On the Retail Service Quality Expectations of Chinese Shoppers

Abstract

The development of effective retailing strategies that are sensitive to cross-cultural differences would seem to be of considerable importance to their success in the global marketplace. Building on two existing models, SERVQUAL and RSQS, this study developed scales to examine service quality in Hong Kong's supermarkets. Based on intensive field study, we revised the existing service quality instruments and developed a new set of instruments to measure service quality in Hong Kong's markets. A new underlying structure emerged, suggesting that in Hong Kong, Chinese consumers perceived service quality in the regular supermarkets based on their purchasing process instead of from the tangible and non-tangible aspects found in previous studies. In the enhanced supermarkets, however, consumers perceived service quality differently than did the consumers in the regular type of store, suggesting a different model would be appropriate. Overall study results indicated that the measurement and underlying structure of service quality perception was not only industry and culture specific, but also specific to the form of retail structures that may enter the cultural mélange of the Chinese marketplace.

Antecedents of Situated Learning in Stressful Service Experiences: A Cross-Cultural Study

“…Additionally, this study uses actual consumers in both qualitative and quantitative studies across both the cultures, and data were collected in indigenous languages (English and Chinese). Such efforts were undertaken to do away with the problem of using student data and questionnaires designed to collect data from English-speaking consumers (Meng et al 2009). Our results demonstrate that situated learning is indeed important for both cultural contexts.…”

“…In collectivistic cultures, members tend to be willing to share their knowledge with other in-group members (Chow, Deng, and Ho 2000), while out-group information sharing for maximizing self-gains is more common among members of individualistic cultures (Earley 1989). Furthermore, culture has a strong impact on consumers' perceptions of service quality, and attempts made by firms to achieve universal service standards across cultures would be problematic (Donthu and Yoo 1998;Meng et al 2009). As such, this study attempts to discover the commonalities and differences in antecedents that influence situated learning in an individualistic culture, the United States of America (USA), and a collective culture, China (Hofstede 1980).…”

Exploring the UK high street retail experience: is the service encounter still valued?

“…As the study was focused primarily on service quality and service encounters, our template comprised a priori codes drawn from the literature, such as the five service quality dimensions (Parasuraman et al, 1988) and others pertaining to attributes specific to the retail context (Meng et al, 2009).…”

La calidad del servicio al cliente en los grandes supermercados de Ibagué: un análisis desde la escala multidimensional (SERVQUAL)

“…Un criterio subyacente y de suma importancia que destacan Kimani et al (2012), dentro del proceso de valoración de la calidad del servicio ofrecido a los clientes por los almacenes de ventas al por menor, son los instrumentos de medición sobre los cuales resaltan en especial la escala SERVQUAL (Calidad del Servicio por su siglas en inglés), desarrollada por Parasuraman et al (1985Parasuraman et al ( , 1988 y RSQS (Escala de Calidad de los Servicios en las ventas al por menor), elaborada por Dabholkar, Thorpe y Tentz (1996). Además de estos métodos, Meng et al (2009) presentan el modelo de percepción del servicio (SERVPERF) elaborada por Cronin y Taylor (1992).…”