ISSN : 1738-3110
Purpose - Universities are placing a greater emphasis on relationship management as a source of competitive advantage due to increasingly competitive environments and social changes. The purpose of this study is to analyze the relationships among education service quality, relationship quality, and relationship performance from the perspective of service distribution. In other words, this study is focused on the role of education service quality with regard to relationship management. In this study, education service quality is divided into lecture, job assistance, student-faculty interaction, student-student interaction, facility welfare, and scholarship welfare quality components; relationship quality is composed of satisfaction and commitment; and relationship performance is divided into recommendation and defection intentions. Research design, data, and methodology - This study aims to identify how the various elements of education service quality affect satisfaction. Further, it aims to test the relationships among satisfaction, commitment, recommendation intentions, and defection intentions. Distribution and marketing students were randomly selected for the experiment. Out of the 380 administered questionnaires, a total of 361 respondents provided complete and usable data. The sample consisted of 232 males (64.3%) and 129 females (35.7%). The variables of the proposed model were measured through assessments that were measured on a 5-point Likert scale. Using Lisrel 8.7, a structural model was analyzed and the path coefficients were estimated. Results - The overall fit of the model was acceptable (χ2=1121.8 (df=603, P=0.00), GFI=0.967, NFI=0.974, CFI=0.981, RMR=0.021). The results generally supported the hypothesized relationships of the proposed model, except for Hypothesis 1. First, lecture, job assistance, student-faculty interaction, student-student interaction, and facility welfare quality were revealed to have positive effects on satisfaction. In particular, lecture and facility welfare quality had the strongest effects on satisfaction. However, scholarship welfare quality did not significantly affect satisfaction; this means that Hypothesis 3-2 was not supported. Second, satisfaction was positively related to commitment and recommendation intentions but it was negatively related to defection intentions. Third, commitment was positively related to recommendation intentions but it was negatively related to defection intentions. Conclusions - This study emphasizes the influence of education service quality on satisfaction in the long-term. In addition, this research has the following implications for university relationship management. First, the findings suggest that the various dimensions of education service quality have differing effects on satisfaction. In particular, lecture and facility welfare quality are found to be the most important factors in increasing the level of satisfaction. Therefore, university managers need to prioritize enhancing lecture quality and upgrading educational facilities. Second, satisfaction also improves through job assistance systems and opportunities for social interactions. Therefore, university managers should reinforce their job skills programs and should provide opportunities for social relationships to develop. Finally, it is important for university managers to take a relationship approach to maximizing relationship performance. Therefore, university managers should work to increase student recommendations and prevent their defections based on satisfaction and commitment.
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