Heterogeneous dimensions of SERVQUAL

A scale for measuring healthcare service quality incorporating patient-centred care and using a psychometric analytics framework

PURPOSE

Recent developments in healthcare contexts increasingly emphasize patient-centred approaches to service quality measures; however, few studies consider this dimension explicitly. The present study develops and psychometrically validates a scale of healthcare service quality explicitly incorporating a patient-centred care dimension from a communicational perspective. The paper also enriches the traditional content of service quality by including equity items and presents the underlying structure of service quality in an emerging country.

DESIGN/METHODOLOGY/APPROACH

The final sample consisted of 869 healthcare users (complete cases in the service quality items derived from 917 surveys received) from Colombia. The authors used a psychometric analytics framework comprising seven processes incorporating exploratory factor analysis, structural equation modelling, and machine learning methods to examine construct plausibility, reliability, construct validity, equity, and criterion/predictive validity (e.g. explaining/predicting subjective well-being and behavioural intentions).

FINDINGS

The final scale consists of 17 items and satisfies all psychometric properties. Its validation allows for the discovery and psychometrical confirmation of two essential dimensions: patient-centred communication (eight items) and process quality (nine items).

PRACTICAL IMPLICATIONS

The authors illustrate three practical uses of the scale: the possibility for diagnoses; hypothesis contrast based on confidence intervals; and estimation of the capacity of the service to satisfy specifications.

ORIGINALITY/VALUE

Both dimensions reveal users' relevant needs and complement previous studies that have focused on process aspects of healthcare service quality.

The Effect of Perceived Value on Consumers' Repurchase Intention of Commercial Ice Stadium: The Mediating Role of Community Interactions

The 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics has created unprecedented opportunities for China’s commercial ice rinks, where improving consumers’ repurchase intention is essential for their high-quality development. This paper explores the mediation effect of community interactions between perceived value and commercial ice rink consumers’ repurchase intention based on the theory of perceived value. Through a questionnaire survey, we collected 347 valid questionnaire from consumers of commercial ice rinks. Based on a structural equation model, the results show that consumers’ perceived risk value significantly impacts community interactions and consumers’ repurchase intention. Perceived functional, social, and emotional values positively affect community interactions but have an insignificant impact on the consumers’ repurchase intention. Community interactions play a full mediation role between perceived emotional and social values and consumers’ repurchase intention; they play partially mediating role between consumers’ perceived risk value and repurchase intention and do not have mediating role between perceived functional value and consumers’ repurchase intention. Therefore, we provide some practical suggestions: extending commercial ice rink product lines, creating unique intellectual property systems, improving consumer sports career planning, and enhancing risk management.

An investigation of online food aggregator (OFA) service: Do online and offline service quality distinct?

As the sharing economy has emerged, the way customer perceives the service is shifting toward a combination of offline and online. The need for the service provider to understand its nature as well as the pertinent aspects regarding its characteristics is crucial. Previous research validated the influence of perceived online and offline service quality toward customer satisfaction and loyalty. However, with the distinctive dimensions of OFA service quality, its effects on customer satisfaction and the role of social innovativeness in satisfaction and loyalty linkage remain unexplored. Hence, this study attempts to investigate these relationships using the data obtained from customers of any OFA in Malaysia. Purposive sampling was employed and 227 collected responses were analyzed using variance-based partial least square path modeling. The results confirm the direct effect of online and offline service quality on customer loyalty and full mediation role of customer satisfaction. Besides, social innovativeness is found negatively moderates customer satisfaction and loyalty relationship. Implications and contributions of the study are also discussed.