The importance of cross-cultural expectations in the measurement of service quality perceptions in the hotel industry

Robert W. Armstrong*, Connie Mok, Frank M. Go, Allan Chan

*Corresponding author for this work

    Research output: Contribution to journalJournal articlepeer-review

    155 Citations (Scopus)

    Abstract

    Early service quality research posited that service quality is the gap or difference between " perceptions and expectations" (Parasuraman et al., 1988, J. of Retailing 64(1), 12-40). Recent research by Parasuraman et al. (1994, J. of Marketing 58, 111-124) has argued that "expectations" measurement is necessary in the measurement of the service quality construct. While Cronin and Taylor (1994, J. of Marketing 58, 125-131) have argued the reverse that one need not measure "expectations" to measure service quality. Evidence presented by Cronin and Taylor (1994; op. cit.) was collected in the American context and no cross-cultural samples were involved. This research paper examines the impact of "expectations" on service quality perceptions in the Hong Kong hotel industry which involved cross-cultural samples. Data were collected from hotel guests from different cultures in three major Hong Kong hotels using the SERVQUAL instrument to measure service quality. The study found that significant "expectations" differences exist between cultural groups and that "expectations" did not improve the validity of SERVQUAL.

    Original languageEnglish
    Pages (from-to)181-190
    Number of pages10
    JournalInternational Journal of Hospitality Management
    Volume16
    Issue number2
    DOIs
    Publication statusPublished - Jun 1997

    User-Defined Keywords

    • Culture
    • Hong Kong
    • Hotel service quality

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