The impact of quality control initiatives, customer integration and customer co-production on service quality performance : an empirical investigation

Delivering a high standard of services to customers is recognised as an important objective for any service provider. In order to achieve this goal employees are encouraged to go about their jobs in certain ways, comply with guidelines and in accordance with the strategy drawn by the organisation. Although service quality is difficult to define and measure, research has not stopped looking for processes, tools and business practices so as to improve service quality performance. Literature suggests both practical tools to achieve organisational goals with respect to service delivery and offers theoretical foundations to examine the interrelationships between variables that contribute to those organisational goals.Despite an emerging interest in customer integration and customer co-production in service provision in the Marketing literature, little attention has been paid to the investigation of relationships between customer integration, customer co-production and service quality performance. Based on the facilities-transformation-usage framework of service delivery and control theory, we develop a conceptual framework that examines the impact of combining quality control initiatives (QCIs) on service quality performance. We explicitly consider formal and informal control mechanisms as well as selected elements of the organisation internal environment as antecedents of QCIs. Customer co-production is proposed as a consequence of QCIs, and it is proposed that when customer integration is high the relationship between customer co-production and service quality performance will be strengthened.The conceptual framework is tested using data drawn from hotel managers and employees across the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia; a total of 398 usable questionnaires were analysed. The relationships between variables are tested by applying variance based structural equation modelling. Moderator effects were tested using residual centring.The findings of this study reveal unique results. Environment characteristics positively influence controls in shaping employees’ behaviour. However, contrary to expectations, environment characteristics, specifically, greater procedural knowledge, greater performance documentation and organisational commitment did not strengthen the relationship between customer co-production and service quality performance. Similarly, the notion that higher levels of customer integration enhance the relationship between customer co-production and service quality performance is not supported. Finally, when customer co-production, which takes place when the customer takes a part in the core service provided is high, an improvement in service quality can be observed.The results of this study would benefit service managers to gain a better understanding of how QCIs influence the relationship between customer integration and customer coproduction and service quality performance

A review of service quality and service delivery: Towards a customer co-production and customer-integration approach

© 2018, Emerald Publishing Limited. Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to provide researchers with an overview of the service quality and delivery domain, focussing on the inclusion of customer co-production and customer integration. Specifically, this paper concentrates on service quality (including quality measurement), the service environment, controls and their consequences. Design/methodology/approach: A comprehensive review of the literature is conducted, analysed and presented. Findings: The review shows that service delivery is both complex and challenging, particularly when considering the unique characteristics of services and the high level of customer involvement in their creation. The facilitation, transformation and usage framework identifies how failures can occur at each stage of service delivery, beginning with the characteristics of the service environment, while control theory offers insights into the formal and informal controls that may be applied in the facilitation and transformation stages, which may reduce the likelihood or extent of such failures. Originality/value: Despite the fact that it is widely accepted that service quality is an antecedent to customer satisfaction, it is surprising that this customer co-creation aspect has been largely neglected in the extant literature. As such, the role that customer co-production plays in service quality performance has been examined in this paper. It is hoped that this examination will enhance both theoretical and practical understanding of service quality. It would be useful to find modern tools that can help in improving service quality performance

Using social media marketing to pro-tourism behaviours: the mediating role of destination attractiveness and attitude towards the positive impacts of tourism

Abstract Social media has recently played a highly impactful role in communication. Specifically, these channels are vital and have a substantial influence on the attitudes, behavioural intentions, and actual behaviour of tourists. Previous research showed clearly that there is an increasing number of individuals who rely heavily on social media platforms for gathering information and gaining knowledge about various issues. The current research tries to show the impact of these platforms on citizens’—as individuals—attitudes and behaviours to support tourism activities. Specifically, the current study examines three research objectives: (1) The impact of social media marketing activities on pro-tourism behaviours. (2) The impact of social media marketing activities on both destination attractiveness and attitude towards the positive impacts of tourism. (3) The mediation role of destination attractiveness and attitude towards the positive impacts of tourism in the relationships between social media marketing activities and pro-tourism behaviours. We adapted the theory of uses and gratifications and the stimulus-organism-response framework in the current research, where social media marketing drives pro-tourism behaviours indirectly through both destination attractiveness and attitude towards the positive impacts of tourism. A survey of 200 Albaha residents was conducted. We have used AMOS to check the constructs’ validity and reliability and Hayes’s PROCESS macro to test the mediation. The findings show that (1) Social media marketing activities help in explaining why city citizens positively behave towards tourism activities in their city; (2) Sequentially both destination attractiveness and attitude towards the positive impacts of tourism partially mediate the relationships between social media marketing and pro-tourism behaviours. The current study contributes to the existing research through the elucidation of why residents behave to support tourism in their countries by using social media marketing activities. In addition, it adds a number of professional insights. For example, the admins of destination social media platforms should increase their efforts towards providing presence, conversation, interactivity, and sharing on these platforms