With the pandemic of the early 2020s coming to a close, city politicians and planners around the world seek to bring in more tourists and entrepreneurs to assist their local businesses and domestic economies in the return to pre-pandemic levels. There exists a myriad of ways city officials attempt to attract visitors from festivals and fireworks displays to citywide initiatives and awareness programs. This study takes a look at a destination’s perceived coolness, how it is manifested through destination service quality and tourist app use, and how it affects an individual’s revisit intention based on structural and interpersonal constraints.
본 연구는 국가지원 뷰티 관련 교육기관의 교육서비스품질이 수강생의 지각된유용성과 진로 준비행동에 미치는 영향을 규명하는 것 이였다. 연구참여자는 서울·경기 소재 국비지원 교육기관(학원)에 수강자 362명을 임의표집방법으로 표집 하였다. 수집된 자료는 SPSS 통계패키지 26.0 버전을 이용하여 기술통계, 요인분석, 신뢰도분석, 상관관계분석 및 다중회귀분석을 통하여 자료를 분석하였다. 일련의 연구절차를 통하여 도출된 결과는 다음과 같다. 첫째, 교육서비스품질, 지각된 유용성 및 진로준비행동의 변인들은 상호 상관관계가 통계적 유의하게 나타내었다. 둘째, 교육서비스품질은 지각된 유용성에 통계적 유의하게 정적(+)영향이 있는 것으로 나타났다. 셋째, 교육서비스품질은 진로준비행동의 정보수집 활동, 직무준비활동 요인에 통계적 유의하게 정적(+) 영향을 나타내었다. 넷째, 지각된 유용성은 진로준비행동의 정보수집활동과 직무준비활동 요인에 통계적 유의하게 정적(+) 영향이 있는 것으로 나타났다. 본 연구의 결과는 국비지원 뷰티관련 교육기관의 교육서비스품질을 재평가하여 뷰티관련 국비지원 사업의 효율성을 높이고 교육 서비스품질 향사아에 기초자료로서 활용할 수 있을 것이다.
Introduction
Recent years have witnessed a rapid growth in peer to peer (P2P) sharing-service businesses such as Uber and Airbnb. In P2P sharing-service businesses, goods or services are provided by customers (peers) rather than by service firms, who act simply as an intermediary between customers. One customer acts as a service-providing customer (SPC), and the other as a service-receiving customer (SRC). P2P sharing-service firms have no direct control over an SPC’s quality of service provided to an SRC. Further, both SPCs and SRCs are customers to the firm, and therefore firms are concerned with the quality of service provided not only to SRCs but also to SPCs. In the P2P sharing-service context, particularly in the case of services serving the needs of diverse travelers (e.g., Uber or Airbnb), SPCs and SRCs can be people of different genders and races, which can cause them to feel socially distant from each other. Since SPCs are not professional service employees, they may not know how to cope with the social distance, which can result in uncomfortable service experience for both SPCs and SRCs. The more similar to the SPC an SRC feels, the more comfortable the SRC is likely to feel, which can lead to higher service satisfaction. Yet, few studies examined how such social distance can be reduced. This study is intended to fill this gap in the research. Specifically, we propose that an SPC’s form of address for SRC can moderate the effect of the incongruence in gender and race on an SRC’s perceived social distance.
Theoretical Development
Social distance refers to the level of acceptance people have of others outside of their own social group or class (Bogardus, 1928). It is a measure of perceived difference (or distance) between groups. In the context of the P2P sharing service, SRCs and SPCs can be from diverse social groups. When an SRC encounters an SPC from a social group that is different from theirs, the SRC can feel socially distant from the SPC. Immediate differences an SRC can identify upon meeting an SPC is demographic such as gender, age and race. In this study, we first propose that the difference (incongruence) in gender, age and race makes an SRC feel socially distant from an SPC. Social distance is closely related with similarity (Osbeck & Moghaddam, 1997; Liviatan, Trope & Liberman, 2009). In the context of mentoring, the higher the perceived and actual similarity a portage feels with a mentor, the higher the level of the portage liking and satisfaction for the mentor and with the mentoring service (Ensher, 1997). Matching gender and race between a mentor and a portage positively influenced self-reported grade point average, efficacy and confidence of a portage (Blake-Beard et al. 2011). Race was well demonstrated to influence social distance (Triandis & Triandis, 1960). Taken together, we conjecture that the effect of the difference in gender and race on social distance will apply to the P2P sharing service context and propose the following hypothesis:
H1: The incongruence in gender and race between an SRC and an SPC will make SRCs feel more socially distant from SPCs compared to the case of congruence. We propose in this study that the form of address for SRCs by SPCs can influence the level of social distance SRCs feel because of the incongruence in gender and race. The relationship between forms of address and social distance has been proposed (Brown, 1965). Intimate terms of address is associated with intimate relationship. Intimate terms of address is inversely proportional to social distance (Keshavarz, 2001). Calling someone by the first name is related with friendliness (Brown, 1961). The use of first name is positively associated with closeness in relationship (Brown, 1965). An empirical study in the healthcare context showed that most patients preferred to be addressed by the first name (as opposed to last name) (Gillette, Filak & Thorne, 1984). Taken together, we propose the following:
H2: Intimate forms of address by the SPC for the SRC will reduce the level of social distance caused by the incongruence in gender and race. We propose that the level of perceived social distance influences the level of comfort SRCs feel with the SPC during the service delivery. The negative effect of social distance on the level of interaction comfort has been shown (Paswan & Ganesh, 2005). In the context of service encounters where customers feel cultural differences, psychological distance was shown to influence comfort negatively (Weiermair, 2000). Since social distance is a dimension of psychological distance (Trope & Liberman, 2011), we propose the effect of social distance on comfort as following:
H3: Reduced social distance will lead to a higher level of comfort. The effect of social distance on comfort can vary by customers. In this study, we propose that the effect is moderated by the customer’s motive for the purchase of the P2P sharing service. There are largely four movies for customers who participate in collective consumptions (i.e., sharing service): economic motive, social motive, hedonic motive, and the motive to reduce risks and responsibilities (Benoit, Baker, Bolton, Gruner & Kandampully, 2017). Economic motives are associated with reducing expenses, and social motives are with meeting other people (e.g. more authentic travel) (Benoit et al., 2017). Hedonic motives are related with “accessing products that are exciting or normally out of reach” while motives to reduce risks and responsibilities are related with “no burdens of ownership, option to preview a product for potential purchase” (Benoit et al., 2017). According to a research in the context of P2P accommodations, cost saving, familiarity, trust, and utility are determinants of satisfaction with a sharing option. Thus, we propose that customer motives moderate the effect of social distance on comfort (Möhlmann, 2015).
H4: The effect of social distance on comfort vary by customer motives for purchase.
When feeling comfortable, people are more likely to trust, feel satisfied, and commit themselves, which can help improve relationship (Spake, Beatty, Brockman & Crutchfield. 2003). Comfort positively influences perceived service quality and satisfaction (Dabholkar, Shepherd & Thorpe, 2000). Comfort influences satisfaction positively (Paswan & Ganesh, 2005). In the P2P sharing-service context, SRCs’ evaluation of SPCs are carried out by reviews. Customer reviews of SPCs’ services are vitally important for both SRCs and SPCs. Reviews help other SRCs to identify desirable SPCs (Ert, Fleischer & Magen, 2016) and SPCs to receive feedback for their service quality improvement. Therefore, we propose the following:
H5: Comfort leads to SRC’s intention to write good reviews.
Data Collection
Data will be collected from American consumers who have used Uber at least once in the past one year through an online scenario-based survey using a 2 (genders: male vs. female) x 3 (races: white vs. yellow vs. black) x 3 (forms of address: no address vs. first name vs. last name) between-subject experimental design. Hypotheses will be tested by an analysis of variance and a structural equation modeling analysis. In the analyses, the potential effects of trust, familiarity, community belonging, utility (Möhlmann, 2015) and age will be controlled.
Implications
Findings of this study will reveal the importance of reducing social distance that SRCs feel during encounters with SPCs. Of many possible ways to reduce social distance between SRCs and SPCs, the result of this study will show that SPCs’ use of appropriate form of address to SRCs is effective. Further, it will show that the effect of social distance on customer comfort can vary by the purpose of the use of the sharing service. These findings will offer P2P service firms insights on how to help SPCs offer more comfortable services to SRCs and as a result receive positive reviews from SRCs.
Introduction
The idiom “you are what you own” has been considerably transformed into “you are what you can access”. The shift from ownership to access, the results of endless hyper-consumption, and the change in value mindsets initiated a new phenomenon, which is Sharing Economy (SE). SE has grown rapidly and refers to an entirely new business model, socio-economic ecosystem, and context for sharing the access to goods and services in technology-enabled peer-to-peer (P2P) ecosystems or consumer-to-consumer (C2C) engagement platforms. According to Botsman and Rogers (2010), SE is a result of the linkage between offline and online world, which was triggered by the society to overcome natural resources constraints. Resources in SE can be tangible (e.g., cars and homes) and intangible (e.g., expert local knowledge and labor). SE allows the sustainable use of idle resources, and it enables sellers to create new and flexible opportunities to market to consumers who experience personalized and even customized products and services at lower prices (Yang, Song, Chen, & Xia, 2017). SE opened up new horizons for a considerable number of new players across industries from a supply perspective by broadening the options for supply, which also remedies the response to peak demand. SE has given a rise to the humanization of consumer-supplier relationship in tourism and hospitality (TH), and sharing has become a mainstream practice in this context. The recent shift of customers‟ willingness to share accommodation with a host as opposed to using a private hotel room has many implications for TH (Lu & Kandampully, 2016). For example, Airbnb has become one of the most prominent competitors in hotel industry, and it enables people to lease or rent short-term accommodation including vacation rentals, apartment rentals, homestays, and even experiences via instant booking. From cash-strapped travelers to high-end business travelers, Airbnb has revolutionized the TH service in a new form of contractual relationship and gained a well-grounded popularity. Some scholars, on the other hand, argued that SE is a “fundamentally different business model” which could make it a new marketplace instead of a direct competitor in hotel industry. From this point of view, Airbnb do not compete or pose a challenge to traditional TH services but extend the concept of TH (Lu & Kandampully, 2016). Hotel industry has reactively responded to the direct, indirect, and induced effects of Airbnb to economy, and Airbnb‟s impact on hotel industry have recently been researched by several scholars (Mody, Suess, & Lehto, 2017; Priporas, Stylos, Rahimi, & Vedanthachari, 2017; Zervas, Proserpio, & Byers, 2017). Customer engagement in TH has been empirically found to enhance customers‟ service brand evaluation, brand trust, and brand loyalty (So, King, Sparks, & Wang, 2016). Guests attach great importance to motivational drivers, more meaningful “beyond-purchase” social interactions and unique experiences in authentic settings, which give rise to customer engagement beyond the service encounter. Disruptive innovation theory also states that products or services that offer alternative benefits compared to conventional attributes can transform a market and attain a critical mass, which can be observed in Airbnb‟s story (Young, Corsun, & Xie, 2017). Airbnb is successfully promoting the mottos of “Belong Anywhere” and “Don’t Go There. Live There” to their guests. The feelings of trust and belonging were negatively changed by mass production and noncustom travel experiences, and people sometimes forgot the meaning of community due to high tendency of prestige and advertising. Consumers‟ changing attitudes towards utilization and accessibility compared to ownership created an indirect need for intimate connection between people, namely human connection. Then, social concerns upon products and services gave a rise to mass-customized product and service expectations of consumers. This is where Airbnb‟s value proposition comes into play. First, it creates not only financial but also personal rewards through a “personal concierge” and a “home away from home” experience. Second, Airbnb is not a simple transaction, rather it is deemed to be a lifetime experience. So “guest experience” is at the heart of Airbnb‟s strategic position. From the “experience” point of view, SE has also opened up new rooms for service research. Service in the context of Airbnb is considered as an experience, rather than a utilitarian relation. Also, service quality has always been a critical factor in highly-competitive service industries like TH. Service quality perception is multi-faceted, and the studies focusing on it are rather limited, especially in hotel industry. These studies highlighted the complexities associated with evaluating service quality and the contribution of service process delivery on service outcomes, which results in the perception of service quality. Therefore, perceived service quality can be influenced by different internal processes and interpersonal variables. In order to study service quality in Airbnb, the types of settings in this context are to be noted. There are two main types of hosting via Airbnb: (1) remote hospitality, which refers to hosting situations in which the host does not physically share the place with the guest (e.g. booking the entire place), and (2) on-site hospitality, where the host is physically present and sharing the apartment with the guest. Mainly, on-site hospitality is an important part of the sociability within the host–guest relationship. Priporas et al. (2017) studied service quality in the context of remote hospitality, and we decided to respond to their relevant call for future research on the other type of Airbnb accommodation, which is on-site hospitality referring to “Shared Rooms” and “Private Rooms” in Airbnb‟s listings. “Shared Rooms” refer to an exact communal experience with the host, and guests sleep in a space that is shared with others and share the entire space with other people. “Private Rooms” refer to privacy, to some extent, in which guests (i) value a local connection (ii) have their own private room for sleeping and (iii) may share some spaces with others. We do expect that human connection and experience gap can be better researched with on-site hospitality existing in “Shared Rooms” and “Private Rooms”. This is because hosts design their services to create and build a relationship with their guests, leading to superior guest experiences and the so-called positive moment-of-truth. In addition to the online storytelling on hosts‟ home pages, the most important moment-of-truth is created during the guests‟ stay at the host‟s place; thus, the host plays a major role in the customer‟s perception of service and the subsequent review of the experience (Lu & Kandampully, 2016). Considering the previously mentioned “experience gap” in the literature, our research question and relevant sub-questions are as follows:
• What are the antecedents of perceived service quality in Airbnb on-site hospitality?
o How well does SERVQUAL suffice for measuring perceived service quality in this context?
o How well the cognitive and attitudinal factors expand this measurement?
o What are the additional perceived service quality factors that can be derived from guests‟ online textual reviews to remedy the “experience gap”?
Literature review
Cheng (2016) conducted a systematic review of SE by using co-citation and content analysis of papers, and the findings reveal three distinct research areas of SE: (1) SE‟s business models and its impacts, (2) Nature of SE, and (3) SE‟s sustainability development. Moreover, two unique areas, specifically in TH, were identified: (1) SE‟s impacts on destinations and TH services and (2) SE‟s impacts on tourists. The comparison of both literatures has revealed limited expansion in TH literature despite the fact that TH are at the frontier of SE (Cheng, 2016). Pesonen and Tussyadiah (2017) conducted cluster analysis to identify user profiles corresponding to consumer motivations for using TH services of SE. They concluded that a consumer group uses TH services of SE to make their trips more convenient, while another group uses these services mostly for social reasons. Yang et al. (2017) studied the loyalty in SE services from relational benefits perspective and concluded that confidence and social benefits have significant and positive effects on commitment in SE services. Molz (2014) introduced the term „Network Hospitality‟, which is relatively new and rooted in old traditions of welcoming strangers. Airbnb represents just one of many types of network hospitality, and in Airbnb, trust is almost shaped based on peer reviews, not solely on one-to-one peer interactions. The online review information becomes the basis for members‟ reputation in the network. The information accumulated on Airbnb‟s online platform helps both parties to establish their reputation, as well as publicizing their personalities, thereby facilitating the process of finding the best match. Moreover, there are hundreds of people working in Airbnb‟s customer service, trust, and safety departments who are devoted to ensuring the intimacy provision of trusted services. Airbnb requires all hosts to abide by their “Hospitality Standards”, which include expected levels of cleanliness, commitment, and communication. The flexibility, reliability, and consistency of Airbnb‟s service providers help them to build and maintain the relationship Airbnb enjoys with their guests and hosts (Lu & Kandampully, 2016; Zervas et al., 2017). Pine and Gilmore (1998) predicted the rise of experience in their seminal study, referring to the “experience economy” and also stating “As goods and services become commoditized, the customer experiences that companies create will matter most.” They called this as “Staging Experiences”. Also, there exists evidence in literature that providers are shifting their focus from product- and service-oriented to design of quality experiences. In terms of the glamour of SE in TH, a “more unique experience” is deemed to be second only to better pricing. Airbnb may eventually address all elements of the accommodation experience, from travel reservations to ticketing for local attractions. Consumers are looking for local authenticity in their travels. Psychological authenticity refers to emotional genuineness, self-attunement, and psychological depth (Walls, Okumus, Wang, & Kwun, 2011). If TH industry is to surpass its SE competition in terms of guest experience, it should leverage an expanded experience economy paradigm that incorporates additional dimensions (Mody et al., 2017). Authentic host-guest experiences probably only exist between like-minded and privileged members who possess high cultural capital (Cheng, 2016). With that, Walls et al. (2011) have suggested the need for researchers to identify specific dimensions “that exist in both our everyday and tourist experiences”. Both in Airbnb and traditional TH, guest satisfaction and likelihood to reuse are driven by similar factors such as quality and utility of services, trust to the host, and economic value. There are several models for measuring service quality, including SERVQUAL (Parasuraman, Zeithaml, & Berry, 1988) and SERVPERF (Cronin & Taylor, 1992). Service quality literature received widespread attention after the seminal work by Parasuraman et al. (1988) as they proposed the gap model and developed SERVQUAL (an attribute-based technique) as a tool for measuring service quality. According to SERVQUAL, service quality consists of five dimensions measured by a total of 22 items. The proposed five service quality dimensions are tangibles, reliability, responsiveness, assurance, and empathy. SERVQUAL basically requires measures of expectations and performance, and service quality is calculated from subtractions between these two components (i.e., performance [P] - expectations [E]). Regarding service quality in TH, Akbaba (2006) utilized SERVQUAL for business hotels, and Priporas et al. (2017) inquired SERVQUAL‟s applicability in Airbnb context with promising results. The major distinction between two research directions (i.e. hotels vs. Airbnb) is that even though guests expect similar core services such as clean rooms and comfortable beds, different attributes support the competitive advantage of hotels and Airbnb. While conveniences offered by hotels are unparalleled by Airbnb accommodation, the latter appeal to consumers driven by experiential and social motivations (Pesonen & Tussyadiah, 2017).
Research model
This research aims to identify the antecedents of perceived service quality of guests‟ in Airbnb on-site hospitality context. Our research model is presented in Figure 1, and it is subject to enhancement through the analytics of guest reviews. A survey will be developed to test the proposed research model. The items of constructs will be mainly derived from extant literature and enriched with the linguistic and textual analysis of reviews. Firstly, factors shaping expectation are predicted as per the literature and preliminary analysis of random guest reviews: (i) host‟s reputation capital (e.g., ratings and reviews), (ii) host‟s photos, (iii) guest‟s past accommodation experience, and (iv) word of mouth. Secondly, SERVQUAL part in the model is the same as proposed by Parasuraman et al. (1988). Last but not least, Airbnb is deemed to promote global geographical imaginaries (e.g., collaboration, social equity, solidarity, community, trust, reciprocity, altruism, autonomy, intimacy, and authenticity) to justify their business model (O‟Regan & Choe, 2017). Finally, regarding the guest review analysis, Airbnb has a detailed review mechanism, and we have gathered the publicly available reviews that are up to 500 words. We have observed cognitive and attitudinal dimensions within reviews through text analytics and grouped those in the research model as follows:
• Intimacy: The emergence of intimacy as a commercial value in TH industry has been researched. (e.g., How well people know each other? How people occupy space together? How people share private information, family pictures, furniture choice etc.?) (Prager, 1997)
• Authenticity: We focus on the existential authenticity (i.e., being one‟s true self or being true to one‟s essential nature) from guests‟ perceptions (e.g., Is Airbnb like ‘living the local life’?) (Lalicic & Weismayer, 2017)
• Commitment: It refers to the consistent behavior of Airbnb hosts in terms of social and cost components. (e.g., How well hosts abide by Airbnb policies and procedures? Do hosts have ongoing effectiveness of service?) (Lu & Kandampully, 2016)
• Privacy: It refers to the psychological zone to disclose personal and cultural values. Informational and physical privacy threats are important in Airbnb context (Lutz, Hoffmann, Bucher, & Fieseler, 2017).
• Security: It refers to the state of being free from danger or threat. According to Yang and Ahn (2016), security in Airbnb‟s services is a more powerful antecedent of attitude toward Airbnb than significant dimensions of motivation toward SE, such as enjoyment and reputation. With that we will only elaborate on interpersonal security in Airbnb (i.e., between host and guest, not between guest and Airbnb).
Conclusion
SE is a fairly new and multi-disciplined field that covers open rooms for research, and specifically, Airbnb is one of the most prominent businesses in this context. The literature review presented underlies the infancy of well-grounded studies covering service quality perceptions of customers in SE. Seeking for additional dimensions from Airbnb guests‟ reviews is a novel research approach in studying customer engagement, and those dimensions shall be included in the research model. This research has certain limitations. Our perceived service quality conceptualization requires empirical validation to establish the boundaries of the construct. The guest reviews in Airbnb are subject to data quality issues. Also, reviews should contain substantial amount of words up to a certain threshold. Data collection from emerging world regions is rather tough since Airbnb is not widespread across those regions. Thus, US and European countries will be firstly taken into account, where the use of Airbnb is quite common. The study is expected to provide useful insights for TH practitioners and managers. It can underlie the factors that trigger customer engagement in this context. Cognitive/attitudinal factors are foreseen as the differentiators, which stand as the basis for service design and delivery.
This study reviews the SERVQUAL model theoretically and statistically in relation to the nonlinearity of the perceived service quality. Perceived service quality measurement based on the SERVQUAL model assumes that consumers evaluate service quality by comparing their perceptions with their expectations. However, previous studies adopt linear factor analysis to discuss the SERVQUAL model. The present study assumes that consumers evaluate the service quality with a standard to admit the difference between their expectations and perceptions, and that their perceived service quality follows a nonlinear response. A nonlinear SERVQUAL model based on a nonlinear factor analysis model is proposed to understand the characteristics. The proposed model employs a threshold specification that represents the space in which consumers admit their discrepancy. The study extends a nonlinear factor analysis model to a nonparametric model in order to examine the functional aspects that from the perceived service quality. A nonparametric SERVQUAL model is adopted without any assumptions of the functional form. The empirical studies on the retail sector shows that the nonlinear model performs better than the linear model, and that the nonparametric model estimates the nonlinear function for perceived service quality. The results from the proposed model in our study provide insights in a consumer’s perceived service quality recognized as nonlinear and asymmetric. We conclude that the functional form for perceived service quality should be considered when specifying the measurement model for SERVQUAL. In addition, we discuss future work for a nonlinear measurement model and a nonparametric factor analysis.
This study investigates the relationship between B&B customers’ perceived service quality, satisfaction and repurchase intention. Based on literature review, the customers and managers of selected B&Bs in some Chinese provinces were interviewed for additional sub-dimension possibility for the SERVPERF model and a service recovery sub-dimension was thus added. A questionnaire consisting of 40 questions were designed, using a fivepoint Likert-type scale ranging from “1” reflecting "strongly disagree" to “5” "strongly agree". This study collected data via an online survey platform “WJX” from experienced Chinese B&B customers’ who had staying in a B&B at least once in a B&B in China one year prior to data collection. A pilot test was conducted and some of the question items were slightly amended for easier understanding. In March 2017, the main survey was conducted and 356 questionnaires were received. This study contributes to the body of knowledge in two folds. It not only unveils customers’ perceived service quality in a rapidly developing B&B industry in China but also offers B&B owners/managers insights on how to better engage their customers in enhancing their satisfaction and ultimately repurchase intention. Some conclusions can be drawn from this study. First, the B&Bs in China should pay attention to improving customers’ perceived service quality by optimizing their marketing network and channels to facilitate better internal exchange among B&B owners/managers. Second, it is advisable to strengthen the training of service providers in instilling the importance of service recovery and to actively communicate with the in-house guests to enhance customer satisfaction. Third, the B&Bs should offer quality service to not only improve customer satisfaction as a whole but also enhance customers’ willingness to return. Lastly, the B&Bs should bring local characteristics of "people" into play, relying on local products and service resources, deepening the cultural connotation of the B&B.
정신보건서비스의 궁극적 목적은 이용자의 삶의 질 향상이라고 할 수 있다. 본 연구는 수정낙인이론에 근거하여 정신장애인의 삶의 질에 지속적으로 부정적 결과를 초래할 수 있는 낙인이 자아존중감을 매개하여 삶의 질에 어떠한 영향 관계를 갖는지를 검증하는 데 그 목적을 둔다. 특히 이러한 경로 과정이 주요한 정신보건세팅인 정신보건센터, 정신요양시설, 사회복귀시설 내에서 어떠한 차이가 나타나는지를 비교․분석하여 조직 형태별로 사회 복지적 개입방안의 차별성을 찾고자 하였다. 조사대상은 총 563명의 정신장애인이며, 정신보건센터 233명, 사회복귀시설 142명, 정신요양시설 188명이 최종 분석에 포함되 었다. 주요연구결과는 첫째, 공동 구조방정식모형 분석에서는 치료진의 지지가 높을수록 낙인지각이 높았다. 둘째, 타인의 지지 나 가족의 지지가 높을수록 자존감이 높아지고 삶의 질도 높아진 것으로 나타났다. 셋째, 자기비하감이나 낙인지각이 높을수록 삶의 질은 떨어졌다. 끝으로, 다중집단분석을 통해 삶의 질을 설명하는 변수들 간의 경로가 세 집단에서 차이가 있는 것으로 나타났다.
As the number of medical tourist continues to increase over the last decade, there is an emergent need to manage the medical tourism market. However, there is a lack of hard evidence to support growth in future. Thus, this research is to investigate the effect of perceived risk on the actual service experiences of medical tourists. The data was collected from 153 foreign patients who were admitted to the hospital between August and November, 2013 at four tertiary general hospitals and one general hospital, in either Seoul or Incheon. For the statistical analysis of data, hierarchical multiple regression analysis were implemented. The major results of this study are as follows: First, foreign patients chose word-of-mouth as the major information source for the purchase decision and also as the main method to reduce risk. Second, a positive attitude toward medical tourism significantly influenced on the perceived service quality. Third, perceived risk on through all purchase stages negatively influenced on perceived risk. In "pre-visit" stage, patients perceived more risks for financing and making an uncertain decision. Meanwhile, in "during-stay" stage, culture related(food, cultural differences and communication) and finance related(additional cost) were indicated as the major factors. For "post-discharge" stage, the medical side(recovery pain, side effect & complication) and the financial side(whole time and money invested, cost for follow-up care) were ranked in the top groups. Fourth, the risk reduction in the "pre-visit" stage significantly influenced on perceived service quality compared to other stages. This indicates that foreign patients perceive a high quality of service if they do more risk reduction activities before visiting the destination. The major risk reduction methods included gathering advice of friends and family, consulting with expert, direct trial and collecting information through formal source. The implications as follows were drawn from the results of this study. First, hospitals participating in medical tourism services should use experienced patients as marketers and the stories of their experiences as marketing tools. Second, the hospitals or governments should advertise both the excellence of the medical service and the subsidiary benefits of medical tourism. Third, reducing perceived risk of medical tourists should be managed in advance. Fourth, risk reduction activities should be induced before the patients visit.
The inseparability, one of service specific characteristics, often makes it necessary and possible for customers to participate in service production and delivery process as partial employees or contributors. As customer participation may enhance or degrade the quality of services and customers’ satisfaction, many researchers have paid much attention to the concept of customer participation. Analogous to the typical classification of service employee behaviors, previous research typically categorized customer participation behaviors into customer participation behaviors and citizenship behaviors. Furthermore, past research showed that both types of customer behaviors significantly affect perceived service quality and satisfaction. However, the many criteria past research has used to classify customer participation behaviors lack conceptual rigor and generalizability beyond the specific types of services for which the criteria have been developed. The lack of conceptual rigor and consistency in classification criteria caused much confusion and incongruencies in empirical findings reported in the current customer participation behavior literature, depending on which specific criteria the researcher choose and on the specific type of service studied. Thus, it is important to develop a classification system of customer participation behaviors which is solid and generalizable to many types of services. This study proposes a customer participation behavior classification system which categorizes customer participation behaviors depending on 1) whether a customer behavior is essential and indispensable in the service production process and/or not and 2) whether a customer behavior is conducted voluntarily or upon requests by service employees. Based on the two criteria, the proposed system identifies five types of customer participation behaviors. Furthermore, this study examines whether the five types of customer participation behaviors affect the two dimensions of perceived service quality - outcome quality and process quality (Grönroos1984) and customers’ satisfaction with service experiences. Data for this study are collected through a survey of adult Korean consumers. Major findings of the study can be summarized as follows. First, increasing the level of each of the five types of customer participation behaviors affects perceived service outcome quality, perceived service process quality, and satisfaction. Second, the relative impact of each type of customer participation behavior varies by the types of participating customer’s personality and depending on whether a service is outcome-oriented or process-oriented type. Finally, the actual impact of each type of participation behaviors on perceived service quality and satisfaction varies according to what customers expect when they perform the behaviors.
The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of perceived price and servicescape on employee service quality, food and beverage quality, and customer value in Daegu Korean restaurants and to suggest methods for them to become the food mecca of Korea and the world. The samples for this study were customers of nine Korean restaurants in Daegu. A total of 368 questionnaires were analyzed with factor analysis, a reliability test, and a covariance structural analysis. The results showed that perceived price was positively related to employee service quality and food and beverage quality and that servicescape was positively related to employee service quality and food and beverage quality. However perceived price, servicescape, employee service quality, and food and beverage quality were not related to customer value. The reasons were that these factors did not influence perceived customer value in Daegu Korean restaurants. The Daegu municipal office should require these restaurants to develop distinguished employee service and food and beverage quality and conduct consistent marketing to Koreans and westerners, so that these restaurants can become the food mecca of Korea and the world.
This paper reviewed the relationship between perceived justice and service quality, and the moderating effect of gender in the franchise system of food service business. Based on the responses from 135 franchisees, the results of multiple regression analysis showed that distributive and procedural justice have positive relationships with almost service quality factors. The results of moderating analysis showed that male franchisees have more positive relationships with almost service quality factors than female franchisee while in distributive justice, and that female franchisees have more positive relationships with almost service quality factors than male franchisee while in procedural justice.
The Location Based Services (LBS) comprise spatial information and mobile technology allow users to receive various services based on Global Positioning Systems (GPS). Although, spatial information based services are very useful, it has lots of possibility to damage privacy protection. But the contents of the legislation by government have problems conflicted between protection of a person's location information and invigoration LBS. Therefore, in this study suggest a causal model to deal with user satisfaction and factors affecting spatial information based services to customer perspective. The proposed research model is tested empirically with one hundred and forty one usable questionnaires and partial least square (PLS) method. Experimental results showed that the usefulness, playfulness, and service quality play a prominent role in influencing the spatial information services satisfaction compared to other factors. But, easy of use and perceived risk are not significant.
The Location Based Services (LBS) comprise spatial information and mobile technology allow users to receive various services based on Global Positioning Systems (GPS). Although, spatial information based services are very useful, it has lots of possibility to damage privacy protection. But the contents of the legislation by government have problems conflicted between protection of a person's location information and invigoration LBS. Therefore, in this study suggest a causal model to deal with user satisfaction and factors affecting spatial information based services to customer perspective. The proposed research model is tested empirically with one hundred and forty one usable questionnaires and partial least square (PLS) method. Experimental results showed that the usefulness, playfulness, and service quality play a prominent role in influencing the spatial information services satisfaction compared to other factors. But, easy of use and perceived risk are not significant.
Thailand has a rapidly growing pharmaceutical sector, which is the eighth largest in the Asia-Pacific region and one of the largest and most developed among the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) countries. This study examines how to provide the most appropriate approach to enhance Thailand’s pharmaceutical services to dispense medicine to end consumers. The main objective is to determine the most appropriate corporate image for Thai Pharmacy Retail Stores (PRSs) for entering the ASEAN market community. An exploratory mixed-method design characterized by qualitative and quantitative phases of data collection and analysis and the linking of data from these two separate data strands was adopted to conduct an in-depth interview with pharmacists and the owner of pharmacy retail stores as well as 405 respondents who had visited a pharmacy retail store and interacted with pharmacists during the previous year. The multiple linear regression (MLR) was applied to analyze the relative influences of perceived service quality and the cultural dimension on the corporate image. Findings reveal that the perceived service quality and cultural dimension contribute 50% towards the corporate image, and the perceived service quality had more effect than cultural dimension. This study mainly focuses on PRSs in Thailand, while the findings show other analyses concerning how to successfully create and promote an effective PRS image for ASEAN markets.
This research investigates the relationship among product quality, service quality, perceived value, customer satisfaction, and behavior intentions. Validated measurements were identified from a literature review. The measurement model and the conceptual model depicting hypothesized relationships were evaluated based on responses from 220 customers using confirmatory factor analysis and structural equation modeling. The testing results show that, for the direct path, product quality has a significant, positive influence on customer satisfaction, and behavioral intentions. Also, perceived value directly influences customer satisfaction and behavioral intentions and satisfaction is an antecedent of behavioral intentions. For the indirect path, service quality has a significant, positive influence on behavioral intentions through the customer satisfaction. The major finding of this study suggest that service quality easily attract more customers, especially the young consumers. About the sale personnel, communication skills, knowledge and ways of treatment to customers are crucial to retailers to gain competitive advantage over competitors. Therefore, it should have clear and consistent processes, procedures with criteria that create the best condition for organization and individual to open this kind of retailing store. Furthermore, product quality improvement is essential; all products must have clear originality; and diversifying products and services is also the way to appeal more consumers.
Purpose - This study attempted to construct and validate a structural model of the relationship between the quality of medical services, perceived risk, reputation and customer satisfaction, which is the main concept of the relationship between large hospitals as well as small and medium hospitals and medical consumers. Through this verification, the small and medium hospitals are to find the way for wise coping in competitive situation with large hospitals.
Research design, data, and methodology - This research developed a hypothesis by constructing a structural equation that reaches the satisfaction and the relationship between reputation of perceived risk and perceived risk of service quality perceptions of customers of small and medium hospitals. Research data were collected through a questionnaire survey of respondents who had medical service experience from small and medium hospital. A total data of 252 respondents were used as the sample for the final analysis and analyzed using SPSS 23.0 and AMOS 23.
Results - As a result, the relationship of quality of medical service, reputation, and customer satisfaction among small and medium hospitals was consistent with the results of precedent studies, and the perceived risk has a significant impact on reputation, so the greater the perceived risk, the higher the preference for reputable medical institutions as large hospitals. In addition, it was found that the direct route from perceived risk to customer satisfaction was not significant, and reputation was found to have a full mediating effect on perceived risk and customer satisfaction. Customers who use small and medium hospitals prefer to use reputable medical institutions if their perceived risk is high, which is different from risk perception when specific targets are specified.
Conclusions - In terms of the effect from customer satisfaction, not only the path of perceived risk → reputation → customer satisfaction, but also the quality of service quality → reputation → customer satisfaction. These findings suggest that small and medium hospitals are appropriately responding to competition with large hospitals, rather than focusing on the perceived risks and reputation of customers in establishing and utilizing competitive strategies to create new customers and preserve existing customers