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 This paper’s goal is to assess the effects of customer participation behavior on perceived e-service quality and satisfaction in Greek e-shops. The author builds on and expands previous efforts by investigating customer participation using a multi-dimensional construct developed by Yi and Gong (2013) with the goal of dwelling deeper in the effects of individual dimensions of customer participation (i.e. information seeking, information sharing and responsible behavior) on consumers’ perceptions. The findings show that one of the three dimensions of customer participation behavior, namely responsible behavior, positively affects both perceived service quality as well as customer satisfaction, while information seeking affects only e-service quality and information sharing does not affect any of the two dependent variables. Theoretical development The author, in agreement with the service-dominant view proposed by Vargo and Lusch (2004; 2008), emphasizes the notion that the customers of a provided service are not just simple recipients of a final product, but also co-creators in its production process. Research on customer participation, has revealed its positive influence on perceived quality (Cermak et al., 1994) and satisfaction (Yang et al., 2017), while in some cases studies pointed out when this relationship does not hold, as well as investigate moderators affecting it (Yim et at., 2012). There have been studies that support the positive effect that aspects of customer participation have on customer satisfaction (Dong et al., 2015; Yim et al., 2012; Chan et al., 2010; Kellogg et al., 1997) and perceived service quality (Dong et al., 2015). At the same time, there have been few studies probing into the relationship between customer participation behavior and perceived service quality and satisfaction in the context of the production and distribution of services from self-service technologies, where a high level of customer/user activity and low provider activity is required (Wünderlich et al., 2013), which stresses the importance of the customers’ role in attaining value co-creation. According to Yi and Gong (2013) customer value co-creation behavior comprises two dimensions; customer participation behavior and customer citizenship behavior. This study focuses on customer behavior that is necessary for value co-creation, namely on customer participation behavior, since it is this that is usually manifest in the context of the interaction of customers with an e-shop. In accordance with the terminology utilized by Kelley et al. (1990), this study focuses on customer technical quality- as expressed by information seeking, information sharing and responsible behavior, according to Yi and Gong (2013)- since interaction with an e-shop is usually standardised and does not facilitate the development of interpersonal relationships between customers and employees. Research design To check the hypotheses formulated in this study, the services offered by e-shops in Greece were examined and assessed. What drew attention on the e-commerce and e-shopping sector, was the fact that through the long lasting economic crisis in Greece, it was one of the few that managed to flourish. A survey was carried out using a structured questionnaire for a sample of 335 adults, customers of 125 Greek e-shops. Customer participation behavior (composed of three dimensions, namely information seeking, information sharing and responsible behavior) was measured using Yi and Gong’s (2013) multidimensional and hierarchical scale that consists of 11 items, rated on a seven-point Likert format. E-service quality was measured through the use of a one-item scale developed expressly for this purpose by Lee and Lin (2005), who also used a one-item scale to measure customer satisfaction. Result and conclusion The results obtained from the analysis, supported the propositions that customer information seeking and customer responsible behavior enhance perceived service quality, while at the same time customer responsible behavior increases customer satisfaction. Claims that customer information seeking, or customer information sharing enhance customer satisfaction, could not find any support, as did the proposition that customer information sharing enhances perceived service quality. These results provide useful insight when it comes to designing an on-line store in a way that it would enhance the customers’ perceptions on the attained service quality, as well as their perceptions on their satisfaction. In order to succeed, enterprises should develop organisational socialisation (Kelley et al., 1990; Kelley et al., 1992) in such an extent, that it would establish a climate of trust that will lead customers to assume a responsible behavior towards the e-shop.

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.

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.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship among the service quality, professional competence and loyalty of China tourists visiting Taiwan. A crosssectional survey was used to collect usable data from the China tourists who participate in group tourism to Taiwan. The result indicate that the China tourists felt the service quality of “meal” in Taiwan is the best and good feeling in “professional knowledge” of tour guide. In addition, this study found that the professional competence of tour guide has an intermediary effect between the quality of tourist services and tourist loyalty. The quality of tourism service can positively influence the loyalty of China tourists to Taiwan, meanwhile, the quality of tourism service can positively affect the professional competence of tour guide and the professional competence of tour guide can positively affect the loyalty of China tourists travel to Taiwan. According to the results, the study found that travel agencies should focus on the training of tour guide, which help travel agencies to raise the value of travels product and attract more tourist.

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.

Customer participation (CP) refers to customers’ contribution of effort, knowledge, information or other resources to service production and delivery (Dong & Sivakumar, 2017). A key management challenge is to ensure that after customers’ initial acceptance these service formats, customers continue to use them, by the provision and management of CP quality as perceived by the customer. In a CP context, shaping customers’ quality perceptions is complex. First, these perceptions are the result of multiple parties (i.e., customer, employee, and firm). Secondly, customer performance is difficult to control and forms a preeminent source of variability and operational inefficiency (Groth, 2005). Against this backdrop, two research objectives guide this study. First, to propose and test a quality typology that takes a comprehensive view on the CP quality dimensions. Second, to assess whether organizational socialization -consisting of role clarity, self-efficacy, and motivation- is able to influence the customer in service formats that rely on CP. To address these issues survey data were collected from 138 customers. PLS-SEM results indicate that stimulating continued usage of CP formats involves managing an intricate mix of customer quality perceptions (i.e., employee functional and technical quality; firm functional and technical; customer technical quality. In addition, the results show that socialization techniques can be useful to influence customer quality contributions in CP service formats.

본 연구는 노인주간보호시설(day care center)의 서비스 품질이 이용자의 재이용 의사에 미치는 영향 과, 이용자 만족도의 매개효과를 규명하고자 한다. 이를 위해 서울권 노인주간보호시설 이용자 200명을 대상으로 설문조사하였고, 그 중 유의미한 설문지 183부를 회수하여 분석하였다. 노인주간보호시설 서 비스 품질을 독립변수로, 이용자 만족도를 매개변수로, 이용자의 재이용 의사를 종속변수로 설정하여 빈도분석, 상관분석, 매개영향분석 및 다중회귀분석을 실시하였다. 연구결과 서비스 수준은 재이용에 영 향을 미치지 않았고, 과정품질이 재이용에 가장 높은 영향을 미치는 것으로 나타났다. 또한, 과정품질 다음으로 결과품질이 재이용에 큰 영향을 미치는 것으로 나타났다. 이 같은 연구결과에 비춰봤을 때 노 인주간보호시설의 서비스를 발전시키기 위해선 (1) 종사자들에 대한 교육･훈련 및 처우개선, (2) 관련 법 제의 정비와 개선이 필요할 것으로 보인다.

Recently, service quality must reflect several demands of customers who show rapid and various changes so as to be compared with the past. So, objective and rapid methods for them are necessary more. For them, first of all, service company must calculate their standard of service quality accurately by measuring service quality exactly. To measure service quality accurately, this researcher collected and analyzed data by survey for customers who are customers of logistics services, grasped potential satisfaction standard(P) by 5 point Likert scale and one survey for accurate classification of quality attributes through weighted customer satisfaction coefficient changing quality attributes by developing the study on Kano model and Timko's customer satisfaction coefficient, and suggested Potential Customer Satisfaction Improvement index(PCSI) for examining the improvement of customer satisfaction so as to utilize them as an index of differentiated and concrete measurement of service quality.

This study aims to configure what dimensions make up for smart phone after service quality, and how this service quality affects customer satisfaction and customer loyalty. Smart phone market is a market of the device leading the digital convergence as well as positioning itself as one of the national growth driving industry. To survive in this matured market, companies should have to respond actively to radical changes and customers needs in the so-called Smart Revolution environment. Lately, however, the smart phone market is prospected to move from growth phase to mature phase by the scholars. In order to proactively respond to the change in such market condition, companies need to provide absolute advantage in customer loyalty over their competitors by revolutionizing the after-sales service quality. Qualified A/S will lead to service satisfaction and achieve customer loyalty. The empirical analysis results obtained through A/S quality are as follows : First, human quality (attitude, expertise, problem-solvability), environment quality (handling agility, convenience, comfort), service policy quality (quality guarantee, additional service operation) are dimensions that make up for A/S quality. Second, A/S quality dimension showed a significant positive influence on service satisfaction and A/S satisfaction showed a positive influence on customer loyalty as well. Based on this empirical study, we propose some implications for A/S quality improvement. First, human quality dimension has relatively higher influence on A/S satisfaction in case of free A/S, so companies need to solve the product problem completely when consumer’s first visit by continual employee education. Second, in case of paid A/S, the service policy quality-especially A/S Warranty period- has higher influence on A/S satisfaction.

Logistic enterprises want to be competitive enterprises in fierce logistic market and worry about the securement of discriminative competitiveness for it. The standards for the judgement of logistic industry’s maintenance of competitiveness are not only economic feasibility of logistic costs but also the satisfaction of users because well-established service system for variety and enhancement of logistic needs. Some of the quality attributes sufficiently satisfy expectation of customers, but not guarantee high-quality satisfaction. Therefore, it’s difficult to grasp quality attributes with the existing approach of perceived service quality. Quality attribute model suggested by Kano is widely used as the concept is accurate, there is high possibility to be used at the stage of product/service planning, and it can be easily applied. Kano model has a limitation that quality attributes are classified with mode and the differences between strong property of the quality attribute and week property in quality attributes were ignored. Therefore, Timko calculated customer satisfaction coefficient with the result of Kano’s survey and effects of customer satisfaction and unsatisfaction through relations between satisfaction coefficient and unsatisfaction coefficient. The purposes of this study are to use ASC, the average of satisfaction coefficient and unsatisfaction, as the satisfaction of quality characteristics, decide the importance of quality characteristics with TOPSIS, a representative multi-standard decision-making method, and calculate strategy improvement propriety of logistic service quality.

Since 2008 to 2014 the operating margins of Chinese traditional retail industry went a sustained downward. Instead, the operating margins of online-store have been the sudden explosion. In this case which online-store sale the same products with traditional market, my research try to find out how to improve the state of traditional market since 92.5% practitioners of retail industry are doing their business in traditional market. Customer equity can estimate customer lifetime value for the company (Rust et al, 2004). The firm can make proper marketing strategy with customer equity. Customer equity can both satisfy consumers and make a profit for the company (Lemon et al., 2001).So we built a model to connect service quality and customer equity to study how to prove the competitive power of traditional market. In this paper we used customer satisfaction and brand attitude as mediating variables since Store brands have become an important contributor to retail differentiation and basis for building store loyalty (Dodd and Lindley, 2003) and in retail market customer equity varies with customer satisfaction( Pappu and Quester 2006). Considering that Chinese economic growth rate was slowing down, traditional market is being a priority for Chinese Government to relieve severe export pressure and employment pressure. In this research we would like to study the relationships among service quality, customer satisfaction and brand attitude and how they influence customer equity in traditional markets. For this purpose we built a model which composed by service quality, satisfaction brand attitude and customer equity and tested it. The survey was collected from traditional markets in China and South Korea and the data was analyzed by AMOS and SPSS.

Individual safety is a fundamental concern. People generally try to avoid danger or mishaps in the workplace, and to consider safety as a primary condition for satisfactory employment and agreeable shopping experiences. Organizations can assure that workers, clients, the public, and the environment perceive that they are in safe environments by providing highly secure services. Secure working environments and safety-focused human resource environments are essential antecedents to safe performance and outcomes. Dangerous workplace environments cause employees to feel stress and anxiety. Thus their performance decreases and accidents and injuries increase. Workplace safety is the most important factor influencing service and performance, especially for allowing frontline salespersons to focus on providing customer satisfaction. In this study of workplace safety, we apply the service quality dimension to examine its relationship with employee perceptions of job satisfaction and their related job performance. We discuss theoretical and practical implications based on the results.

The development of an appropriate public service quality model has become increasingly recognised as an important subject of interest in the public sector as well as academia. In particular, the public systems enacted by governments are widely used and have a significant impact on national competitiveness. But few researches have been conducted to explore the quality dimensions of a public system service and empirically examine the relationship among related variables. Therefore, in this study, we strive to develop a quality measurement model of public system service that can be effectively used in practice. Using 601 samples gathered through a structured survey from project engineers, a conceptual quality model of public system is presented and discussed. Given the exploratory nature of this study, an exploratory factor analysis is used to investigate quality dimensions and partial least square (PLS) is employed in determining the structural relationships. From empirical results, we found that the quality dimensions of the public system had four distinct quality dimensions (design quality, environment quality, primary outcome quality, additive outcome quality). All four quality dimensions showed good representative factors in explaining user satisfaction. Perceived trust was proved to significantly mediate the relationship between quality dimensions and user satisfaction. Our research is expected to contribute to the literature by providing a good conceptual framework for assessing public system quality by linking four quality dimensions with user satisfaction. In particular, the developed model can elaborately measure process quality and multi-functional outcome quality of the system by the supplementation of design quality and additive outcome quality respectively. Practical implications are also suggested on the basis of our analysis.

This research determined priority of quality improvement of public institution's education service by using ASC for importance and applying Topsis, a multi-standard decision-making method simplifying various attributes and scales of evaluation items and deciding the comparative priority for satisfaction and discussed the differences so as to measure the quality of public institution's educational service and examine the priority of education service' quality improvement. This research classified the characteristics of quality improvement. As a result, it's significant to suggest positive direction and method to improve satisfaction and education service's quality from an angle of demander by analyzing educational satisfaction of education service quality of public education institution and effects on the following improvement.

Mobile phone market, a market of the device leading the digital convergence as well as positioning itself as one of the national growth driving industry and as a daily necessity, is led globally by companies that have been actively responding to changes in the so-called Smart Revolution environment. Lately, however, the Smart Phone market is prospected to move from growth phase to mature phase by the scholars. In order for a company to proactively respond to the change in such market condition, it is imperative that they ensure absolute advantage in customer loyalty over their competitors by revolutionising the after-sales service(A/S) quality that will lead to service satisfaction. This study aims to configure what dimensions make up for mobile phone A/S quality, and how this quality affects customer satisfaction and loyalty as well as proposing directions for A/S quality improvement by identifying them case by case to see what dimensions have more impact on customer satisfaction.

본 논문은 2016년 하계 학술대회 발표 자료로서, 중견 기업에서의 ERP 시스템 구축 시 사전 설계 활동으로서의 PI컨설팅을 포함한 ERP 구축과 PI 활동 없이 ERP가 구축된 ERP 서비스에 대하여 두 집단간의 서비스 품질을 분석하고 비교하고자 한다. 이를 위하여 일반적인 오프라인에서의 서비스 품질 평가 모형인 SERVQUAL 모형과 IT 환경에서 서비스 품질을 분석하는 E-S-QUAL 모형 등의 다양한 연구모형을 참조하여 서비스 품질 모형(Service Quality Model)을 제시하여 두 집단에 적용하여 분석한다. 연구모형의 분석을 통해 PI 수행 여부에 따라 두 집단에 구축된 ERP 서비스 품질척도에 영향을 미치는 품질 결정 요인들을 식별하여 주요한 품질 결정 요인의 개선을 통한 ERP 서비스의 품질을 개선하고자 한다. 이러한 연구 과정을 통해 각 연구 모형과 요인들 간에 미치는 영향에 대한 결과를 분석하며, 분석 결과를 통하여 서비스 품질의 개선을 위한 경영적 시사점을 도출하고자 하는 목적으로 작성되었다.

The quality of customer service has been one of the most representative determinants of retailers’ sustainable competitiveness. Since Parasuraman et al. (1988) introduced the service quality instrument, called SERVQUAL, many studies have used SERVQUAL to measure service quality in various domains. However, since SERVQUAL was originally developed to measure general service quality, it didn’t fully consider the underlying characteristics of a specific industry such as retailing. Recently, as retail industry is becoming more competitive, there is a general agreement that the most important retailing strategy for creating competitive advantage is the delivery of high service quality. From the retail manager’s perspective, the level of service quality is highly correlated with the level of customer loyalty and the customer’s favorable word-of-mouth behavior. In this sense, most retail managers would be very interested in the question of how to increase their customer loyalty rate and, therefore, to elaborate this question in more detail, service quality study in a retail setting would be very important. Current measures of service quality, including SERVQUAL, do not adequately capture customers’ perceptions of service quality for retail stores such as department stores or general discount stores. The main objective of this study is to investigate the usefulness and applicability of the different methods, including SERVQUAL, in measuring the service quality of retail environment and their relationships to customer loyalty and word-of-mouth behavior. By exploring the suitability of each different measurement method for retail service quality, this study enhances the understanding of the major dimensions of retail service quality and the analysis of the effect of service quality on customer loyalty and word-of-mouth behavior.