Service quality dimensions: an examination of Grönroos’s service quality model

TLDR

Earlier research on service quality largely focused on the SERVQUAL instrument and overlooked dimensional distinctions, whereas Grönroos proposes a three‑dimension model of technical, functional, and image quality. The study empirically tests Grönroos’s three‑dimension model against the SERVQUAL‑based American perspective. Cell‑phone service data showed that Grönroos’s model better captures service quality than the American, functional‑quality‑focused SERVQUAL perspective.

Abstract

Service quality researchers to date have paid scant attention to the issue of the dimensions of service quality. Much of the earlier work accepted the content measured by the SERVQUAL instrument. Following the argument that SERVQUAL only reflects the service delivery process, the study empirically examines the European perspective (i.e. Grönroos' model) suggesting that service quality consists of three dimensions, technical, functional and image, and that image functions as a filter in service quality perception. The results from a cell phone service sample revealed that Grönroos' model is a more appropriate representation of service quality than the American perspective with its limited concentration on the dimension of functional quality.