The Dimensions of Service Quality: The Original European Perspective Revisited

Abstract

The early pioneers of services marketing in Europe, especially the Nordic School, argued that service quality consists of two or three underlying dimensions. Lehtinen and Lehtinen [1985] referred to physical and interactive quality while Christian Grönroos [1984] identified a technical dimension, a functional dimension and the firm's image as a third dimension. In later years, Parasuraman, Zeithaml and Berry [1988] published empirical evidence from five service industries which suggested that five dimensions more appropriately capture the perceived service quality construct. This study uses an exploratory factor analysis approach to investigate the empirical factor structure of the SERVQUAL instrument developed by Parasuraman et al. [1988] to measure perceived service quality. Based on the results of five exploratory analyses performed on five SERVQUAL data sets, a model for SERVQUAL is proposed. It suggests that the SERVQUAL difference scores are measures of two factors termed ‘intrinsic’ and ‘extrinsic’ service quality. The model is then fitted to the SERVQUAL data obtained from five samples of clients who evaluated the services of five service industries or companies by means of confirmatory factor analysis. The results of this study provide empirical support for the European authors who, in the early 1980s, argued that service quality perceptions are largely determined by two (rather than five) dimensions.