The Impact of Intercultural Communication Competence on Service Quality and Customer Satisfaction

Abstract

ABSTRACT

The Role of Social Environment and Personality: Validation of Antecedents of Intercultural Communication Competence and its Effects on Customer Satisfaction

“…On the other spectrum, perceived dissimilarities in behavioural values or norms such as in language, religion and so on will lead to a sense of discomfort (Ihtiyar and Ahmad, 2015). In this study, interaction comfort is a critical dimension for mirroring the impact of ICC and IRC in the overall research framework.…”

“…Theories of personality concentrate on the dimensions of human characteristics that can be categorised under cognitive and affective patterns such as thoughts and emotions for explaining the behavioural aspects of human beings (Ihtiyar and Ahmad, 2015;Boag and Tiliopoulos, 2011). According to traditional definitions of personality, it is a self-motivated psychophysical system that creates an individual's characteristic patterns of behaviour, thoughts, and feelings and these patterns give direction to the individual's life (Boag and Tiliopoulos, 2011).…”

“…Person-to-person interaction is becoming a crucial indicator to decrease dissatisfaction and create powerful strategies for many pure services or mixed products and services (Ihtiyar et al, 2015;Sharma et al, 2012;Paswan and Ganesh, 2005). To an extent, all employees involved in customer contact are considered service providers who represent the company to explain the product, promote it and to gain direct feedback from customers (Solomon et al, 1985).…”

“…Therefore, understanding the cultural differences of culturally diverse customers is an essential outline for understanding customer behaviour in a multicultural marketing context. Understanding themes and concepts based on a multicultural perspective has gained the attention of marketing researchers as a means to explain the attractive features, price perceptions and service satisfaction among customers (Huang et al, 2016;Ihtiyar and Ahmad, 2015;Polsa et al, 2013).…”

“…In recent years, grocery retailing in Malaysia has experienced rapid growth (Mohammed et al, 2015). Focusing on customer satisfaction has become a major goal in retailing, particularly in grocery retail, and thus, a complete understanding of its antecedents is essential for retailers and practitioners (Ihtiyar and Ahmad, 2015;Soong and Ting, 2014;). Although there are various studies on interrelationships of customer satisfaction with product categories, industry players, pricing, store atmosphere and so on, however limited studies have investigated interrelationship of intercultural communication (with antecedents and consequences) and customer satisfaction within the grocery retail in Malaysian market (Rizal et al, 2015;Soong and Ting, 2014;Awang.…”