- Apply for Authority
- P-ISSN1738-3110
- E-ISSN2093-7717
- SCOPUS
ISSN : 1738-3110
Impact of National Culture on Service Quality Evaluations : Comparison of Korea and Anglo-Saxon Countries
- Downloaded
- Viewed
Abstract
Purpose - The objective of this research is to investigate whether national culture influences consumers' service evaluations. The services industry is receiving increasing attention from academia and practitioners as its position grows in global markets. Standardization or localization is a traditional managerial decision in global business. As the boundaries of services expand across national borders, firms are required to decide whether to standardize services or adjust to local needs. Though it is imperative to reflect global perspectives in marketing theories, these perspectives are mostly based on Western conceptualization of the world. Through a comparison of consumer groups from two culturally remote countries, service quality evaluation mechanisms are examined based on similar stimuli. The study tries to expand service marketing perspectives across national borders. Research design, data, and methodology - Eastern and Western countries are known to be culturally distinct. One Eastern and one Western country were chosen: an Anglo-Saxon country (the U.S., England, and Australia) and South Korea. In Hofstede's cultural dimensions, the differences between the two are pronounced. The Anglo-Saxon based countries share many similarities. Samples of the same sites are targeted. Questionnaires using a service quality scale (SERVQUAL) and a customer satisfaction scale were distributed. Utilizing Hofstede's typology of culture, the service evaluation mechanisms of the respondents from the two groups are evaluated. Three hypotheses are proposed from the review of the literature. These are service evaluation habits, importance of service quality dimensions for the individualistic/collectivistic countries, and strong/weak uncertainty avoidance cultures. Consumers from the individualistic countries are considered to care about themselves and demand a higher level of responsiveness and assurance. On the other hand, consumers from high uncertainty avoidance cultures are assumed to rely more on tangible questions of service quality, as these are the only predictable service quality indicators. A t-test and regression analysis are applied to validate the constructs. Results - The respondents from the Anglo-Saxon countries are more generous on service evaluations than Koreans. Researchers have indicated that Americans tend to give higher service evolution scores than European, Mexican, and Korean counterparts. The tendency is the same here. The sample from Anglo-Saxon countries demonstrated higher service evaluation scores on every dimension of SERVQUAL. For the second hypothesis, the respondents from the collectivistic culture rely less on core service dimensions (assurance and responsiveness) due to their tendency to place more value on group harmony than individual interest. However, the third hypothesis was not validated. Conclusions - The study attempted to expand the scope of service marketing to reflect cross-national perspectives. Service quality is known to have a strong influence on customer satisfaction and loyalty behavior. However, this research demonstrated that individuals from different cultural territories respond heterogeneously to the same stimuli. Scholars argue that national cultures are main factors in such deviated behavior. Scholars and global managers should be aware of differences in consumer value judgment mechanisms such as satisfaction, expectations, and perceptions.
- keywords
- National Culture, Service Evaluation, SERVQUAL, Services Marketing
Reference
Alder, N. J. (2002). International dimensions of organizational behavior (4th ed.). Ogio; South Western Thomson Learning.
Cunningham, L. F., Young, C. E., & Lee, M. K. (2002). Cross-cultural perspectives of service quality and risk in air transportation. Journal of Air Transportation, 17, 3-24.
Donthu, N., & Yoo, B. (1998). Cultural influences on service quality expectations. Journal of Service Research, 1 (2), 178-186.
Furrer, O., Liu, B. S., & Sudharshan, D. (2000). The relationships between culture and service quality perceptions. Journal of Service Research, 2 (4), 355-371.
Hall, E. T. (1976). Beyond culture. New York, NY; Doubleday.
Hofstede, G. (1980). Culture’s consequences: International differences in work related values, Beverly Hills ,CA: Sage.
Hofstede, G. (1993). Cultural constraints in management theories. Academy of Management Executive, 7, 81-94.
Field, A. (2005). Discovering statistics using SPSS (2nd ed.). London; Thousand Oaks, CA; New Delhi: Sage.
Gronroose, C. (1982). Strategic management and marketing in the service sector, Helsingfords; Swedish School of Economics and Business Administration.
Groonrose, C. (1984). A service quality model and its marketing implications. European Journal of Marketing, 13 (3), 43-53.
Lam, S. Y., Shankar, V., Erramilli, M. K., & Murthy B. (2004). Customer value, satisfaction, loyalty, and switching costs:An illustration from business-to-business service context. Academy of Marketing Science. Journal, 32, 293-311.
Liu, B.S.-C., Furrer, O., and Sudharshan, D. (2001). The relationships between culture and behavioral intentions toward services. Journal of Service Research, 4, 118-129.
Lovelock, C. H., & Wirtz, J. (2007). Services marketing (6th ed.). Upper Saddle Rier, NJ; Pearson Prentice-Hall.
McCort, D. J., & Malhotra, N. K. (1993). Culture and consumer behavior: Toward an understanding of cross‐cultural consumer behavior in international marketing. Journal of International Consumer Marketing, 6, 91-127.
Nakata, C., & Sivakumar, K. (2001). Instituting the marketing concept in a multinational setting: The role of national culture. Academy of Marketing Science. Journal, 29, 255-275.
Nam, S. (2015). Cross-cultural service variants: Airline service quality. Journal of Distribution Science, 13 (9), 19-27.
Oliver, R. L. (1980). A cognitive model of the antecedents and consequences of satisfaction decisions. Journal of Marketing Research, 17, 460-469.
Parsuraman, A., Zeithaml, V. A., & Berry, L. L. (1985). A conceptual model of service quality and its implications for future research, Journal of Marketing, 4, 41-50.
Parasuraman, A., Zeithaml, V. A., & Berry, L. L. (1988). SERVQUAL: A multiple-idem scale for measuring consumer perceptions of service quality. Journal of Retailing, 64, 12-40.
Pressey, A. D., & Selassie, H. G. (2003). Are cultural differences overrated? Examining the influences of national culture on international buyer-seller relationships. Journal of Consumer Behavior, 2, 354-386.
Schein, E. H. (1999). The corporate culture survival guide, San Francisco, CA; Josey-Bass.
Sultan, F., & Simpson, M. C., (2000). International service variants:Airline passenger expectations and perceptions of service quality. Journal of Service Marketing, 14 (3), 188-216.
Tayeb, M. (2003). International Management. Harlow; Pearson Education.
Trompenaars, F., & Hampden-Turner, C. (1997). Riding the waves of culture: understanding cultural diversity in business. London, England; Nicolas Brearly.
Vargo, S. L., & Lush, R. F. (2004). Evolving to a new dominant logic of marketing. Journal of Marketing, 68 (1), 1-17.
Zethaml, V. A., Bitner, M. J., & Gremler, D. D. (2002). Services Marketing. New York, NY; McGraw-Hill.
Zhanag, J., Beatty, S., & Walsh, G. (2008). Review and future directions of cross-cultural consumer services research. Journal of Business Research, 61, 211-224.
- Downloaded
- Viewed
- 0KCI Citations
- 0WOS Citations