Service quality and customer satisfaction in thermal tourism

A roadmap for the application of PLS-SEM and IPMA for effective service quality improvements

Purpose

The paper provides a step-by-step guide in the guise of a roadmap for service improvement initiatives using importance performance map analysis (IPMA).

Design/methodology/approach

To empirically illustrate how IPMA can be applied to any service industry, three sectors are considered; sports and fitness (study A), hospitality (study B) and higher education (study C). Following the proper selection of measuring instruments and their evaluation using structural equation modeling-partial least squares (Smart-PLS), IPMA is applied to identify those attributes having strong total effects (high importance) over the targeted construct (satisfaction) but which also have low average latent variable scores (low performance).

Findings

For sports and fitness (study A), the physical aspects and programme quality require managerial attention. For the hospitability sector (study B), it is service commitment, interaction quality and internal sense of happiness. Whereas for higher education (study C), it is administrative quality as well as the element of transformative quality, namely the university’s role in adding to its students’ emotional stability, which needs the attention of the top management.

Originality/value

This study provides researchers and practitioners with a roadmap for applying PLS-SEM and IPMA for continuous service quality improvement. The roadmap extends upon Ringle and Sarstedt’s (2016) work. It highlights critical decisions that need to be considered in the pre-analytical stages of the IPMA application, i.e. at the research design phase in selecting the most appropriate service quality measurement model specifications. It not only contributes to the existing body of knowledge by providing empirical evidence to advance theory development in the quality management field but also has implications for the practitioners in any service sector on where to focus their attention for an effective service improvement.

Can Spa Tourism Enhance Water Resources and Turn Them into a National Brand? A Theoretical Review about the Romanian Case

The present article includes descriptive research about how water resources in Romanian medical spas could be better promoted to increase their visibility. Romania is one of the European countries with impressive potential in terms of balneology, having a wide diversity of natural factors that allow treating several medical conditions in the same resort. In addition, one-third of the mineral and thermal water springs in Europe are present on the Romanian territory, making Romania one of the most important European destinations in terms of natural spa resources. The present research aims to illustrate how the Romanian medical spas communicate with tourists about the therapeutic water available in five medical spas: Băile Felix-1 Mai, Techirghiol, Băile Tușnad, Sovata and Covasna, having as its main objective to raise the awareness among the spas representatives regarding the necessity of water management implementation. The research is based on primary data obtained from the official websites of the resorts included in the study and in the published scholarly articles that approached the Romanian medical spas.

Configuration of an Integrated Quality-Social Responsibility-Performance Management System in the Hospitality Industry. Case Studies: Balneary Tourism Romania

The introduction of quality, performance, and social responsibility systems in organizations that are open to learn and wish to permanently improve their activity ensures the sustainable development of those organizations. The purpose of this research is to investigate the characteristics of these three systems in order to identify the common impact areas and the existing interrelations, which would be able to facilitate an integrated approach and create an understanding of equifinalities at the organizational level. Moreover, such an integrated approach highlights the role of economic and financial analysis in the assessment of the quantifiable aspects and the direction in the assessment of the non-quantifiable ones. Through this, we intend to obtain a possible configuration for an integrated quality–performance–social responsibility approach applied to 11 entities in different Romanian health resorts recognized for their natural healing factors. The research was structured on two levels: one addressing the phenomenological approach and one dedicated to the application of the European Foundation for Quality Management. The research presents economic and financial data that are the processed results of a social survey regarding customer satisfaction as well as information from reports provided by internal and financial audit missions. The conclusions of our results reveal three distinct situations: low quality, reduced performance, and stakeholder dissatisfaction; low quality, high performance, and partial stakeholder satisfaction; and appropriate quality, high performance, and adequate stakeholder satisfaction.

Determinants of service quality and its effect on customer satisfaction and loyalty: an empirical study of private banking sector

Purpose

The main purpose of this study is to investigate the impact of various service quality dimensions, namely reliability, responsiveness, visibility, employee commitment and access to service on customer satisfaction in the private banking sector of Bangladesh. The research also investigates the relationship between customer satisfaction and loyalty and effect of demographic variables on customer satisfaction.

Design/methodology/approach

The researchers distributed 320 self-administered survey questionnaires among private banks' customers in Bangladesh and obtained 200 useable responses with a 62.5% valid response rate. The research data were analysed using confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) and structural equation modelling (SEM) approaches. Analysis of variance and logistic regression have also been used to obtain the supplementary findings.

Findings

The research findings indicate that visibility, responsiveness and employee commitment have positive and significant effect on customer satisfaction, whereas reliability and access to service are found to have insignificant influence on customer satisfaction of private banking services. The findings of this study also revealed that customer satisfaction has positive and significant relationship with customer loyalty. But except respondents' occupation type, all other demographic variables have no statistically significant relation with customer satisfaction.

Research limitations/implications

The research focused solely on the private banking sector of Bangladesh, and thus the results may not be applicable to other service sectors.

Originality/value

This study conducted on customers' perception of private banking services is based on extended service quality dimensions and its relationship with customer satisfaction towards loyalty. The present research findings are anticipated to offer the guidelines for improving the customer satisfaction and loyalty of private banking services in Bangladesh as well as other countries.

Service quality of student services and student satisfaction: the mediating effect of cross-functional collaboration

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is twofold: first, to examine the interaction of tangibles, reliability, assurance, responsiveness and empathy dimensions of the service quality (SERVQUAL) and student satisfaction (SS), and second, to explore the mediating role of cross-functional collaboration (CFC) on these relationships.

Design/methodology/approach

The structural equation modelling was used to examine the direct and mediated effect models using data collected through a survey of 352 students from 18 higher education institutes (HEIs) in Oman.

Findings

The statistical analysis confirms our main hypotheses. First, the centrality of tangibles, reliability, assurance, responsiveness and empathy dimensions of the service quality was established in the direct effect model, while the importance of tangibles and responsiveness was not confirmed in the mediated effect model. Second, it approved the partial mediation effect of CFC on the five dimensions of SERVQUAL and satisfaction.

Research limitations/implications

Service quality, level of CFC and relative SS in higher education could be subjected to contextual verification and evaluation of these internal and external contextual factors should be considered.

Practical implications

Several implications are highlighted for the effective development of the service quality of student affairs departments (SADs), the development of CFC for effective management, development and deployment of various student affairs initiatives.

Originality/value

This paper satisfies the need to validate the SERVQUAL model in different contexts such as SADs, and the need to investigate the possible mediating effect of other factors on SERVQUAL dimensions and satisfaction to show how the latter can be achieved.

Service Quality Scales and Tourists with Special Needs: A Systematic Review

This paper reviews the most commonly used scales for measuring service quality in sustainable tourism destinations to analyse if the requirements of tourists with special needs are considered. Results highlight that most of the recent research on service quality in tourism published in scientific journals is focused on a relative reduced number of validated scales. Variables related to tourists with special needs are often omitted or represent a reduced weight in the complete scale. Thus, this paper highlights the importance of including variables that collect the perceptions of service quality in this target group to better understand the individual perception of service quality and to move forward to sustainable tourism, considering the social dimension.