Title: Consumers' evaluation of the quality of service in department stores: evidence from a case study of Hyperstar and Shahrvand in Iran

Authors: Masoud Karami; Omid Olfati; Mehdi Aliabadi; Maryam Hejazinia; Keyvan Tajeddini

Addresses: Tehran University School of Management, North Kargar – Adjacent Paul Nasr (Geisha), 6311-14155, Tehran, Iran ' Goethe University Frankfurt, Senckenberganlage 31, 60325 Frankfurt am Main, Germany ' Ershad-Damavand Higher Education Institute No. 40, Shohadaye Jandarmeri St., Abureyhan St., Enghelab Ave., 1315793861, Tehran, Iran ' Tehran University School of Management, North Kargar – Adjacent Paul Nasr (Geisha), 6311-14155, Tehran, Iran ' Allame Tabatabaee University, Dehkade Olympic, Shahid Hemmat, 1489684511, Iran

Abstract: The objective is to compare shoppers' evaluation of retail service quality in the context of a developing country that has conventional market configuration, specifically Iran. We compare two department stores: Shahrvand, a domestic department store and its international competitor Hyperstar. A sample of 320 shoppers in Tehran was used to test our hypotheses. Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) was exercised for hierarchical cross-validation of service quality dimensions. Furthermore, shopper's evaluation of service quality between two stores was assessed using independent T-test method. The finding shows that the RSQS structure is a good fit in the Iran retail setting. Perusing five dimensions are appeared to be exceptionally beneficent to assess the quality of retail service, and the results indicate the significant effect of customer-presumed policy reliability and physical dimensions-on retail department store success. We also found personal interaction and problem solving less important for shoppers. Interestingly, it was found that Hyperstar is salient, not only in terms of policy and reliability, but also in terms of its physical aspect, personal interaction, and problem solving.

Keywords: quality of service; QoS; retailing; RSQS; department stores; emerging markets; consumer evaluation; Iran; shopper evaluation; retail services; policy reliability; physical dimensions; personal interaction; problem solving.

DOI: 10.1504/MEJM.2013.057247

Middle East Journal of Management, 2013 Vol.1 No.2, pp.101 - 117

Received: 21 Oct 2012
Accepted: 27 Mar 2013

Published online: 05 Jul 2014 *

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