Self-efficacy in building self-identity amongst the differently abled employees of a fine dining restaurant in Mumbai has been used as the precursor to building up of a sustainable business model to create social capital. The outcome of this successful profitable business model has been able to demonstrate that such hearing and speech impaired individuals could be turned from being ‘social liabilities’ to ‘social positive assets’. The ‘social liability’ denotes to Mirchi & Mime employees being hearing and speech impaired who suffer from social, economic, financial and familial exclusion. The focal point of this study is to understand the transformation of such entities termed as ‘social liability’ to ‘social capital’ which has been possible within the span of three years. The study uses mixed method research to elicit, quantify and substantiate the building of social capital through the positive psychological, social and economic changes brought about in people who belong to the bottom of the pyramid (BoP). The study uses four different approaches to assess and validate the conceptual model and research objective. One, using survey instrument for guests (consumers) which included 32 items in total and 27 items were measured using likert type scale (5= strongly agree & 1- strongly disagree). Two, employee interview questionnaire was open ended. The questions intend to address the aspects such as regular vs special schooling, challenges experienced in daily routine, employee’s aspiration, pre-employment- economic, social and psychological condition and their post-employment changes, including their perception about the society. Three, the in-depth video-based interview with employee’s family- the questions revolved around their economic, social and psychological transformation pre and post-employment. Fourth, is personality assessment of selected few employees to understand implicit perception about ‘self’ and ‘world’. The quantitative outcome is obtained through descriptive and inferential analysis. The study empirically captures the social capital development with an extensive research from individual psycho-sociological perspective to familial- societal perspective. The study encapsulates an inward to outward outlook of hearing and speech impaired employees and how Mirchi & Mime a fine-dine restaurant (a profit making firm) has successfully converted a social liability into a social capital. Mirchi & Mime consistently maintained its top ranking on Indian restaurant search and discovery service (Zomato). Hence, the study contributes in justifying the viewpoint that social liability is a myth in fact if, employed strategically this would lead to economic and social inclusiveness and business sustainability.

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.

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.

The purpose of this study is to explore the nature of the relationship between several factors representing perceived port service quality and the adaptability to the marketing strategy of container terminal. An empirical study was carried out to examine not only the determinants of port service quality using PZB's SERVQUAL model but also its implications to the service marketing strategy. The data investigating the determinants of port service quality were collected from 136 managers from shipping companies by the use of questionnaire method. Factor analysis and t-test were carried out to analyze the data. The results of this study were as follows ; First, Shipping companies perceive the port service quality on two the dimensions of personnel and material aspects. Second, Shipping companies put more emphasis on the reliance of port service quality even though the port authority offers good facilities and materials as parts of port shipping quality. Third, There is a significant relationship between the purchase intention and the customer satisfaction. These findings help not only to formulate service marketing strategy based on service quality but also to be a concept tool to enhance port service quality.

The importance of service quality in any service industry cannot be disputed. Shippers have increased expectations concerning the quality of shipping service they receive and carriers are struggling to meet these expectations. This struggle between shipper and carriers would suggest that there is room to improve much more understandings of how shipper define shipping service quality in the carriers' perspectives. This is an empirical investigation and study on the measurement of customer response and service quality as perceived by customer in the international transportation logistics system. The purpose of this study is to clarify factors of shipping service quality on the basis of service marketing concept. In order to fulfill the objectives, this paper combined research tools that include both empirical study and documentary research. Data was gathered from 132 freight forwarder by the use of questionnaire. In this study, the established hypotheses were generated on the basis of the service quality evaluation model(SERVQUAL, SERVPERF, and EP) and Gap model.