The Research on the Developing Method for the Service Quality of the Customized Instrument

摘要

The main aim of this research is to propose a useful methodology to develop a customized instrument for measuring the service quality of a selected industry. Using a series of purification procedures to find the underlying service quality factors and items, results will be compared to the Parasuraman et al. (PZB, 1988) SERVQUAL scale. Most academic researchers in service quality follow the PZB method to develop the service quality instrument, the SERVQUAL scale being based on PZB's Gap theory that is defined as the difference of perception to expectation. However, the SERVQUAL has raised arguments and criticisms from numerous scholars such as Carman(1990), Cronin and Taylor(1992), Brown and Bond(1995). As noted, some shortcomings will be met in using the SERVQUAL scale, which contains 5 dimensions and 22 items, because SERVQUAL was developed by means of only 5 service firms by PZB(1988). Thus, Carman(1990) concluded: the PZB SERVQUAL scale did not prove completely generic, with different service quality factors and items existing between different service industries. Therefore, Cronin and Taylor(1992) applied four different equations to test the SERVQUAL scale, concluding as follows: the performance-based scale (SERVPERF) is a more sensitive instrument than the PZB SERVQUAL scale. Given the reasons shown above, the present author will adopt only one service firm to develop a customized instrument for measuring the service quality in a selected industry. Research will contain four stages. In the first stage, initial service quality items will be generated, and a series of purification procedures will be used in the second and third stages. The vital verifications of reliability and validity of the customized instrument will be examined by several methods in this research.