Title: Design and validity of a holistic scale for service-quality self-assessments: a case study in service companies

Authors: Jasmin Herrera-de-la-Barrera; Claudio Romano Narvaez-Zuñiga; Maria Auxiliadora Iglesias-Navas; Alexander Pulido-Rojano

Addresses: Grupo CIPTEC, Fundacion Universitaria Tecnologico Comfenalco – Cartagena, Av. 44DNo. 30A-91, Cartagena, Colombia ' Grupo CIPTEC, Fundacion Universitaria Tecnologico Comfenalco – Cartagena, Av. 44DNo. 30A-91, Cartagena, Colombia ' Faculty of Engineering, Universidad Simón Bolívar, Av. 59 No. 59-92. A.A. 50595, Barranquilla, Colombia ' Department of Industrial Engineering, Universidad Simón Bolívar, Grupo de Consultoría e Innovación JJ&N S.A.S, Av. 59 No. 59-92. A.A. 50595, Barranquilla, Colombia

Abstract: Several scales are used to measure service quality after the provision of services. Customer evaluation is based on contrasting expectations with the perception of the service. Service companies require instruments to assess their readiness with respect to the quality of the service to be rendered. This paper proposes a construct based on variables defined in international quality models and service measurements. The content validity of the construct was calculated using the content validity ratio and index methods by forming the group of items that the instrument should contain, followed by a reliability test of the construct's measurement scale using Cronbach's alpha. The sample comprised of 40 service companies. Results were analysed using descriptive statistics and exploratory factor analysis to demonstrate the instrument's validity and reliability. The adoption of data reduction techniques made it possible to find homogeneous groups within the variables studied and three typologies or business clusters were identified.

Keywords: instrument; service quality; quality variables; factor analysis.

DOI: 10.1504/IJPQM.2022.122754

International Journal of Productivity and Quality Management, 2022 Vol.35 No.4, pp.494 - 516

Received: 12 Jun 2020
Accepted: 21 Nov 2020
Published online: 10 May 2022 *

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