Title: Development and validation of multi-dimensional wind turbine service quality scale for measuring operations and maintenance service quality in wind energy sector

Authors: G. Arun Jernick; L. Suganthi; S. Iniyan

Addresses: Global Quality Department, Vestas Wind Technology India Private Limited, Chennai – 600119, India ' Department of Management Studies, Anna University, College of Engineering, Chennai – 600025, India ' Department of Mechanical Engineering, Institute of Energy Studies, College of Engineering, Anna University, Chennai – 600025, India

Abstract: Service quality and customer satisfaction are very important concepts that organisations must understand in order to remain competitive in business and hence grow. It is very important for any organisation to know how to measure these dimensions from the consumers' perspective in order to better understand their needs and hence satisfy them. Service quality is considered very important because it leads to higher customer satisfaction, profitability, reduced cost, customer loyalty and retention. The aim of the study is to develop and validate a multi-dimensional scale for measuring wind turbine service quality (WTSQ). The instrument consists of 42 items operationalising three dimensions namely functional, technical and corporate quality. The psychometric properties of the questionnaire were assessed through a confirmatory factor analysis and structural equation modelling using the responses from 352 customers of wind turbine industry in India. The study findings indicated that the assessed instrument had three oblige factor structure and also has good reliability and validity. The paper contributes to the development of multi-dimensional service quality model in the wind turbine sector.

Keywords: service quality model; multi-dimensional; wind turbine; structural equation modelling; SEM; operation and maintenance; O&M.

DOI: 10.1504/IJPQM.2018.088607

International Journal of Productivity and Quality Management, 2018 Vol.23 No.1, pp.31 - 54

Received: 09 Aug 2016
Accepted: 28 Oct 2016
Published online: 13 Dec 2017 *

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