Retail Service Quality
A Measure of Service Quality for Retail Stores: Scale Development and Validation
Pratibha A. Dabholkar Dayle I. Thorpe Joseph 0. Rentz
University of Tennessee, Knoxville
Current measures of service quality do not adequately capture customers 'perceptions of service quality for retail stores (i.e., stores that offer a mix of goods and services). A hierarchical factor structure is proposed to capture dimensions important to retail customers based on the retail and service quality literatures as well as three separate qualitative studies. Confirmatory factor analysis based on the partial disaggregation technique and cross-validation using a second sample support the validity of the scale as a measure of retail service quality. The implications of this Retail Service Quality Scale for practitioners, as well as for future research, are discussed.
INTRODUCTION
The retail environment is changing more rapidly than ever before It is characterized by intensifying competition from both domestic and foreign companies, a spate of mergers and acquisitions, and more sophisticated and demanding customers who have greater expectations related to their consumption experiences (Sellers 1990, Smith 1989). Consequently, retailers today must differentiate themselves by meeting the needs of their customers better than the competition. There is general agreement that a basic retailing strategy for creating competitive advantage is the delivery of high service quality (e.g., Berry 1986; Hummel and Savitt 1988; Reichheld and Sasser 1990). The most widely known and discussed scale for measuring service quality is SERVQUAL, a scale designed to
Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science.
Volume 24, No. 1, pages 3-16
Copyright © 1996 by Academy of Marketing Science. measure five dimensions of service quality: tangibles, reliability, responsiveness, assurance, and empathy. Although SERVQUAL has been empirically tested in a number of studies involving "pure" service
Pratibha A. Dabholkar Dayle I. Thorpe Joseph 0. Rentz
University of Tennessee, Knoxville
Current measures of service quality do not adequately capture customers 'perceptions of service quality for retail stores (i.e., stores that offer a mix of goods and services). A hierarchical factor structure is proposed to capture dimensions important to retail customers based on the retail and service quality literatures as well as three separate qualitative studies. Confirmatory factor analysis based on the partial disaggregation technique and cross-validation using a second sample support the validity of the scale as a measure of retail service quality. The implications of this Retail Service Quality Scale for practitioners, as well as for future research, are discussed.
INTRODUCTION
The retail environment is changing more rapidly than ever before It is characterized by intensifying competition from both domestic and foreign companies, a spate of mergers and acquisitions, and more sophisticated and demanding customers who have greater expectations related to their consumption experiences (Sellers 1990, Smith 1989). Consequently, retailers today must differentiate themselves by meeting the needs of their customers better than the competition. There is general agreement that a basic retailing strategy for creating competitive advantage is the delivery of high service quality (e.g., Berry 1986; Hummel and Savitt 1988; Reichheld and Sasser 1990). The most widely known and discussed scale for measuring service quality is SERVQUAL, a scale designed to
Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science.
Volume 24, No. 1, pages 3-16
Copyright © 1996 by Academy of Marketing Science. measure five dimensions of service quality: tangibles, reliability, responsiveness, assurance, and empathy. Although SERVQUAL has been empirically tested in a number of studies involving "pure" service