便利店发展外文资料.pdfVIP

SERVICE QUALITY IN CONVENIENCE STORES Fridrik Eysteinsson, School of Business, University of Iceland, Reykjavik, Iceland Brynhildur L. Bjornsdottir, University of Iceland, Reykjavik, Iceland ABSTRACT Quality service is of great importance to customers and companies alike irrespective of whether they are in manufacturing or services. Several general scales have been created to measure service quality. One such scale is SERVQUAL. Other scales have been designed to measure service quality in particular types of industries. RSQS is for example intended to be used in retail companies. The measuring instrument is based on five dimensions, tangible and intangible, of service quality. Research, where the instrument has been used, indicates that the dimensions of service quality in retailing differ according to culture and type of retail. The aim of the authors´ research was to find out which are the dimensions of service quality in one type of retail, namely convenience stores. The research was quantitative. The population of interest was customers of a convenience store retail chain in Iceland. The results were that the dimensions of service quality in the convenience stores in Iceland are not the same dimensions as in the original RSQS instrument. Three dimensions emerged, one of them new. The findings of earlier research, that the dimensions of service quality in retailing differ according to culture and type of retail, are confirmed. Keywords: Service quality; SERVQUAL; RSQS; Convenience stores, 1. INTRODUCTION Parasuraman, Zeithaml and Berry (1985) define service quality as the difference between expected service and perceived service. Perceived service quality is subjective. It is the customers who evaluate service quality and it therefore h