Introduction Service quality is becoming an important business factor even in the business-to-business markets. Actually, the various service factors such as technical level, lead time and after-sales service play the role as the important factors regarding decision making on purchasing other than price in the trade of B2B market. Most researches that measure the service quality in service field have focused on B2C consumer goods and the limited number of researches are only being carried out regarding the service quality in B2B area. Initial studies in B2B borrowed the service quality scale that was made mainly based on consumer goods (Gounaris 2005) by partially using the measure of SERVQUAL that was developed and collected by Parasuraman et al. (1988). In this study, we tried to investigate two main objectives: (1) develop the measurement scale to facilitate assessments of B-to-B service quality and (2) investigate the structural model which deals with the relation between the service quality and B2B relationship performance. Considering that most previous researches about service quality were conducted in the business-to-consumer area, this study conceptualizes the various quality aspects of service that are considered in B2B market and proposes our research model which is the detailed quality measurement scale of B2B service. We developed a measurement scale called B-SERVQUAL for B2B service quality and tested research hypotheses and structural model. Conceptual background This study carried out the comparative analysis against the measured items of previous researches and the contents acquired from the qualitative research. Various different measuring items and aspects related with service quality evaluation can be drawn out through the in-depth interview with companies’ purchasing staffs. To develop items for B2B service quality scale, we followed the procedure proposed by Churchill(1979), and Gerbing and Anderson(1988). First, in-depth interview with purchasing staffs was performed regarding transaction experience with B2B service providers. As proposed by Homburg and Garbe(1999), B2B service was classified into professional service that is provided by service expert company and industrial service that is provided by manufacturer of machine equipment. The responders were instructed to answer some important factors required to evaluate service providing company and items for current service provider to improve. After performing the pre-test with the filtered measuring items, the scale of service quality specialized for B2B service was developed after checking reliability and validity of measurement items. Based on such results of pre-test, we finally carried out the survey of respondents of B2B companies. Our final scales to measure the service quality were composed of 5 factors with 19 items such as economic quality, technical quality, process quality, empathy quality and convenience quality. We determined to call this scale ‘B-SERVQUAL’. Research design We developed research hypotheses and proposed our research model to analyze the effects of service quality on relationship performance in B-to-B market. To verify the sets of hypotheses and study model, we conducted questionnaire survey, targeting the personnel in purchase departments of public corporation and in the field of distribution/logistics, financial services, construction, manufacturing (electricity / machine, textile leather, food). A total of 250 questionnaires were distributed directly or through mail and 230 responses were used for the final analysis. Result and conclusion Through the confirmatory factor analysis, reliability and validity of the study constructs were verified. By using the structural equation model, research hypotheses were tested and most research hypotheses were statistically significant and accepted. The final research model also showed the statistical significance with the goodness-of-fit indices. We found that service quality has a positive effect on relationship bonding, indicating that the superior service quality of service providers leads relationship bonding with buyers. Five dimensions considered in this study bring not only structural bond but also the social bond that refers to the emotional bonding. Relationship bonding has a positive effect on commitment. Relationship commitment appeared to be an important factor that has a positive effect on relationship performance, which demonstrates the reduction of management cost through commitment. This study reflected the economic and convenience aspects of services that haven’t been highlighted in the previous studies in the business marketing area. This study has academic implications in that it reflected the economic aspects of services, which have been dealt with conceptually by some scholars such as profitability, productivity, and cost. From the viewpoint of B2B service providers, the B-SERVQUAL proposed in this study will be helpful guide for B2B marketers to specifically identify the customers’ needs and manage their service quality in the business market.

Even in the business-to-business markets, service quality is becoming very important factor which determines success or failure of the long-term business relationship. Our study aims to reveal how such recognized B-to-B service quality influences on realizing the relationship between the customer and the supplier. We began this research with two main objectives: (1) develop the service quality scale to facilitate assessments of B-to-B service quality and (2) investigate the structural model which deals with the relation between the service quality and business relationship performance. Considering that most previous researches about service quality were conducted in the business-to-consumer(B-to-C) area, this study conceptualizes the various quality aspects of service that are considered in B-to-B market and proposes B-SERVQUAL model which is the detailed quality measurement scale of B-to-B service. We developed a measurement scale called B-SERVQUAL for B-to-B service quality and tested research hypotheses and structural model. We found that service quality has a positive effect on relationship bonding, indicating that the superior service quality of service providers leads relationship bonding with buyers. Five dimensions considered in this study bring not only structural bond but also the social bond that refers to the emotional bonding. Relationship bonding has a positive effect on commitment. Relationship commitment appeared to be an important factor that has a positive effect on relationship performance, which demonstrates the reduction of management cost through commitment. This study reflected the economic and convenience aspects of services that haven’t been highlighted in the previous studies in the business marketing area. This study has academic implications in that it reflected the economic aspects of services, which have been dealt with conceptually by some scholars such as profitability, productivity, and cost. From the viewpoint of B2B service providers, the B-SERVQUAL proposed in this study will be helpful guide for service providers to specifically identify the customers’ needs and manage their service quality in the business market.

Even in the business-to-business(B2B) markets, service quality is becoming very important factor which determines success or failure of the long-term business relationship. Considering that most previous researches about service quality were conducted in the business-to-consumer (B2C) area, this study conceptualizes the various quality aspects of service that are considered in B2B market and proposes B-SERVQUAL which is the detailed quality measurement scale of B2B service. Our study aims to reveal how such recognized service quality influences on realizing the relationship between the customer and the supplier. We began this research with two main objectives: (1) develop the service quality scale to facilitate assessments of B2B service quality and (2) investigate the structural model which deals with the relation between the service quality and business relationship performance. Service quality has a positive effect on relationship bonding, indicating that the superior service quality of service providers leads relationship bonding with buyers. Five dimensions considered in this study bring not only structural bond but also the social bond that refers to the emotional bonding. Especially, we assumed that the empathy quality, a human factor in service quality, plays an important role in binding sellers and buyers personally and emotionally. Technical quality and the process quality related to service delivery are closely associated with the technical level of the service provided, so the service quality structurally binds the relationship between companies. In addition, service quality has a greater effect on structural bond than social bond, which implies that service quality is emphasized as core elements that bring economic, strategic, technical, and organizational benefits in B2B trading rather than be seen as a catalyst to accelerate trading or supplementary elements to the products. Structural bond in relationship bonding is an antecedent of social bond. Relationship bonding has been studied in 2 categories traditionally. This study could identify a casual relation between them. The findings from the study demonstrate that the structural bond is developed when clear economic and managerial advantages exist for buyers, and then the social bond is formed based upon this. In other words, structural bond is a positive predictor of social bond or emotional bond. As suggested earlier, service quality has a greater effect on structural bond than social bond, which supports a structural casual relation in which the structural bond is accomplished first through service and then, based upon this, social bond is accomplished. Commitment appeared to be an important factor that has a positive effect on relationship performance, which demonstrates the experience and the reduction of management cost through commitment is the antecedent that brings the relationship performance which is defined as the degree of the effectiveness and efficiency from mutual organization exchange activities. Managerial implications and limitations of the study were also discussed in detail.

Prediction of rice developmental stage is necessary for proper crop management and a prerequisite for growth simulation as well. The objectives of the present study were to find out the relationship between the plastochrone index(PI) and the developmental index(DVI) estimated by non-parametric phenology model which simulates the duration from seedling emergence(DVI=0) to heading(DVI=l) by employing daily mean air temperature and daylength as predictor variables, and to confirm the correspondency of developmental indice to panicle developmental stages based on this relationship. Four japonica rice cultivars, Kwanakbyeo, Sangpungbyeo, Dongjinbyeo, and Palgumbyeo which range from very early to very late in maturity, were grown by sowing directly in dry paddy field five times at an interval of two weeks. Data for seedling emergence, leaf appearance, differentiation stage of primary rachis branch and heading were collected. The non-parametric phenology model predicted well the duration from seedling emergence to heading with errors of less than three days in all sowings and cultivars. PI was calculated for every leaf appearance and related to the developmental index estimated for corresponding PI. The stepwise polynomial analysis produced highly significant square-rooted cubic or biquadratic equations depending on cultivars, and highly significant square-rooted biquadratic equation for pooled data across cultivars without any considerable reduction in accuracy compared to that for each cultivar. To confirm the applicability of this equation in predicting the panicle developmental stage, DVI at differentiation stage of primary rachis branch primordium was calculated by substituting PI with 82 corresponding to this stage, and the duration reaching this DVI from seedling emergence was estimated. The estimated duration revealed a good agreement with that observed in all sowings and cultivars. The deviations between the estimated and the observed were not greater than three days, and significant difference in accuracy was not found for predicting this developmental stage between those equations derived for each cultivar and for pooled data across all cultivars tested.