Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to develop and explain an empirically validated scale to measure service quality for architects in India.
Design/methodology/approach
This study applies a systematic procedure for development of a psychometric scale in three phases. Phase 1 includes item generation and selection through review of literature and expert opinion. Phase 2 comprises scale refinement using item analysis and exploratory factor analysis. Phase 3 applies confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) for establishing convergent, discriminant and nomological validity. This study has involved 15 expert participants in Phase 1 and sought participation from 250 respondents using an online questionnaire in two other independent phases.
Findings
The findings of the empirical study resulted in the development of a 22-item scale that measures the constructs such as design quality, project administration quality, communication quality, relationship quality and dependability quality.
Research limitations/implications
This study has developed a context-specific psychometric scale of service quality for architects in India using snowball sampling. Although this study identified five valid service quality factors, the classified information relating to the formation of expectations was not collected.
Practical implications
This reliable and valid scale would be helpful for architects to measure the level of service quality in enhancing business performance. This study has established that service quality for architects is achieved only when the perceived benefits are available from the aspects like design, project administration, communication, relationship and dependability.
Social implications
This study can facilitate an architect interested in opportunities relating to contracting, consulting and engineering to explore possibilities of higher fees from clients.
Originality/value
This study is an original attempt in developing a validated tool to measure service quality of architects in India.
The consumer markets in India are expected to reach about US$1.5 trillion from the existing US$750 billion by 2021. Emergence of new retail formats and entry of new players in every format is also likely to increase competition in Indian retail sector. It has, thus, become important for the retailers to know how shoppers choose a store from various options available to them. The article aims to achieve data reduction while identifying various store attributes that influence the choice of stores by shoppers while purchasing grocery items from supermarkets. We collected primary data from 300 shoppers using personally administered questionnaire in select supermarkets in Pune. We used exploratory factor analysis to identify the attributes and the factor structure. We then used confirmatory factor analysis to validate the same. Thus, we developed a scale consisting of nine store attributes converging under two factors to understand shoppers’ decision to choose a particular supermarket for their grocery purchases.
Construction industry is considered as labour intensive, having shortage of skilled labour, unsafe with large number of industrial accidents. Construction industry requires high technology automation products (Robots) for improving productivity, safety, quality etc. Robots are developed by various countries in different areas like demolition, earthwork, bridge, tunnels, road work, underwater works, trenches and piping, maintenance etc. however they are still not used to their full potential by construction industry. Hence in this paper, the authors propose a "model for adoption" of robots in construction industry. This model considers how a construction firm will adopt full scale robots like manually controlled machine, tele-controlled machines, computer controlled machines and cognitive robots and assimilate them through various stages.
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