Comparing the Questionnaires for Classifying Quality Attributes in the Kano Model

Abstract

Purpose: This paper compares and discusses the influence on the quality classification of Kano's questionnaire which is used for the Kano model(Kano et al., 1984), the 3-point Likert-scale newly proposed by Kano and the 5-point Likert-scale presented in this study. Methods: For the comparison, the current study conducts a survey of 631 television viewers. The classification results of the three methods are then compared with those of direct classification which is adopted as a standard for classification of quality attributes. Results: The agreement rates between the results using conventional Kano's questionnaire and the results using direct classification is higher than the results using 3-point and 5-point Likert-scales. In addition, the attributes grouped as must-be or attractive in the direct classification appear to be classified as one-dimensional attributes in the Likert-scales. Conclusion: In comparison with the convensional Kano's questionnaire, the Likert-scale questions highly tend to classify the quatity attributes as one-dimensional. Although the classification results of the 3-point and 5-point Likert-scales are the same, the 5-point Likert-scale has the advantage to classify quality attributes in more detail.