ABSTRACT
Service quality has come to be recognized as a strategic tool for surviving and thriving in the present day fiercely competitive markets. Higher quality leads to higher customer satisfaction, and also results in higher repeat purchases, cross-selling, and positive wordof-mouth communications-all of which help the business firms achieve higher sales revenues, profits, and market shares (e.g., Aaker and Jacobson, 1994; Anderson and Sullivan, 1993; Bolton, 1998; Boulding et al., 1993; Danaher, 1997; Headley and Miller, 1993; Gilbert et al., 2004; Jones and Sasser, 1995; Magi and Julander, 1996; McColl-Kennedy and Schneider, 2000; Rucci et al., 1998; Yavas et al., 2001; Zeithaml et al., 1996). In the hypercompetitive markets, service firms can use superior quality even as a positioning plank for differentiating their service products from other look-alike competitive offers (Parasuraman et al., 1991). In view of its strategic importance, it’s of little wonder that service quality has drawn considerable attention of the researchers in the past. Several studies have been conducted to develop and validate the scales used to measure service quality and to establish its linkage with customer satisfaction and purchase intentions.
