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This study investigated the impact of in-flight service quality on airline customer satisfaction and loyalty. The researchers analyzed data from passengers in prestige (business) class and economy class on an international airline. They found that different factors of in-flight service quality were important to each class. For prestige class, important factors were beverages, responsiveness, reliability, assurance, food presentation, and food quality. For economy class, important factors were responsiveness, food quality, beverages, reliability. The findings suggest airlines should tailor their in-flight service delivery based on customer seat class.
This study investigated the impact of in-flight service quality on airline customer satisfaction and loyalty. The researchers analyzed data from passengers in prestige (business) class and economy class on an international airline. They found that different factors of in-flight service quality were important to each class. For prestige class, important factors were beverages, responsiveness, reliability, assurance, food presentation, and food quality. For economy class, important factors were responsiveness, food quality, beverages, reliability. The findings suggest airlines should tailor their in-flight service delivery based on customer seat class.
This study investigated the impact of in-flight service quality on airline customer satisfaction and loyalty. The researchers analyzed data from passengers in prestige (business) class and economy class on an international airline. They found that different factors of in-flight service quality were important to each class. For prestige class, important factors were beverages, responsiveness, reliability, assurance, food presentation, and food quality. For economy class, important factors were responsiveness, food quality, beverages, reliability. The findings suggest airlines should tailor their in-flight service delivery based on customer seat class.
impact of in-ight service quality Myungsook An Yonghwi Noh Received: 24 June 2009 / Accepted: 25 June 2009 / Published online: 11 July 2009 Springer-Verlag 2009 Abstract The purpose of this study was to investigate the impact of the in-ight service quality on airline customer satisfaction and loyalty. This study analyzed the data from passengers of two classes: prestige (business) and economy. The results suggest that there are different factors of in-ight service quality that are important according to the customer seat class. In the case of the prestige class, there were six service quality factors of importance: alcoholic and non-alcoholic beverage, responsiveness and empathy, reliability, assurance, presentation style of food, and food quality; while the economy class showed ve important service quality factors: responsiveness and empathy, food quality, alcoholic beverage, non-alcoholic bev- erage, and reliability. These ndings imply that airline companies in-ight service should have different delivery strategies based on the customer seat class. Keywords Service quality Customer satisfaction Customer loyalty Airline companies In-ight service 1 Introduction Today, the service industry has become the most important segment of the world economy (Lee et al. 2007). In the USA, the service industry constitutes around 60% of the annual GDP and nearly 70% of new jobs, leading the worldwide expansion of the service industry (Mckee 2008). Thus, many researchers have studied service quality and tried to identify the factors which affect customer satisfaction and M. An Y. Noh (&) Department of Management, 209 College of Business Administration, University of Nebraska, P.O. Box 880491, Lincoln, NE 68588-0491, USA e-mail: acipco@hanmail.net M. An e-mail: sigechu@hanmail.net 1 3 Serv Bus (2009) 3:293307 DOI 10.1007/s11628-009-0068-4 loyalty in various industries to increase service performance (Parasuraman et al. 1988a; Carman 1990; Cronin and Taylor 1992; Asubonteng et al. 1996; Davis 1999; Lee and Cunningham 2001; Jones et al. 2002; Santos 2003). However, there is a paucity of research on the service quality of the airline industry, despite the fact that the airline industry traditionally has a high level of competition, a situation which makes airline companies strive to nd ways to improve their service quality to gain competitive advantage. The most direct airline service to customers is in-ight service by ight attendants, as passengers tend to evaluate airlines based on their degree of satisfaction with the in-ight service (Park et al. 2004). Accordingly, improving the in-ight service quality is one of the most critical success factors of airline companies, more specically, in-ight meal service is a major determinant of the in-ight service. There were some important previous studies which tried to identify service quality factors in the airline industry (Ostrowski 1993; Sultan and Simpson 2000; Tsaur et al. 2002; Chang 2002; Mazzeo 2003; Park et al. 2004; Ito and Lee 2004; Chen and Chang 2005; Lioua and Tzeng 2007; Bruecknera and Girvin 2008). Nevertheless, there have been a limited number of empirical studies on the importance of in-ight service quality. The purpose of this study was to ascertain the importance of in-ight service quality, focusing on in-ight food and beverage service of airline companies to improve customer satisfaction and loyalty. This paper is organized as follows: in the next section, we present a brief literature review on general service quality and airline services. Then, we present a theoretical model to identify airline service quality factors on the basis of previous research and an interview survey instrument is prepared. The result of the survey of passengers of one of the major international airline companies is presented. We classify the primary factors of in-ight food and beverage service according to the passenger seat class and analyze the relationships among its quality, customer satisfaction, and loyalty. Finally, we conclude the paper with the implications of the results, limitations of the study, and future research needs. 2 Review of relevant literature 2.1 Service quality Service quality has been studied over the years by many researchers. Garvin (1984) dened service quality as the subjectively perceived quality of service received by customers. Gronroos (1984) stated that service quality is the outcome of an evaluation process in which the consumer compares his or her expectations with the perception of the services that he or she has received. On the basis of previous studies, Parasuraman et al. (1985) reviewed and summarized service quality in three themes rst, service quality is more difcult for the consumer to evaluate than goods quality; second, service quality perceptions result from a comparison of consumer expectations with actual service performance; third, quality evaluations are not made solely on the outcome of a service, and they also involve evaluations 294 M. An, Y. Noh 1 3 of the process of service delivery. The above has been widely accepted as the basic denition of service quality and has also been applied to other areas of research. Two main conceptualizations of service quality exist. One is based on a disconrmation approach, and the other on a performance-only approach. Early researchers adopted the disconrmation model, which seeks to estimate the size gap between the customer expectations and their actual perceptions (Santos 2003). Parasuraman et al. (1985) suggested that consumers evaluation of service quality is based on the gap between their expectations and performance. With this approach, Parasuraman et al. (1988b) developed their widely applied multi-dimensional service quality measurement tool, SERVQUAL. It consists of ve factors (tangibles, reliability, responsiveness, assurance, and empathy) and contains a two-part, 22 scale items regarding expectations and performance. These ve factors have been tested through numerous empirical studies in various industries by many researchers. Carman (1990) investigated the validity of these ve factors and stated that these factors cannot be applicable to all service industries without any modication although they are well organized. Likewise, the SERVQUAL model has been proved to be applicable to different industries through some modications (Asubonteng et al. 1996). Although SERVQUAL has been widely applied in a variety of industries, some criticism exists in the literature of the disconrmation approach. Cronin and Taylor (1992), who revealed a higher R 2 in a performance-only measure as an alternative approach, stated that a performance-based measure of service quality might be an improved means of measuring the service quality construct. The expectation perception framework is of questionable validity because it has conceptual and denitional problems such as the conceptual denition of expectations and measurement validity of expectation (Teas 1993). The normality of a stimulus tends to be estimated by comparing it to the evoked norm after the fact, rather than to prior expectation (Kahneman and Miller 1986). A trade-off between perceived price and perceived quality leads to perceived value, and perceived value is a primary factor inuencing purchase intention (Chang and Albert 1994). A performance-only measure is superior to the disconrmation approach because the former is more reliable and defensible than the latter (Page and Spreng 2002). This study used the ve service quality factors of Parasuraman et al. (1988b; hereafter PZB)tangibles, reliability, responsiveness, assurance, and empathy and Cronin and Taylors (1992) performance-only measure, to investigate factors inuencing in-ight service quality of airline companies. 2.2 Concept of airline companies service It is important to conceptualize the characteristics of airline service so as to accurately estimate it. The airline service is a concept representing all kinds of services provided by airlines. In clarifying and establishing the concept of airline companies service, Chang (2003) designated the airlines work as a service store based on the model proposed by Davis (1999), which identied four types of service rms by two task dimensions as shown in Fig. 1. Airline customer satisfaction and loyalty 295 1 3 The services provided by airline companies have both xed and exible characteristics (Chang et al. 2003). The xed characteristics are subject to seat size, cargo storage, type of airplane, and airplane maintenance. The exible character- istics of airline service include the in-ight meal service which has both tangible traits and intangible services from departure to arrival such as the service by ight attendants. Airline customers tend to be loyal to particular airline companies due to the traits of airline service such as mileage programs. Even customers who are not satised with service quality can keep on using a particular airliner rather than switching to other airliner (Jones et al. 2002). In addition to service quality perceptions, transaction and switching cost factors also have a signicant impact on service loyalty (Lee and Cunningham 2001). The recognition of airline service quality is much harder than that of other service companies such as nancial institutions whose work processes consist of separate but interrelated tasks of one organization. However, airline services are performed simultaneously by a variety of processes by many entities such as TSA, airport authority, catering companies, etc (Chang et al. 2003). Therefore, a seamless coordination of a variety of activities by many organizations is needed for the improvement of the airline service quality. 2.3 In-ight meal service quality The representative service of airline companies is in-ight service. For any business delivering service in interactive encounters with customers, personalizationthe social content of interaction between service or retail employees and their customersis for perceived service quality and customer satisfaction (Mittal and Lassar 1996). Unwelcome service failure such as delays often generate strong negative impacts from customers (Butcher and Kayani 2008). Because in-ight service is directly provided to passengers through interactive encounters with customers, the passengers are likely to be sensitive to the quality of this service. Thus, the image of an airlines may be directly related to the quality of in-ight service, even more so than for other types of service. Among in-ight services, in-ight meal service has a great deal of importance for the evaluation of the airline companies service quality, due to the fact that it takes the largest amount of time interacting directly with customers. Accordingly, Fig. 1 Four types of service business by Davis (1999) 296 M. An, Y. Noh 1 3 in-ight meal service should be planned carefully to satisfy the customers expectations from the selection of menu to efcient and courteous service. This study deals only with in-ight meal service quality among six quality dimensions used by Chang (2003) because it occupies the largest amount of ight attendants time with passengers. Thus, the identication of quality factors of in- ight meal service is essential for improving the overall customer service quality. Cho et al. (2001) accepted PZBs model for evaluating service quality of airline companies. This study also adopts PZB quality factors and adds other new quality factors including the characteristics of in-ight food and beverage service. The PZB intangible service factors such as reliability, responsiveness, assurance, and empathy can be the decisive factors for in-ight meal service, because the meal service by ight attendants is similar to the general service performed by a physical worker and transmitted through the performers attitude. Therefore, this study develops service quality factors of in-ight meal service on the basis of PZB and the traits of in-ight food and beverage service. 3 Research design and methodology 3.1 Research model The purpose of this study is to identify the factors which impact the in-ight service quality and to investigate which of those factors inuence the customer satisfaction and loyalty. Figure 2 presents the research model. Fig. 2 Research model Airline customer satisfaction and loyalty 297 1 3 3.2 Denition of variables We adopted the factors suggested by PZB (1988b). However, we excluded the tangible factor from PZB and adopted only reliability, responsiveness, assurance, and empathy because the tangible factor does not t well with the characteristics of in-ight food and beverage service quality. In addition to PZB factors, we developed new evaluation items such as food quality, alcoholic beverage quality, and non-alcoholic beverage quality to clearly reect the characteristics of in-ight food and beverage service. The research model variables are dened as follows: (1) Reliability: ability to conduct promised services credibly and accurately. (2) Responsiveness: intention to provide services promptly to customers. (3) Assurance: temperament or quality of employees to inspire knowledge, courtesy, belief, and reliability. (4) Empathy: consideration for customers needs and interests in customers. (5) Food quality: intrinsic food quality such as taste, freshness, and menu; extrinsic forms of food including presentation, sanitation, and temperature. (6) Alcoholic beverage quality: the degree to which customers become satised with alcoholic beverages provided on board such as whisky, wine, beer, and after dinner drinks. (7) Non-alcoholic beverage quality: the degree to which customers become satised with non-alcoholic beverages provided in aircraft such as water, juice, and tea. A set of questions for each factor was developed according to the denitions described above. The questions used to measure variables were based on the seven point Likert scale. Customer satisfaction is based on customers perception about the service quality and performance, which is an emotional response. Customer loyalty means the desire to reuse the service of the company, which includes the willingness to use the same airline company even when its ticket price is relatively higher than competition and to recommend the airline company to others. 3.3 Instrument design To evaluate the service quality of in-ight food and beverage service, the questionnaire was developed based on the 22 items of PZB and 11 additional items for the traits of in-ight food and beverage service. We also developed 16 items to evaluate customer satisfaction about the service and loyalty to the airline company. 3.4 Sample and data collection This study investigates the factors which consist of in-ight food and beverage services and the inuence of those identied factors on the customer satisfaction and loyalty. The data were collected from the passengers of a leading global airline company headquartered in South Korea. Even though airline passengers expec- tation and perception can vary by nationality as shown by Sultan and Simpson (2000), this airline is considered to be a model company in the air transport industry 298 M. An, Y. Noh 1 3 in terms of its business scale and global air-routes. All passengers were the customers using the North AmericaKorea route or the EuropeKorea route which need more than 10 h of ight time. A total of 150 questionnaires were collected from the prestige (business) class and 370 questionnaires from the economy class. We excluded 25 incomplete questionnaires and used a total of 494 usable questionnaires139 from the prestige class and 355 from the economy class. 3.5 Data analysis To identify the factors inuencing service quality and identify the relationships between these factors and customer satisfaction and loyalty, various statistical tools were employed. First, frequency analyses were used to get the demographic information about the sample as shown in Table 1. Second, reliability and factor analyses were performed to identify the factors that inuence service quality and nally, regression analysis was used to identify the relationship between these factors and customer satisfaction and loyalty. 4 Result and discussion 4.1 Demographic characteristics of the sample group The sample used for this study consists of 494 respondents. The sample is classied by gender, age, and annual income as shown in Table 1. The gender ratio indicates Table 1 Sample demographics Demographic characteristics Frequency Percent (%) Gender Male 310 62.8 Female 161 32.6 No answer 23 4.6 Age Under 20 9 1.8 2130 95 19.2 3140 171 34.7 4150 143 28.9 5160 52 10.7 Over 60 24 4.6 Annual income ($) Under 30,000 107 21.7 30,00050,000 160 32.4 50,00070,000 84 17.0 Over 70,000 126 25.5 No answer 17 3.4 Total 494 100.0 Airline customer satisfaction and loyalty 299 1 3 that about two-thirds of the passengers in the sample are males. The majority of passengers in the sample are in the 3150 age group (63.6%), indicating that they are primarily business people with relatively high income. This is especially true for Korean passengers, considering the current Korean per capita GDP of $20,000. The most preferred food of passengers was Korean food as the data were collected from a Korean airline. As for the main destination, the ratio of the passengers using the North AmericaKorea route was similar to the ratio of the passengers using the EuropeKorea route. 4.2 Factor analysis and reliability analysis This study classied the collected data into prestige class and economy class because passengers age, level of income, and occupations are considered to inuence the evaluation of service quality. Prestige class passengers generally have higher income and are in managerial positions in their organizations, and also their age tends to be older than economy class passengers. Therefore, we can expect that prestige class passengers have much more experience in high quality food and beverages than economy class passengers, and as a result, they might evaluate in- ight meal service much more sensitively than economy class passengers. Thus, we performed factor analysis by separating the data into two groups. As shown in Table 2, the results were different between the two groups as expected. We drew six factors from the prestige class passengers and ve factors from the economy class, respectively. 4.2.1 Factor analysis and reliability analysisthe prestige class The results of factor and reliability analyses of the prestige class are shown in Tables 2 and 3 (six factors over Eigen value one). The sum of variances of these six factors was 69.4% of the total variance, and the variance rate of each factor was under 20%. We obtained discrimination validity because each factor had an exclusive concept. Convergence validity was also derived from the items which collectively explain each factor. The results of factor analysis measured correctly what we wanted to evaluate because it had both construct validity and convergence validity. We used the evaluation items of PZB (1988b) regarding intangible service Table 2 Result of factor analysisprestige class and economy class Prestige class Economy class Factors Alcoholic and non-alcoholic beverage Responsiveness and empathy Responsiveness and empathy Food quality Reliability Alcoholic beverage Assurance Non-alcoholic beverage Presentation style of food Reliability Food quality 300 M. An, Y. Noh 1 3 quality and we also applied items developed by specialists of airline companies regarding the quality of in-ight food and beverage service. Thus, contents validity is assured. These validities were also analyzed for the economy class data in the same way. In PZBs (1988b) ve factors, four are intangible service factors (i.e., reliability, responsiveness, assurance, and empathy). The result of factor analysis of the prestige class data was quite consistent with the result of PZB (1988b) research, because it showed three factors of responsiveness and empathy, reliability, and assurance. As for the quality of in-ight food, two factors were separately found presentation style of food such as amount, sanitation, shape, and temperature and food quality such as taste, freshness, and menu. This means that the prestige class passengers do not recognize food quality as one factor. They recognize differences between the presentation style of food and food quality, which is recognizable only after tasting the food. Another interesting nding was that evaluation items about alcoholic beverage and non-alcoholic beverage were grouped and derived as one quality factor. This means that for the prestige class passengers both alcoholic and non-alcoholic beverages are universally available in that seat class. Thus, they are grouped as one type of beverage. It can be conjectured that prestige class passengers think of alcoholic and non-alcoholic beverage as the same sort of beverage, since they have much experience in consuming both types of drinks. 4.2.2 Factor analysis and reliability analysisthe economy class As seen in Table 2, ve factors were derived from the economy class passenger data. As shown in Table 3, the sum of variances of ve factors constituted 69.1% of total variance and each factors variance was under 20% of the total variance except for only responsiveness and empathy (24.5%). These ve factors had discrimination validity because of their exclusive concepts and also had convergence validity. Accordingly, the evaluation items correctly measured what we intended to measure. Content validity about evaluation items was the same as explained in the analysis of the prestige class data. Table 3 Result of reliability test Prestige class Economy class Factor Eigen value Variance ratio Factor Eigen value Variance ratio Alcoholic beverage and non-alcoholic beverage 5.394 16.35 Responsiveness and empathy 8.096 24.53 Responsiveness and empathy 5.343 32.53 Food quality 4.272 37.47 Reliability 3.824 44.12 Alcoholic beverage 4.058 49.77 Assurance 2.974 53.13 Non-alcoholic beverage 3.261 59.65 Presentation style of food 2.748 61.46 Reliability 3.119 69.10 Food quality 2.611 69.37 Airline customer satisfaction and loyalty 301 1 3 From four intangible factors of service quality in the PZB (1988b) study, responsiveness, empathy, and assurance were grouped and derived as one factor except reliability which was derived as a different factor. It appeared that the economy class passengers were not as sensitive, in evaluating intangible services, as the prestige class passengers. This result is not consistent with the result of the PZB (1988b) study. In the case of food services, seven evaluation items resulted in one factor. This result is different from the result of factor analysis for the prestige class, which showed two separate factors of food service: presentation style of food and food quality. In addition, the items to evaluate alcoholic beverage and non-alcoholic beverage were separately derived as two different factors. 4.3 Regression analysis 4.3.1 Regression analysisthe prestige class Table 4 shows the results of regression analysis in which six factors derived from factor analysis were used as independent variables and customer satisfaction with in-ight meal service as the dependent variable. As shown in Table 4, the quality of alcoholic and non-alcoholic beverage considerably impacts the customer satisfac- tion. Food quality inuences customer satisfaction more than presentation style of food, a result which means that airline companies should focus on the improvement of general food quality such as taste, freshness, and menu. The result of regression analysis for customer loyalty is shown in Table 5. The factor of responsiveness and empathy signicantly impacts customer loyalty, a result which means that the empathetic services by ight attendants play a crucial role in choosing airline companies by the passengers. In addition, the prestige class passengers are thought to have more interest in alcoholic and non-alcoholic Table 4 Result of regression analysis for customer satisfactionthe prestige class Variables Coefcient of non- standard Coefcient of standard t Signicance Multi- collinearity B SE Beta Total VIP (Constant) 4.918E02 .068 .726 .470 Alcoholic beverage and non-alcoholic beverage .548 .068 .531 8.043 .000 1.000 1.000 Food quality .362 .068 .351 5.314 .000 1.000 1.000 Responsiveness and empathy .335 .068 .324 4.906 .470 1.000 1.000 Assurance .255 .068 .247 3.741 .000 1.000 1.000 Presentation style of food .242 .068 .234 3.552 .001 1.000 1.000 Reliability .202 .068 .196 2.969 .004 1.000 1.000 R 2 = .664 302 M. An, Y. Noh 1 3 beverage than just food. Table 6 shows the regression result for the relationship between customer satisfaction with in-ight service and customer loyalty. The relationship is signicant but relatively weak as indicated by the value of R 2 . 4.3.2 Regression analysisthe economy class Table 7 shows the result of regression analysis in which ve factors were used as independent variables and customer satisfaction as the dependent variable. Food quality had the most impact on customer satisfaction. Next to food quality, alcoholic beverage inuences customer satisfaction. The result of regression analysis for customer loyalty is shown in Table 8. The result shows that the inuence of food quality on customer loyalty is unexpectedly not greater than alcoholic beverage and intangible service quality. The economy class passengers seem to feel their loyalty to airline companies more based on empathetic services by air-ight attendants than in-ight services because they travel for long hours in the clamped condition. Table 9 presents the result of regression analysis for the relationship between customer satisfaction and loyalty. Again, customer satisfaction with in-ight service and customer loyalty are signicantly related but relatively weak as for the prestige class. Table 5 Result of regression analysis for customer loyaltythe prestige class Variables Coefcient of non- standard Coefcient of standard t Signicance Multi- collinearity B SE Beta Total VIP (Constant) 1.505E02 .077 .194 .846 Responsiveness and empathy .488 .078 .477 6.298 .000 1.000 1.000 Alcoholic beverage and non-alcoholic beverage .418 .077 .409 5.401 .000 1.000 1.000 Food quality .325 .078 .318 4.196 .000 1.000 1.000 Assurance .240 .077 .235 3.099 .033 1.000 1.000 R 2 = .552 Table 6 Result of regression analysis for the relationship between customer satisfaction and loyalty the prestige class Variables Coefcient of non-standard Coefcient of standard t Signicance Multi-collinearity B SE Beta Total VIP (Constant) -1.600E02 .080 -.200 .842 R 2 = .332 Satisfaction .558 .080 .576 7.014 .000 1.000 1.000 Airline customer satisfaction and loyalty 303 1 3 4.3.3 Implication of regression analysis The results of six regression analyses on the prestige and economy class data are presented below. (1) Prestige class As shown in Fig. 3, the direct inuence of in-ight service quality on customer loyalty is much greater than the indirect inuence through customer satisfaction. Table 7 Result of regression analysis for customer satisfactionthe economy class Variables Coefcient of non-standard Coefcient of standard t Signicance Multi- collinearity B SE Beta Total VIP (Constant) -3.771E03 .032 -.117 .907 Food quality .508 .033 .509 15.582 .000 1.000 1.000 Alcoholic beverage .476 .032 .485 14.850 .000 1.000 1.000 Responsiveness and empathy .419 .032 .424 12.996 .000 1.000 1.000 Non-alcoholic beverage .274 .032 .279 8.541 .000 1.000 1.000 Reliability .224 .032 .228 6.983 .000 1.000 1.000 R 2 = .804 Table 8 Result of regression analysis for customer loyaltythe economy class Variables Coefcient of non-standard Coefcient of standard t Signicance Multi- collinearity B SE Beta Total VIP (Constant) 2.729E-02 .062 .440 .660 Responsiveness and empathy .305 .062 .304 4.925 .000 1.000 1.000 Alcoholic beverage .282 .062 .281 4.548 .000 1.000 1.000 Reliability .235 .062 .234 3.794 .000 1.000 1.000 Food quality .203 .062 .201 3.258 .001 1.000 1.000 Non-alcoholic beverage .170 .062 .168 2.723 .007 1.000 1.000 R 2 = .291 Table 9 Result of regression analysis for the relationship between customer satisfaction and loyalty the economy class Variables Coefcient of non-standard Coefcient of standard t Signicance Multi-collinearity B SE Beta Total VIP (Constant) 2.294E02 .052 .442 .659 R 2 = .327 Satisfaction .567 .052 .571 10.854 .000 1.000 1.000 304 M. An, Y. Noh 1 3 (2) Economy class The inuence of in-ight service quality is very important to customer satisfaction but only meagerly related to customer loyalty. Also, the direct inuence level of in-ight service quality on customer loyalty is less important than the indirect inuence through customer satisfaction. Thus, the direct inuence of in- ight service quality on customer loyalty is more critical in the prestige class rather in the economy class. 5 Conclusion This study delineated six service quality factors (i.e., in-ight alcoholic beverage and non-alcoholic beverage, responsiveness and empathy, reliability, assurance, presentation style of food, and food quality) for the prestige class service, while the economy class shows ve quality factors (i.e., responsiveness and empathy, food quality, alcoholic beverage, non-alcoholic beverage, and reliability). Regression analyses also showed different results between the prestige class and economy class. These results indicate that the recognition of service quality is somewhat different according to the seat class, mostly due to the fact that the prestige class passengers have different demographical backgrounds from the economy class passengers. The main service quality factors which impact customer satisfaction and loyalty are also different between the prestige class and economy class. Generally, people with higher income and positions in their organizations tend to experience higher quality service and thus are more sensitive to the evaluation of service quality. This study showed that the recognition of service quality can be different among those with different income and professional status. Therefore, Fig. 3 Results of regression analysis Airline customer satisfaction and loyalty 305 1 3 airline companies need to differentiate their strategies for different type of customers. This study has limitations in terms of external validity because the data were collected from the passengers of only one airline company. It is very difcult to survey passengers of various airlines since a survey using a questionnaire is strictly forbidden in the aircraft according to internal regulations. It is even more difcult to collect data from the prestige class passengers. Despite this limitation, the results of the study can be generalized to a degree because the airline company whose passengers were surveyed has the market share of 65% in those routes in Korea. As presented in this study, in-ight service quality impacts customer loyalty in the prestige class more than in the economy class. Therefore, we can conjecture that the rst class passengers would also show different preferences from both the prestige and economy class passengers. Thus, further research is needed. 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