Title: Determining satisfaction through customer-perceived service quality and value: evidence from Ethiopian Telecommunications

Authors: Rakshit Negi

Addresses: Department of Business Education, Addis Ababa University, Post Box 150036, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

Abstract: Despite the maturity of the mobile market in most developed countries, there is untapped market opportunity reported in the African continent in general, and Ethiopia, which accounted for 1.4% mobile penetration rate, in particular. Associated customer satisfaction with mobile services and their providers, can be seen as one of the factors contributing significantly to this situation. Therefore, this study is designed to identify the role of service quality and customer value as perceived by mobile users in Ethiopia in determining their overall satisfaction. Structured questionnaires were used to collect primary data from the mobile subscribers (250) of the Ethiopian Telecommunication Corporation (ETC). Service quality gaps (Perception-Expectation) were computed and found to be negative for all the service quality dimensions ranging from the lowest for the dimension of Tangibles to the highest for the added dimension of Network Quality. Furthermore, overall service quality and overall customer value were found to be significantly contributed to overall customer satisfaction.

Keywords: SERVQUAL; reliability responsiveness competence access courtesy communication credibility security customers tangibility; market opportunities; customer services; customer satisfaction; customer value; mobile services; Ethiopian Telecommunication Corporation; Ethiopia; Africa; service quality; mobile penetration rates; perception; expectation; network quality; mobile phones; cell phones; services management.

DOI: 10.1504/IJSOM.2010.035056

International Journal of Services and Operations Management, 2010 Vol.7 No.3, pp.333 - 350

Published online: 02 Sep 2010 *

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