An investigation into the dimensionality of service quality across services in HE and its relationship with value and satisfaction

The expansion of the UK higher education sector and a series of reforms driven by social, political and economic forces have led higher education institutions (HEIs) as service organizations to operate in a highly competitive environment. As the sector is becoming more dependent on tuition fees paid directly by students who are increasingly considered as customers, HEIs will need to place greater focus on the value and quality of the educational services they deliver and manage the total student experience. Therefore, this study examines students’ perceptions and the dimensionality of service quality across services in HE. It considers each university service as a distinctive micro-organization within the institution which provides a unique service offering to students. Through this approach, the interaction between students and non-academic staff during service delivery is also considered which previous studies have almost ignored. Unlike previous research, this study also integrates perceived value as a multidimensional construct within a conceptual model and examines the complex relationships between perceived service quality, value and satisfaction.
This empirical study employed a survey instrument to collect quantitative data from a sample of 479 students. The results of exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses revealed a four factor structure of service quality for the academic services (Reputation, Interactive Quality, Reliability and Physical Quality) and a two factor structure of service quality for the non-academic services (Interactive Quality and Physical Quality). Thus, this study suggests that the dimensionality of perceived service quality in HE is better described by Lehtinen’s and Lehtinen (1982, 1991) service quality model. The results showed that Sheth’s (1991) conceptualization, and LeBlanc’s and Nguyen (1999) measurement model of perceived value are applicable to the UK educational setting. Perceived value has six components: Exchange, Image, Social, Emotional, Epistemic and Functional Value. The findings of this study also suggest that students’ perceptions of service quality in HE are primarily driven by perceptions of the academic services, while overall student satisfaction is mainly determined by perceived quality and satisfaction of the academic, accommodation and sport centre services. Other key findings suggest that: 1) perceived service quality and value significantly predict student satisfaction; 2) recommendation is primarily determined by student satisfaction followed by perceive value and service quality 3) perceived value partially mediates the relationship between service quality and satisfaction, and between service quality and recommendation; and 4) satisfaction partially mediates the relationship between service quality and recommendation, and between perceived value and recommendation. Therefore, this thesis makes conceptual, empirical and contextual contributions to the services marketing and marketing education literature. It has demonstrated that the dimensionality of perceived service quality in HE is more complex than previously thought and that measurement scales of perceived service quality that evaluate holistically the performance of multi-unit services such as HEIs may not capture the underlying factor structure of perceived service quality in HE. It has developed and tested a set of measurement scales of perceived service quality and value which can be used by management to monitor the performance of various services at their institutions and be strategically employed to enhance the delivery of services to students, especially in the current competitive environment.