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The Effect of Service Quality on Customer Satisfaction, Loyalty, and

Happiness in Five Asian Countries

Article in Psychology and Marketing · June 2018

DOI: 10.1002/mar.21096

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Running Head: Service Quality in Five Asia Countries

The Effect of Service Quality on Customer Satisfaction, Loyalty, and Happiness in Five
Asian Countries

Taeshik Gong*
College of Business and Economics
Hanyang University ERICA
55 Hanyangdaehak-ro, Sangnok-gu, Ansan
Gyeonggi-do, 15588, Republic of Korea
Phone: +82 (0)31 400 5658
Fax: +82 (0)31 400 5591
Email: gongts@hanyang.ac.kr

Youjae Yi
College of Business Administration
Seoul National University
1 Gwanak-ro, Gwanak-gu, Seoul, 08826, Republic of Korea
Tel: +82 (0)2 880 6941
Fax: +82 (0)2 880 3154
Email: youjae@snu.ac.kr

Accepted for publication in the Psychology & Marketing

11 October 2017

*Corresponding author

This work was supported by the research fund of Hanyang University(HY-2017-G)

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The Effect of Service Quality on Customer Satisfaction, Loyalty, and Happiness in Five

Asian Countries

ABSTRACT

This research investigates and validates the cross-national applicability of a service quality

model in five Asian countries: China, Hong Kong, Japan, South Korea, and Singapore. The

objectives of this research are to establish whether or not a service quality model can be

conceptualized in the same way across Asian countries and to explore whether or not scores

on the items can be meaningfully compared among the Asian countries. The findings show

that overall service quality has a positive influence on customer satisfaction, which in turn

leads to customer loyalty and customer happiness and that the general pattern of structural

paths is valid in the five countries. Furthermore, the comparisons of paths show that most of

them are not significantly different across the five countries. The results of this study reveal

four key findings. First, customer well-being or happiness was driven by service quality.

Second, customer loyalty was driven by service quality across the five Asian countries,

demonstrating that the economic values of service quality could be applied to Asian countries

just as they are in North American and European countries. Third, customer satisfaction was

driven by service quality. Fourth, customer income increased the effect of service quality on

customer happiness via customer satisfaction in China, Hong Kong, and South Korea.

Keywords: Service quality; customer satisfaction; customer loyalty; customer happiness;

cross-national analysis
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The Effect of Service Quality on Customer Satisfaction, Loyalty, and Happiness in Five

Asian Countries

INTRODUCTION

As service quality models accumulate in North America and Europe (Brady &

Cronin, 2001; Grönroos, 1984; Parasuraman, Zeithaml, & Berry, 1988), so do questions

concerning their applicability to Asia. These questions are even more pronounced as the

world becomes an interdependent service marketing system and the globalization of service

businesses results in increased competition among multinational firms. As such, it becomes

increasingly important to examine the cross-national applicability of service quality models

developed in North America and Europe to Asia (Durvasula, Andrews, Lysonski, &

Netemeyer, 1993; Netemeyer, Durvasula, & Lichtenstein, 1991). Most constructs and theories

of service quality have been developed and tested exclusively in North America and Europe.

Thus, it is unknown whether the theory, constructs, measures, and relationships among

constructs are culturally bound. Although many scholars have called for an examination of

the applicability of these theories to Asia (Blut, 2016; Collier & Bienstock, 2006), few studies

have actually done so. There is a need to test models cross-nationally because researchers

have assumed that North America and Europe-based concepts and models are relevant to Asia

without an actual validation of model constructs. This assumption can lead to invalid cross-

national inferences (Durvasula et al., 1993).

The purpose of this study is thus to test the applicability of service quality models to

Asia. More specifically, the current study puts forward a service quality scale. This research

investigates and validates its cross-national applicability in five Asian countries: China, Hong
 4

Kong1, Japan, South Korea, and Singapore. The objectives of this research are to establish

whether or not a service quality model can be conceptualized in the same way across Asian

countries and to explore whether or not scores on the items can be meaningfully compared

among the Asian countries. Therefore, metric equivalence is analyzed. In addition, this study

examines whether the relationships among constructs in a service quality model are

applicable across Asian countries. Furthermore, the present study conducts an importance-

performance map analysis (IPMA) (Ringle & Sarstedt, 2016). IPMA contrasts the structural

model’s total effects, representing the predecessor constructs’ importance, with their average

values of the latent variable scores indicating their performance to identify predecessors that

are relatively more important to the target construct and highlight significant areas for

improving management activities (Ringle & Sarstedt, 2016; Schloderer, Sarstedt, & Ringle,

2014). These findings, therefore, provide managers with specific information about measures

they need to take to increase customer happiness (Hock, Ringle, & Sarstedt, 2010). In

addition, while much of the extant research on service quality has focused on enhancing

customer loyalty, little research has focused on increasing social performance such as

customer happiness and well-being. That said, lately there has been a substantially increased

interest in examining the relationship between service quality and customer well-being.

Interestingly, recent research has called for more focus on improving customer well-being

through transformative service. This topic was one of twelve service research priorities

(Ostrom et al., 2015). Therefore, the present research examines how service quality affects

customer happiness. This study also tests the moderating role of customer income in the

relationship between overall service quality and customer happiness through customer

1
Although Hong Kong is a part of China, it is politically & culturally distinct from China. It
is a separately administered region that has its own currency and culture. Hence it is treated
as a different country in this paper.
 5

satisfaction. The article opens by reviewing the literature on the conceptualization and

measurement of service quality models. The research methodology is explained, followed by

an analysis of empirical research. Finally, the findings are discussed and the managerial

implications are drawn.

THEORY AND HYPOTHESES

Service Quality Model

In the service marketing literature, there has been considerable progress in discussing

how service quality should be measured. First, Grönroos (1984) argues that service quality

consists of two dimensions: technical quality and functional quality. Technical quality refers

to what customers receive as a result of their interactions with a service firm. This aspect can

be called the outcome quality dimension. On the other hand, functional quality represents

how the service is delivered. In other words, the way service employees interact with

customers has an impact on customers' view of the service. This aspect is called the

interaction quality dimension.

Second, Parasuraman et al. (1988) propose five dimensions of service quality. More

specifically, (1) tangibles are appearances of physical elements, (2) reliability is dependable

and accurate performance, (3) responsiveness is promptness and helpfulness, (4) assurance is

credibility, security, competence, and courtesy, and (5) empathy is easy access, good

communication, and customer understanding. To measure service quality, they develop a

survey instrument called SERVQUAL, which is based on the premise that customers evaluate

a firm's service quality by comparing their perceptions of its service with their own

expectations (Sivakumar, Li, & Dong, 2014). That is, SERVQUAL measures the service

quality as the gap between expectation and performance. Meanwhile, Cronin and Taylor

(1992) point out that little theoretical and empirical evidence supports the relevance of the

expectations-performance gap as the basis for measuring service quality. Instead, they argue
 6

the superiority of simple performance-based measures of service quality (Babakus & Boller,

1992; Park & Yi, 2016). Accordingly, they develop the performance-only measure

(SERPERF) as an alternative to the SERVQUAL measure. They conclude that the

SERVPERF scale is efficient compared to the SERVQUAL scale. Further, they show that the

analysis of the structural models supports the theoretical superiority of the SERVPERF scale.

Expanding beyond the question of “Is SERVPERF superior to SERVQUAL?” Park and Yi

(2016) ask the question: “When is SERVPERF superior to SERVQUAL?" By comparing the

two approaches from an analytic perspective, Park and Yi (2016) show that SERVPERF is

superior to SERVQUAL when the effect of performance on customer satisfaction is greater

than the effects of expectation on performance and customer satisfaction or when customers

are heterogeneous in the evaluation of expectation.

Third, Brady and Cronin (2001) adopt Rust and Oliver (1994) view that customers

evaluate service quality based on three dimensions: (1) the customer-employee interaction,

(2) the physical environment, and (3) the outcome. In addition, they adopt Dabholkar (1996)

view that service quality has a hierarchical factor structure. More specifically, Dabholkar

(1996) proposes that customers think of service quality at different levels, such as the

dimension level and the overall level. They argue that service quality dimensions are distinct

but highly correlated. Thus, they conclude that service quality dimensions share an

underlying theme and that a common higher-order factor is present, which is called overall

service quality. In their effort to synthesize these conceptualizations, Brady and Cronin

(2001) propose the hierarchical service quality model. Here, service quality is viewed as a

hierarchical factor structure. That is, there is a common higher order factor called overall

service quality, and it consists of three dimensions: performance quality, delivery quality, and

physical environment quality. Since this is the first measure synthesizing all major prior
 7

conceptualizations, it is the most fruitful approach to service quality assessment to date

(Dagger, Sweeney, & Johnson, 2007; Pollack, 2009; Yi & Gong, 2008).

According to Grönroos (1984), the performance (outcome) quality dimension refers

to the result of the service transaction. It is concerned with what the customer actually

receives from the service transaction. Prior studies show that performance quality is a

significant determinant of overall service quality and the addition of outcome quality

significantly improves the explanatory power and predictive validity of the service quality

model (Powpaka, 1996). Furthermore, Bolton and Drew (1991) assert that service

performance levels are inputs to customers’ perceptions of overall service quality. In addition,

Brady and Cronin (2001) argue that there is a consensus that the performance quality of a

service encounter significantly affects customer perceptions of overall service quality. Thus,

the following hypothesis is proposed:

H1: Perceptions of the quality of service performance directly contribute to overall service

quality perceptions.

Service delivery quality focuses on customers’ perception of the employee-customer

interactions that take place during service delivery (Grönroos, 1984). Interpersonal

interactions have an influence on customer perceptions of overall service quality because of

the intangibility and inseparability of services (Brady & Cronin, 2001). More specifically,

customers evaluate overall service quality based on their perception of employees’

responsiveness, empathy, reliability, and professionalism (Ekinci & Dawes, 2009). Choi and

Kim (2013) also suggest that interpersonal interactions have a critical impact on customer

perception of overall service quality. Thus, the following hypothesis is proposed:

H2: Perceptions of the quality of service delivery directly contribute to overall service quality

perceptions.
 8

Brady and Cronin (2001) report that services require the customer to be present

during the process and that the surrounding physical environment can serve as an important

basis for customers’ evaluations of the overall quality of the service encounter. Baker,

Parasuraman, Grewal, and Voss (2002) show that the physical store environment can affect

customer service quality evaluations. Bitner (1992) argues that the physical environment,

such as the type of office furniture and the décor, may influence a client’s beliefs about a

lawyer’s performance or overall service evaluations because the perceived servicescape

elicits cognitive responses. In-store cleanliness is associated with the service quality of a

shopping environment. Customers utilize environmental cues to make inferences about the

quality of products/services. (Chao, 2008). Thus, the following hypothesis is proposed:

H3: Perceptions of the quality of the service environment directly contribute to overall

service quality perceptions.

Service Quality and Its Consequences

Researchers see service quality as having an important influence on customer

satisfaction, customer loyalty, and customer happiness. According to Lazarus’s theory of

emotion and adaptation (Lazarus, 1991), the appraisal processes of situational conditions lead

to emotional responses, which in turn induce coping activities: appraisal → emotional

response → coping (Bagozzi, 1992). Adapting this theory to a service context, it is likely that

the overall service quality appraisal precedes emotional responses such as customer

satisfaction. Further, in the presence of a particular emotion, coping responses such as intent

to maintain and enjoy the outcome are possible (e.g., customer loyalty and customer

happiness) (Cronin, Brady, & Hult, 2000). The service literature reports empirical results

suggesting that customer satisfaction is an intervening variable that mediates the relationship

between overall service quality perception and customer loyalty (Taylor & Baker, 1994). In

addition, Szymanski and Henard (2001) conduct a meta-analysis and document that
 9

performance (e.g., overall service quality) positively affects customer satisfaction and that the

outcome of customer satisfaction is customer loyalty (e.g., word-of-mouth and repurchase

intentions). Furthermore, Hellier, Geursen, Carr, and Rickard (2003) find that overall service

quality influences customer satisfaction, which in turn leads to customer loyalty. Early

research identifies customer satisfaction as the main predictor of customer loyalty (Hume &

Mort, 2010; Patterson, Johnson, & Spreng, 1997; Sweeney, Soutar, & Johnson, 1999).

All in all, it is expected that overall service quality is an antecedent of customer

satisfaction and that satisfied customers are more likely to engage in positive word-of-mouth

and repurchase (Pollack, 2009). Thus, the following hypotheses are proposed:

H4: Overall service quality is positively related to customer satisfaction.

H5: Customer satisfaction is positively related to customer loyalty.

Customer Happiness

Service has been firmly established as a critical means for enhancing firm

performance. Furthermore, service now dominates the lives of consumers and therefore

marketers have the opportunity to improve consumer happiness and begin to concentrate on

enhancing customer-related outcomes as well (Anderson et al., 2013; De Keyser & Lariviere,

2014). The primary focus of service marketing has thus shifted from satisfying customer

needs to enhancing customer happiness. In other words, the purpose of service marketing has

been broadened and centered on the improvement of customer happiness beyond customer

satisfaction (Sirgy, Samli, & Meadow, 1982). This emerging area has been referred to as

transformative service research, which is defined as any research that investigates the

relationship between service and customer happiness aiming at improving the lives of

customers (Anderson & Ostrom, 2015). In a similar manner, a social marketing perspective

emphasizes that marketing should deliver value to customers in a way that improves

customers’ happiness. Therefore, under the social marketing concept, firm performance is
 10

measured by social outcomes such as customer happiness (Su, Swanson, & Chen, 2016).

Furthermore, the social marketing concept assesses the societal impact of service marketing

on customer happiness (Dagger & Sweeney, 2006).

Customer happiness is conceptualized as customers’ perception of the extent to

which their well-being and quality of life are enhanced. Thus, customer happiness reflects the

culmination of customers’ subjective evaluation of their current life circumstances (Dagger &

Sweeney, 2006; De Keyser & Lariviere, 2014; Hellén & Sääksjärvi, 2011). Dagger and

Sweeney (2006) point out that a series of service encounters results in perceptions that form

the basis of customers’ satisfaction evaluation, which in turn leads to customer reactions such

as customer happiness. In addition, Sweeney, Danaher, and McColl-Kennedy (2015) suggest

that customer satisfaction with concrete events spills over to life domains, which in turn leads

to customer happiness. In a similar logic, the bottom-up theory of customer happiness states

that customer satisfaction with the specific service encounter spills over upward to the overall

service satisfaction, which in turn spills over upward to the most superordinate domain of

customer life satisfaction such as customer happiness (Neal, Uysal, & Sirgy, 2007).

Although the extensive body of research on customer loyalty has focused primarily

on benefits to the firm, customer loyalty can also result in benefits to the customer in the form

of customer happiness (Aksoy et al., 2015). According to Aksoy et al. (2015), the primary

role of customer loyalty is to make customers happy because the core principle of customer

loyalty is to connect friends and family, which are the primary determinants of customer

happiness (Nicolao, Irwin, & Goodman, 2009). Gilbert (2005) asserts that friends and

families offer strong social connections, interactions, and a sense of security, all contributing

to customer happiness. Furthermore, customer loyalty is driven by the interactions that

customers develop with employees, which in turn lead to customer happiness. All individuals

have needs for belonging and interdependence, and these needs can be fulfilled through
 11

customer loyalty, which can be defined as a desire to maintain the relationship (Aksoy et al.,

2015). In addition, customers develop affectionate bonds with services, which in turn lead to

customer loyalty, which is argued to be a catalyst for customer happiness (Yim, Tse, & Chan,

2008). This view is also supported by Orth, Limon, and Rose (2010) who find that customer

loyalty toward the service arouses customer happiness. Furthermore, a customer’s interaction

with the service employee may arouse positive emotions, which in turn lead to customer

loyalty. Interestingly, rewarding experiences with services through customer loyalty make the

customer feel better. Finally, happiness results from customers’ repeated experience with

services, i.e., customer loyalty (Bettingen & Luedicke, 2009). Thus, the following hypotheses

are proposed:

H6: Customer satisfaction is positively related to customer happiness.

H7: Customer loyalty is positively related to customer happiness.

Figure 1 provides a conceptual model of service quality and illustrates the

hypothesized relationships among the key constructs.

[Figure 1 about here]

METHOD

Sample and Procedures

Data were collected through a survey that was distributed to consumers in each of the

five countries: China, Hong Kong, Japan, South Korea, and Singapore. Quota sampling was

used to generate samples that were representative of the population in terms of age and

gender. China, Hong Kong, Japan, South Korea, and Singapore served as the countries of

study because they share similar cultural values and norms (Hofstede, Hofstede, & Minkov,

2010). Finding differences between countries with similar cultural backgrounds allows us to

make a more convincing argument than conducting the same study across countries that differ

greatly in cultural background. Moreover, using countries with highly disparate cultural
 12

backgrounds could introduce significant biases into our samples, which could limit the

possibility of generalizing the findings.

The demographics of the sample are presented in Table 1. The sample consists of 175

(China), 178 (Hong Kong), 172 (Japan), 180 (South Korea), and 174 (Singapore) valid

responses. The unit of analysis of this study is an individual shopper who had made three

purchases within three months at a major department store at the time of data collection. Self-

administered questionnaires were used as the method of data collection. The potential

respondents were approached when they were leaving department stores and asked to

participate in a short survey by a study assistant. They were informed about the investigation

and told that the individual responses were to be kept strictly confidential. A study assistant

waited while participants completed the research questionnaires.

[Table 1 about here]

As the survey was conducted in five countries, five versions of the questionnaire

were administered. The questionnaire, originally written in English, was translated into

Mandarin Chinese, Cantonese Chinese, Japanese and Korean by bilingual people whose

native language was Mandarin Chinese, Cantonese Chinese, Japanese or Korean,

respectively. These translated questionnaires were then translated back into English by

another bilingual person whose native language was Mandarin Chinese, Cantonese Chinese,

Japanese or Korean, respectively. These two English versions were then compared and no

item was found to contain a specific cultural context in terms of language (Brislin, 1980). The

questionnaire was pre-tested with 20 shoppers at the department store, and there were no

major problems with understanding or wording.

Instrumentation

The research derived measures for key constructs from existing scales in the

literature. All constructs were measured with items using 9-point Likert scales ranging from 1
 13

= strongly disagree to 9 = strongly agree. Measurement scales for all constructs are

summarized in Table 2. Service quality questions were from Dabholkar, Thorpe, and Rentz

(1996) as well as Brady and Cronin (2001). More specifically, performance service quality

was measured by six items that assessed the availability, quality, differentiation of

merchandise, the extent to which service was customer-oriented, and the extent to which new

products were provided compared to others. Delivery service quality was measured by six

items that assessed the extent to which employees gave prompt, courteous, individual,

voluntary, and knowledgeable service to customers. In addition, these items assessed the

extent to which employees were able to handle customer complaints directly and immediately

on the site. Environment service quality was measured by six items that assessed the extent to

which the department store had a professional, modern-looking, and convenient appearance.

In addition, these items assessed the extent to which customers perceived a positive physical

environment, parking places that were large and convenient, and a layout that made it easy to

find products.

Overall service quality and customer satisfaction were measured using a one-item

scale because these constructs are easily understood and imagined (e.g., overall service

quality, overall customer satisfaction) (Bergkvist & Rossiter, 2007; Rossiter, 2002). Customer

loyalty was measured by a two-item scale. These items were “I will say positive things about

XYZ to other people” and “I intend to continue doing business with XYZ” (Zeithaml, Berry,

& Parasuraman, 1996). Finally, customer happiness was measured by two items, “My quality

of life is enhanced by doing business with XYZ” and “I think XYZ contributes to customers’

happiness” (Dagger & Sweeney, 2006; Sweeney et al., 2015).

[Table 2 about here]

RESULTS
 14

The present study used the SmartPLS 3 software (Marc Ringle, Wende, & Becker,

2015) to validate the measurement model and test the hypotheses. PLS-SEM is a composite-

based approach to SEM that forms composites as linear combinations of their respective

indicators, which in turn serve as proxies for the conceptual variables (Hair, Hult, Ringle, &

Sarstedt, 2017). Recent research argues that employing modelling constructs as composites is

a more realistic approach to measurement (Sarstedt, Hair, Ringle, Thiele, & Gudergan, 2016).

Furthermore, this study focuses on predicting customer satisfaction, customer loyalty and

customer happiness via service quality, which calls for the use of PLS-SEM as a prediction-

oriented approach to SEM (Hair, Hult, Ringle, Sarstedt, & Thiele, 2017).

Assessment of the measurement models includes composite reliability to evaluate the

internal consistency and average variance extracted (AVE) to evaluate the convergent

validity. Assessment of measurement models also involves discriminant validity. The

heterotrait-monotrait (HTMT) ratio of correlations can be used to examine discriminant

validity (Hair, Hult, Ringle, & Sarstedt, 2017; Henseler, Ringle, & Sarstedt, 2015; Voorhees,

Brady, Calantone, & Ramirez, 2016). The composite reliabilities for all variables exceed the

cutoff value of 0.70, and the AVE for all focal variables exceeds the 0.50 benchmark,

demonstrating that each construct has acceptable psychometric properties. In support of the

convergent validity of the scales, all indicators load significantly (p < 0.05) and substantially

(> 0.70) on their hypothesized factors (see Table 2). Furthermore, all HTMT values are lower

than the threshold value of 0.85. In addition, neither of the 95% bias-corrected and

accelerated confidence intervals of the HTMT ratio of correlations statistic includes the value

1.00 (see Table 3), thus supporting discriminant validity.

[Table 3 about here]

 15

This study relies on one source of data, i.e., ratings by customers, so potential

common method bias is statistically controlled (MacKenzie, Podsakoff, & Jarvis, 2005).

First, following the procedure suggested by Williams and Anderson (1994), a method factor

was added with all indicators for all latent variables loading on this factor. The structural

results are consistent with the original structural model for all five countries. This study also

implemented the procedure used by Liang, Saraf, Hu, and Xue (2007). The results show that

method factor loadings are not significant and the ratio of substantive variance to method

variance is more than 100:1 for all five countries, which means that common method bias is

not a serious issue.

Henseler, Ringle, and Sarstedt (2016) advocate the test of measurement invariance

before performing a multigroup analysis between two or more groups when using SEM. They

suggest the measurement invariance of composites (MICOM) that is suitable for PLS-SEM.

Given that the current study aims to compare a model over two groups via PLS-SEM,

MICOM was adopted. MICOM is a three-step process involving (1) configural invariance

assessment (i.e., equal parameterization and way of estimation), (2) compositional invariance

assessment (i.e., equal indicator weights), and (3) assessment of equal means and variances.

If configural and compositional invariance are established, partial measurement invariance is

also established. If partial measurement invariance is confirmed, one can compare the path

coefficient estimates across the groups.

Step 1 of the MICOM procedure, configural invariance, was established because the

PLS path model setups are equal across the five countries, and group-specific model

estimations draw on identical algorithm settings. Next, to establish compositional invariance

(step 2), the original composite score correlation c was compared with the empirical

distribution of the composite score correlation resulting from the permutation procedure (cu)

with 1,000 permutations and a 5% significance level for each combination of countries. If c
 16

exceeds the 5% quantile of cu, compositional invariance is established. The results in Table 4

show that partial measurement invariance is established among all five countries, thus

allowing for a multigroup analysis that compares the path coefficients among the samples

from these five countries to identify significant differences. However, this study did not

assess the equality of the composite mean values and variances (step 3) because the purpose

of this study is to focus on cross-country comparisons and not to pool the data.

[Tables 4 & 5 about here]

Table 5 lists the beta coefficients for five countries, along with the R2 value for each

endogenous construct. The models demonstrate good explanatory power, as the R2 values

range from 0.53 to 0.87 (Henseler, Hubona, & Ray, 2016). The bootstrapping analyses using

5,000 samples show that all the path coefficients are significant, supporting all the

hypotheses. Finally, in light of the partial measurement invariance, the samples from five

countries were compared by means of multigroup analysis. In the first step, the omnibus test

of group differences (OTG) was applied to assess if the path coefficients are equal across the

five groups. The analysis reveals that, in respect of all five structural model relations, the null

hypothesis that the seven path coefficients are equal across the five groups can be rejected.

These results suggest that, in respect of all relationships, at least one path coefficient differs

from the remaining four across the five countries (Sarstedt, Henseler, & Ringle, 2011). Next,

Table 6 shows the differences in seven path coefficient estimates across five countries and

provides the results of multigroup comparison. The analysis shows that path coefficient

estimates are partially invariant across the samples from five countries, as only two path

coefficient estimates are significantly different.

[Table 6 about here]

 17

Furthermore, this study uses an IPMA to extend the PLS-SEM results by taking the

performance of each construct into account. The results permit the identification of

determinants with a relatively high importance and relatively low performance. These

determinants with high importance and low performance are major improvement areas that

should be addressed by marketing activities (Schloderer et al., 2014). Figures 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6

show the IPMA results for five countries, respectively. When the IPMA results are analyzed,

the prioritization of managerial activities of high importance becomes obvious.

[Figures 2, 3, 4, 5, & 6 about here]

More specifically, the importance-performance map for China (Figure 2) shows that

in comparison with other service quality dimensions, the performance quality’s importance is

the highest. In other words, a one-unit increase in the performance quality’s performance

from 70.22 to 71.22 would increase the performance of customer happiness by 0.47 points.

Hence, when managers wish to improve the performance of customer happiness by means of

overall service quality, their first priority should be to improve performance quality because

this construct has the highest importance among service quality dimensions. On the other

hand, Figure 3 for Hong Kong shows that delivery quality has the highest importance among

service quality dimensions but a relatively low performance. Thus, it is obvious that

improvement of the delivery quality is a top priority for Hong Kong. Interestingly, Figure 4

shows that environment quality has the highest importance among service quality dimensions

and a relatively high performance in Japan. Thus, improvement of delivery quality is not a

top priority in Japan. In addition, Figure 5 shows that in South Korea, delivery quality and

performance quality are important, but their performance is rather low. Therefore, managers

in South Korea should devote efforts toward improving these service quality dimensions.

Lastly, Figure 6 shows that in Singapore, service quality dimensions are rather similar in
 18

terms of their importance and performance. Therefore, resources should be equally allocated

to service quality dimensions in Singapore. Beyond service quality dimensions, across five

countries, customer satisfaction has the highest importance, customer loyalty has the second

highest importance, and overall service quality is the third priority, except for in Japan.

In addition to the theoretically hypothesized paths illustrated in Figure 1, this study

also tests the potential moderating effect on the key path in an exploratory way. The current

research performs this analysis with customer income, which was measured by asking “how

much money does your household earn monthly?” (1 = less than 150 USD, 2 = 151– 200

USD, 3 = 201 – 250 USD, 4 = 251-300 USD, 5 = 301-400 USD, 6 = 401 – 500 USD, 7 = 501

– 600 USD, 8 = 601 – 700 USD, 9 = 701 – 800 USD, and 10 = more than 801 USD). Prior

research argues that people with higher income tend to be happier than those with lower

income because those with higher income are better able to fulfill their aspirations and feel

better off (Blanchflower & Oswald, 2004; Easterlin, 2001). Previous research also shows that

upper-income customers have lower expectations about service quality than middle- and

lower-income customers, which in turn increase customer satisfaction and customer

happiness (Scott & Shieff, 1993).

Therefore, this study tested the moderating effect of customer income on the

relationship between overall service quality and customer happiness mediated by customer

satisfaction. A moderated mediation analysis was performed using the PROCESS macro

(Model 14; Hayes, 2013), with overall service quality as the independent variable, customer

satisfaction as the mediator, customer income as the second-stage moderator, and customer

happiness as the dependent variable. As Table 7 shows, the results suggested a significant

interaction effect between customer satisfaction and customer income in three countries:

China, Hong Kong, and South Korea. The index of moderated mediation indicated that

confidence interval did not include zero in China (CI [.04, .07]), Hong Kong (CI [.00, .07]),
 19

and South Korea (CI [.01, .04]). In other words, the indirect effect of service quality on

customer happiness via customer satisfaction is moderated by customer income in these three

countries. In contrast, the index of moderated mediation included zero in Japan (CI

[-.04, .04]) and Singapore (CI [-.03, .03], and the interaction effect of customer satisfaction

and customer income was insignificant, suggesting no moderation effect of customer income

(Hayes, 2015).

To probe the moderation of the indirect effect, a spotlight analysis was run (Spiller,

Fitzsimons, Lynch, & McClelland, 2013). Using the beta coefficient estimates, the bottom of

Table 7 shows the indirect effect of service quality on customer happiness via customer

satisfaction at low (-1 SD), moderate (mean), and high (+1 SD) levels of customer income.

Focusing on the three countries with significant moderation effects (i.e., China, Hong Kong,

and South Korea), the indirect effects of service quality on customer happiness via customer

satisfaction were all significant at low (-1 SD), moderate (mean), and high (+1 SD) levels of

customer income. Furthermore, the indirect effect was stronger for customers with higher

income. For example, in Hong Kong, the effect is .23 when customer income is low (one

standard deviation below the mean), whereas it is .41 when customer income is high (one

standard deviation above the mean). A similar pattern was found in China and South Korea.

Taken together, customer income seems to increase the effect of service quality on customer

happiness via customer satisfaction in China, Hong Kong and South Korea.

[Table 7 about here]

CONCLUSION AND IMPLICATIONS

The current study examines whether the relationships between service quality and its

consequences, such as customer satisfaction, loyalty, and happiness, are applicable across the

five countries in Asia considered in this study. The service quality model has been developed
 20

in countries such as the U.S. and Europe, and there has been a need for testing this model in

Asian countries. By doing so, researchers could examine the applicability of the service

quality model to Asian countries. The cross-cultural psychology literature suggests that the

metric invariance and the relationships among constructs in a model must be established for a

model to be applicable across countries (Durvasula et al., 1993). Accordingly, this study used

a national-level analysis and a multigroup analysis to examine the model cross-nationally in

five Asian countries. The results suggest that overall service quality has a positive influence

on customer satisfaction, which in turn leads to customer loyalty and customer happiness, and

that the general pattern of structural relationships is valid for the five countries. Furthermore,

the comparisons of paths show that most of them were not significantly different across five

countries. However, there were two paths that were significantly different. For instance, the

path from performance quality to overall service quality was significantly different between

China and Hong Kong. In addition, the path from customer satisfaction to customer

happiness was significantly different between Hong Kong and Japan.

It can be noted that this research is the first cross-national comparative study of

service quality and customer satisfaction in the five Asian countries. According to a review of

cross-cultural customer studies, most previous studies involve only two countries (Sin,

Cheung, & Lee, 1999). Thus, previous studies may have limited value compared to studies

done in several countries. Studies done in several countries could provide researchers a

deeper understanding of the effects of country on service quality models. Hence, this study

empirically examined the service quality model using data collected from five Asian

countries: China, Hong Kong, Japan, South Korea, and Singapore. Overall, the results

support the proposed model of service quality for China, Hong Kong, Japan, South Korea,

and Singapore. As expected, service performance, service delivery, and service environment

were found to be determinants of overall service quality perceptions. In addition, overall

 21

service quality perceptions were found to be a determinant of customer satisfaction.

Customer satisfaction was found to be a determinant of customer loyalty and customer

happiness. Finally, customer loyalty was found to be a determinant of customer happiness.

These results provide strong evidence for the cross-country stability of the service quality

model (Cadogan, Diamantopoulos, & De Mortanges, 1999). Cook and Campbell (1979) note

that to demonstrate robust causal relationships, using one sample of respondents is not

appropriate. The current study tests the model using data collected from five countries to

increase the confidence of a robust causal relationship that can be accomplished by means of

general convergence (Calantone, Schmidt, & Song, 1996).

Because of the recent increase in the globalization of the service business, marketers

have a growing need for cross-national constructs and measures that are reliable, valid, and

applicable across countries. Globalization of markets has resulted in increased competition

among Asian brands. Maintaining consistently high quality services is a powerful means of

increasing the overall performance of a global Asian enterprise (Ostrom et al., 2015).

Measures with sound psychometric properties across Asian countries will facilitate service

marketing strategies in Asian markets (Netemeyer et al., 1991). This study examines the

measures of service quality, customer satisfaction, customer loyalty, and customer happiness

in a cross-national context. Strong support for these constructs' psychometric properties is

found across five Asian countries.

Given recognition of the impact of service marketing on social performance (e.g.,

transformative service research, customer well-being or happiness) (Anderson et al., 2013),

the present study represents an important step forward. The results of this study reveal three

key findings. First, social performance, such as customer happiness, was driven by service

quality. This finding makes a key contribution to the service literature, extending the

understanding of service co-creation beyond economic indicators. This finding is significant,

 22

especially because the role of customer happiness as an outcome of service quality is not well

investigated, despite the growing interest in transformative service which enhances customer

happiness (Garma & Bove, 2011; Guo, Arnould, Gruen, & Tang, 2013; Mick, Pettigrew,

Pechmann, & Ozanne, 2012). Apparently, there is a need for firms to move beyond financial

performance and evaluate firm performance according to social performance. Second,

customer loyalty was driven by service quality across the five Asian countries, demonstrating

that the economic values of service quality could be applied to Asian countries as well as

North American and European countries. Third, individual performance, such as customer

satisfaction, was driven by service quality. All in all, the present study highlights the crucial

role of service quality in enhancing social, firm, and individual performances by meeting

customer needs during service co-creation. This understanding makes an important

contribution to service research.

The findings of this study highlight the value of measuring service quality, primarily

because service quality enhances customer satisfaction, customer loyalty, and customer

happiness. The three dimensions of service quality (performance, delivery, and environment)

were found to influence overall service quality universally for five Asian countries.

Nevertheless, the relative importance of the three quality dimensions seems to vary slightly

across the five countries. Thus, mangers should have flexibility and strategy in resource

allocation when they want to increase overall service quality depending on the countries in

which they operate. Indeed, performance quality, delivery quality, and environment quality

play a key role in the development of overall service quality, which in turn increases

customer satisfaction, customer loyalty, and customer happiness. Nevertheless, managers

should focus on improving specific service quality dimensions based on the findings of IPMA

of this study. For that purpose, managers might want to segment their Asian customer base

according to levels of service quality. Such segmentation would enable firms to allocate a
 23

larger amount of resources to customers who need more support in forming positive customer

happiness. Further, they should constantly monitor service quality and internal processes. The

proposed scales could be used as diagnostic tools to identify specific areas where

improvements are needed and pinpoint aspects of the firm’s service quality that require work.

In addition, the service quality scale can easily be added to the annual satisfaction survey or

questionnaires for loyalty programs. Service quality information would be useful for

managers in investigating customer happiness or well-being. Databases containing the level

of service quality could be used to enhance the level of customer happiness (Hellén &

Sääksjärvi, 2011).

This paper also shows that customer income can influence the indirect effect of

overall service quality on customer happiness through customer satisfaction. Specifically,

customer income is found to moderate the mediating effect of customer satisfaction on

customer happiness. Nevertheless, the moderating effect of customer income varied across

countries; the moderation effect was significant in China, Hong Kong, and South Korea, but

not in Japan and Singapore. That is, although the overall service quality model is robust

across the countries, the particular moderation effect of customer income varies across the

countries. Furthermore, in the three countries where the moderating effect of customer

income exists, customer income tends to magnify the effect of customer satisfaction on

customer happiness. That is, as customer income increases, the importance of customer

satisfaction becomes higher in achieving customer happiness. Considering that little research

has investigated the moderating role of customer income in the service quality model, the

findings of this study might be meaningful.

This study is not without limitations. It only addresses one service (the department

store). Future studies should seek to extrapolate the analysis into other service areas. Further

research should also consider the role that unobservable traits such as personality or lifestyle
 24

play in explaining service quality and customer happiness. It could be argued that segments

identified by means of specific unobservable variables are usually more homogenous and

their customers respond consistently to marketing actions, but customers in these segments

are difficult to identify from variables that are measured (Schloderer et al., 2014). Using a

similar logic, it is possible that the importance of various service quality factors differs with

regard to how often they visit the department store due to habituation effects. Future research

should therefore consider this issue by segmenting the data along such behavioral variables

(Hock et al., 2010). The study also presents a cross-sectional evaluation of service quality, but

a longitudinal study could enrich the findings and generate a deeper understanding of the

dynamics of service quality (Rindfleisch, Malter, Ganesan, & Moorman, 2008). Future

research using experiments may detect accurately more the causality between service quality,

customer satisfaction, customer loyalty, and customer happiness.

 25

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 34

Table 1. Demographic profile of respondents

Percent

China Hong Kong Japan South Korea Singapore

Gender Male 25.71 25.84 26.16 26.10 25.86

Female 74.29 74.16 73.84 73.90 74.14

Age 20-29 18.28 17.98 18.02 18.30 18.39

30-39 31.43 31.46 31.98 31.70 31.61

40-49 31.43 31.46 31.98 31.70 31.61

50-59 18.86 19.10 18.02 18.30 18.39

Education Secondary 10.28 41.01 18.02 27.80 38.51

level Bachelor 74.86 48.88 73.26 63.80 50.00

Master/Ph.D. 14.86 10.11 8.72 8.70 11.49

 35

Table 2. Measurement model

Construct/Indicator China Hong Kong Japan South Korea Singapore

Load Reli AVE Loa Reli AVE Loa Reli AVE Load Reli AVE Loa Relia AVE
ings abili ding abili ding abili ings abili ding bility
ty s ty s ty ty s
Performance .92 .67 .93 .67 .92 .67 .93 .70 .91 .63
1. XYZ has merchandise available when the customers want it. .86 .88 .83 .86 .79
2. XYZ offers high quality merchandise. .87 .87 .88 .86 .89
3. The service of XYZ is customer-oriented. .90 .87 .87 .90 .83
4. I achieve my purpose when I use the service of XYZ .88 .88 .86 .87 .75
5. XYZ continuously provides new products compared to others. .70 .78 .70 .72 .73
6. XYZ provides differentiated services that others do not. .70 .75 .78 .79 .75
Delivery .96 .70 .97 .84 .96 .78 .96 .80 .96 .79
1. Employees of XYZ have the knowledge to answer customers’ questions. .83 .89 .88 .82 .89
2. Employees of XYZ are consistently courteous with customers. .84 .92 .90 .90 .92
3. XYZ gives customers individual attention. .87 .94 .89 .89 .92
4. The attitude of XYZ’s employees demonstrates their willingness to help me. .87 .93 .83 .92 .85
5. Employees of XYZ give prompt services to customers. .92 .93 .91 .93 .91
6. Employees of XYZ are able to handle customer complaints directly and immediately. .86 .90 .89 .90 .84
Environment .93 .70 .95 .75 .93 .70 .92 .67 .94 .73
1. Employees of XYZ have a neat, professional appearance. .86 .89 .89 .82 .89
2. I would rate XYZ’s physical environment highly. .86 .88 .90 .88 .90
3. XYZ has modern-looking equipment and fixtures. .88 .88 .84 .86 .88
4. XYZ has clean, attractive, and convenient public areas (restrooms, fitting rooms). .90 .87 .87 .85 .90
5. XYZ provides plenty of convenient parking for customers. .82 .88 .76 .82 .79
6. The store layout of XYZ makes it easy for customers to find what they need. .74 .81 .71 .70 .75
Overall service quality 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1
1. I believe XYZ offers excellent service. 1 1 1 1 1
Customer satisfaction 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1
1. Overall, I am satisfied with XYZ. 1 1 1 1 1
Customer loyalty .94 .89 .95 .90 .90 .81 .96 .92 .97 .94
1. I will say positive things about XYZ to other people. .95 .94 .88 .96 .96
2. I intend to continue doing business with XYZ. .95 .95 .91 .96 .96
Customer happiness .96 .92 .96 .92 .96 .92 .96 .93 .97 .94
1. My quality of life is enhanced by doing business with XYZ. .94 .96 .96 .97 .97
2. I think XYZ contributes to customers’ happiness. .94 .96 .96 .96 .96
 36

Table 3. Discriminant validity assessment results

Variable Performance Delivery Environment Service quality Customer Customer loyalty

satisfaction
Delivery China [.78;.92]
Hong Kong [.79;.91]
Japan [.84;.94]
South Korea [.68;.88]
Singapore [.73;.87]
Environment China [.67;.89] [.71;.89]
Hong Kong [.76;.88] [.75;.87]
Japan [.57;.81] [.56;.82]
South Korea [.56;.79] [.55;.82]
Singapore [.69;.86] [.79;.92]
Service quality China [.72;.93] [.71;.88] [.56;.83]
Hong Kong [.71;.85] [.79;.89] [.75;.86]
Japan [.71;.85] [.70;.84] [.69;.85]
South Korea [.74;.87] [.74;.86] [.58;.79]
Singapore [.63;.84] [.66;.86] [.68;.86]
Customer China [.75;.92] [.66;.84] [.55;.80] [.74;.91]
satisfaction Hong Kong [.72;.85] [.80;.89] [.68;.83] [.76;.84]
Japan [.71;.86] [.71;.85] [.66;.83] [.79;.86]
South Korea [.70;.88] [.76;.88] [.55;.77] [.71;.84]
Singapore [.58;.81] [.61;.84] [.52;.82] [.75;.94]
Customer China [.78;.95] [.63;.84] [.60;.85] [.68;.86] [.73;.87]
loyalty Hong Kong [.63;.82] [.68;.84] [.67;.82] [.79;.89] [.77;.89]
Japan [.77;.95] [.72;.89] [.76;.96] [.72;.87] [.69;.85]
South Korea [.62;.83] [.66;.84] [.59;.86] [.66;.83] [.69;.85]
Singapore [.46;.72] [.56;.82] [.60;.82] [.70;.84] [.64;.83]
Customer China [.78;.97] [.71;.92] [.61;.88] [.69;.87] [.71;.86] [.70;.87]
happiness Hong Kong [.74;.88] [.80;.91] [.72;.86] [.74;.86] [.73;.85] [.72;.87]
Japan [.73;.88] [.65;.83] [.75;.88] [.63;.84] [.62;.84] [.73;.85]
South Korea [.57;.77] [.68;.82] [.57;.78] [.65;.82] [.63;.83] [.71;.85]
Singapore [.59;.83] [.55;.81] [.61;.83] [.71;.86] [.69;.86] [.75;.90]
Notes: The numbers in brackets are the 95% bias-corrected and accelerated confidence intervals of the HTMT statistic.
 37

Table 4.

Measurement invariance (MICOM) assessment

Variable China vs. China vs. China vs. China vs. Hong Kong Hong Kong Hong Kong Japan vs. Japan vs. South Korea
Hong Kong Japan South Korea Singapore vs. Japan vs. South vs. Singapore South Korea Singapore vs. Singapore
Korea
c 5% c 5% c 5% c 5% c 5% c 5% c 5% c 5% c 5% c 5%
quant quant quant quant quant quant quant quant quant quant
ile of ile of ile of ile of ile of ile of ile of ile of ile of ile of
cu cu cu cu cu cu cu cu cu cu
Performance .999 .998 1.000 1.000 1.000 .998 .999 .998 .999 .998 1.000 .998 .999 .998 .999 .997 .998 .997 .999 .997

Delivery 1.000 1.000 .999 .998 1.000 1.000 1.000 1.000 1.000 1.000 1.000 1.000 1.000 1.000 1.000 1.000 1.000 1.000 1.000 1.000

Environment 1.000 .999 .999 .998 .999 .998 1.000 .999 .999 .999 .999 .999 1.000 .999 .999 .997 1.000 .999 .999 .998

Service 1.000 1.000 1.000 1.000 1.000 1.000 1.000 1.000 1.000 1.000 1.000 1.000 1.000 1.000 1.000 1.000 1.000 1.000 1.000 1.000
quality
Customer 1.000 1.000 1.000 1.000 1.000 1.000 1.000 1.000 1.000 1.000 1.000 1.000 1.000 1.000 1.000 1.000 1.000 1.000 1.000 1.000
satisfaction
Customer 1.000 1.000 1.000 1.000 1.000 1.000 1.000 1.000 1.000 .999 1.000 1.000 1.000 1.000 1.000 1.000 1.000 .999 1.000 1.000
loyalty
Customer 1.000 1.000 1.000 1.000 1.000 1.000 1.000 1.000 1.000 1.000 1.000 1.000 1.000 1.000 1.000 1.000 1.000 1.000 1.000 1.000
happiness
Notes: If c < 5% quantile of cu, compositional invariance requirements are violated.
 38

Table 5. Results of the country-specific structural model

Path relationships China Hong Kong Japan South Korea Singapore

H1: Performance→service quality .34*** .14*** .31*** .38*** .28***
H2: Delivery→service quality .35*** .48*** .25** .38*** .28**
H3: Environment→service quality .23*** .30*** .36*** .16* .32***
H4: Service quality→customer satisfaction .89*** .90*** .93*** .89*** .87***
H5: Customer satisfaction→customer loyalty .75*** .78*** .76*** .74*** .73***
H6: Customer satisfaction→customer happiness .35*** .48*** .18* .39*** .41***

H7: Customer loyalty→customer happiness .50*** .34*** .69*** .44*** .48***

R2
Service quality .69 .73 .71 .72 .66
Customer satisfaction .80 .81 .87 .80 .76
Customer loyalty .57 .61 .59 .55 .53
Customer happiness .64 .61 .71 .60 .68
Notes: * p < 0.05; **p < 0.01; ***p < 0.00
 39

Table 6.

Multigroup comparison test results

Relationship
China vs. China vs. China vs. China vs. Hong Kong Hong Kong Hong Kong Japan vs. Japan vs. South Korea
Hong Kong Japan South Korea Singapore vs. Japan vs. South vs. Singapore South Korea Singapore vs. Singapore
Korea
│diff│p-value │diff│p-value │diff│p-value │diff│p-value │diff│p-value │diff│p-value │diff│p-value │diff│p-value │diff│p-value │diff│p-value
Performance .44 .00*** .26 .02 .19 .06 .29 .89 .19 .95 .25 .99 .15 .94 .07 .78 .04 .37 .10 .55
→Service
quality
Delivery→Se .18 .92 .05 .36 .08 .72 .02 .44 .24 .93 .10 .20 .21 .55 .13 .95 .03 .59 .10 .65
rvice quality
Environment .26 .99 .33 .99 .13 .84 .29 .44 .07 .77 .14 .09 .02 .58 .20 .65 .04 .35 .16 .43
→Service
quality
Service .02 .75 .05 .97 .01 .62 .01 .43 .03 .85 .01 .43 .03 .29 .04 .99 .06 .11 .02 .87
quality→Cust
omer
satisfaction
Customer .01 .62 .00 .48 .03 .32 .04 .26 .02 .38 .04 .22 .05 .18 .02 .97 .04 .28 .01 .99
satisfaction→
Customer
loyalty
Customer .16 .93 .14 .09 .07 .72 .09 .82 .30 .00** .09 .25 .07 .24 .21 .95 .22 .98 .02 .99
satisfaction→
Customer
happiness
Customer .21 .83 .14 .91 .11 .16 .07 .23 .34 .99 .09 .77 .14 .90 .25 .88 .21 .92 .04 .78
loyalty→Cust
omer
happiness
Notes: p < 0.01; ***p < 0.001
**
 40

Table 7.

Conditional indirect effects of service quality on customer happiness through customer satisfaction

Country China Hong Kong Japan South Korea Singapore

Predictor Effect
Customer
satisfaction
Constant .19 .51** .29 .60*** 1.16***
Service quality .95*** .92*** .96*** .91*** .84***
Customer
happiness
Constant 1.18 2.47** .89 .86 .93
Customer .36* .09 .25 .33* .36*
satisfaction
Service quality .41*** .51*** .47* .39*** .45***
Income -.13 .24* .02 -.04 .05
CS x Income .02* .04* .01 .02* -.00
Income Boot indirect effect
-1 SD .37 CI [.15, .62] .23 CI [.01, .47] .26 CI [-.05, .59] .35 CI [.18, .57] .29 CI [.11, .52]
Mean .41 CI [.20, .63] .32 CI [.13, .56] .27 CI [-.02, .57] .36 CI [.22, .61] .29 CI [.14, .52]
+1 SD .45 CI [.21, .71] .41 CI [.21, .65] .30 CI [ -.03, .61] .43 CI [.24, .65] .28 CI [.13, .54]
Index of moderated .02 CI [.04, .07] .03 CI [.00, .07] .01 CI [ -.04, .04] .02 CI [ .01, .04] -.00 CI [-.03, .03]
mediation
Note: *p < .05; **p < .01; ***p < .001
 41

Figure 1. Conceptual Framework

Performance Customer
1 service quality loyalty
H1
H5

Delivery H2 Overall H4 Customer H7

service quality service quality satisfaction

H3
H6

Environment Customer
service quality happiness
 42

Figure 2.

Importance-Performance Map Analysis for China

80

75
Loyalty
70 Performance SQ
Environment
Performance

CS
65 Delivery

60

55

50
0.0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8
Importance
 43

Figure 3.

Importance-Performance Map Analysis for Hong Kong

80

75 Loyalty

70
Performance

Environment
SQ CS
65 Delivery
Performance
60

55

50
0.0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8
Importance
 44

Figure 4.

Importance-Performance Map Analysis for Japan

80

75
Loyalty
70
Performance

SQCS
Environment
65
Delivery
60 Performance

55

50
0.0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8
Importance
 45

Figure 5.

Importance-Performance Map Analysis for South Korea

80

75

70 Loyalty
Performance

Environment
SQ CS
65
Performance
Delivery
60

55

50
0.0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8
Importance
 46

Figure 6.

Importance-Performance Map Analysis for Singapore

80

75 Loyalty

70 Environment SQ CS
Performance

Delivery

65 Performance

60

55

50
0.0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8
Importance

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