative superiority of the hybrid revenue management strategy is reasonably robust.     

Subordinate Participation in Audit Budgeting Decisions: A Comparison of Decisions Influenced by Organizational Factors to Decisions Conforming with the Vroom-Jago Model*

This study examines the role of subordinate participation in the effectiveness of audit hours budget decisions in accounting firms. The study compares decisions influenced by organizational factors (such as organizational policies or the preferences of the superior) to decisions that conform to the Vroom-Jago (VJ) model. Our results indicate that actual level of participation used in budget decisions appears to be based primarily on perceived preferences of superiors and participation styles available under the circumstancesof the individual audit. However, results also indicate that decisions consistent with the Vroom-Jago model are characterized by higher decision quality and increased subordinatedevelopment. Since managers are apparently reluctant to use decision styles that conflictwith organizational factors, accounting firms may wish to gather information regarding the attributes of the decision context and use the VJ model to establish their available decision styles and determine the preferences of superiors. Doing so has the advantage of considering decision-specific attributes while enhancing the probability of manager compliance with a desired decision style.     

Optimal Acquisition of FMS Technology Subject to Technological Progress*

In order to gain competitive advantage, a firm must link its technology choice to its total manufacturing strategy and business unit's goals. A dynamic model is presented to examine the strategic decision concerning the acquisition of flexible manufacturing systems (FMS) technology. A major contribution of this model is its ability to capture the strategic benefits of FMS with respect to economies of scope and technological progress. Decisions such as the timing and size of new technology acquisition and the scrapping of conventional capacity are explored as a firm plans for the upgrading of its facility to meet future dynamic strategic goals. This model may be used to assist with strategic planning because it identifies the critical relationships and trade-offs between various exogenous forces (such as market growth or decay, the cost of acquiring flexible manufacturing systems, and the rate of technological progress) and the decision variables considered.     

A PROCUREMENT STAFFING MODEL: ESTIMATING THE SERVICE AND COST IMPACTS OF ALTERING OPERATIONS*

Evaluating the service and cost impacts of altering procurement configurations is a common problem whenever an organization desires to be responsive to the changing needs of the populations being served. Changes relate to the volume of the work load, the degree of responsiveness required, or the technology and processes used. In real-world situations, personnel turnovers, uneven work loads, leaves, training requirements, and use of overtime all contribute to the complexity of the task. When a range of experience over different-sized operations is available, econometric approaches are applicable to estimate economies of scaie and technical substitution possibilities. Otherwise, queuing and job-shop modeling, combined with simulation approaches, can be helpful. This paper presents a case study of the analysis of a proposed reorganization for a large procurement activity in the U.S. Navy. The actual job-shop-scheduling and task-sequencing logic used in practice was modeled. Cost comparisons of four procurement configurations were generated under the constraints that prespecified levels of service be satisfied.     

Equivalent Alternate Solutions for the Tour Scheduling Problem*

Achieving minimum staffing costs, maximum employee satisfaction with their assigned schedules, and acceptable levels of service are important but potentially conflicting objectives when scheduling service employees. Existing employee scheduling models, such as tour scheduling or general employee scheduling, address at most two of these criteria. This paper describes a heuristic to improve tour scheduling solutions provided by other procedures, and generate a set of equivalent cost feasible alternatives. These alternatives allow managers to identify solutions with attractive secondary characteristics, such as overall employee satisfaction with their assigned tours or consistent employee workloads and customer response times. Tests with both full-time and mixed work force problems reveal the method improves most nonoptimal initial heuristic solutions. Many of the alternatives generated had more even distributions of surplus staff than the initial solutions, yielding more consistent customer response times and employee workloads. The likelihood of satisfying employee scheduling preferences may also be increased since each alternative provides a different deployment of employees among the available schedules.     

An Experimental Comparison of Dispatching Rules for Field Service Support*

Field service repair management is increasing in importance as “high tech” machines such as computers, communication systems, and copy machines are becoming more popular and more widely disbursed geographically. Complicating the management of these systems are response time performance guarantees (e.g., 8-hour response time), which are a popular marketing tool for many field service businesses [21]. These response time), guarantees especially complicate the field service dispatching problem. With response time guarantees, dispatchers must consider travel times and other issues to determine which call should be assigned to an available technician. This research proposes several dispatching rules that might be applied for dispatching sequential-trip technicians in this environment and compares these rules in a simulation experiment to determine which rule is best in terms of average tardiness. The proposed composite travel time-expiration time rule was found to be the best on average tardiness performance and on all other tardiness-related measures. Given the increased importance of tardiness performance in field service organizations, the proposed composite rule appears to have promise.     

Improving the Utilization of Front-Line Service Delivery System Personnel*

There are two types of work typically performed in services which differ in the degree of control management has over when the work must be done. Serving customers, an activity that can occur only when customers are in the system is, by its nature, uncontrollable work. In contrast, the execution of controllable work does not require the presence of customers, and is work over which management has some degree of temporal control. This paper presents two integer programming models for optimally scheduling controllable work simultaneously with shifts. One model explicitly defines variables for the times at which controllable work may be started, while the other uses implicit modeling to reduce the number of variables. In an initial experiment of 864 test problems, the latter model yielded optimal solutions in approximately 81 percent of the time required by the former model. To evaluate the impact on customer service of having front-line employees perform controllable work, a second experiment was conducted simulating 5, 832 service delivery systems. The results show that controllable work offers a useful means of improving labor utilization. Perhaps more important, it was found that having front-line employees perform controllable work did not degrade the desired level of customer service.     

Graphical Presentations of Data Envelopment Analyses: Management Implications from Parallel Axes Representations*

The conversion of multivariate data analysis into information that managers can readily use in their decision making has always been a challenging task. In this paper we provide a parallel axis representation of multivariate data and demonstrate how this representation may be used as a tool for implementing the results of data envelopment analysis. We use an analysis of the efficiency of electricity generating plants to illustrate the technique.     

Service Businesses and Productivity*

The records of superior performance of selected service firms over many years suggest that they may be more productive than others. This article uses the Theory of Swift, Even Flow to explain why that might be true. In the process, this article improves Schmenner's 1986 service process matrix. The redefinition of the axes of this matrix and of the resulting diagonal leads to enhanced understanding of productivity for service operations and helps to explain how some leading service companies have been able to sustain their competitive positions for decades.     

Management Policies to Improve the Effectiveness of Multi-Station Service Organizations*

A SLAM based simulation model of a multi-station, tandem queuing structure characteristic of a variety of service systems is employed to test various design options for the system. The model is based on an extensive study of the State of Florida driver licensing offices. The multiple objectives of low time in the system for customers and the efficient use of personnel resources are employed to measure the benefits of policy options. The use of simulation analysis permits the incorporation of complex system characteristics, therefore providing a realistic representation of the effects of possible management actions. Effective methods to control labor in such systems are suggested.