Investigating the Relationship Between Service Quality, Satisfaction and Switching Intentions

INVESTIGATING THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN SERVICEQUALITY, SATISFACTION AND SWITCHING INTENTIONS
Harvir S. Bansal, University of
New
Brunswick, CanadaShirley Taylor, Queen's University, Canada
ABSTRACT
Service Quality and service satisfaction has
been identified
aspotentially important
deter-
minants
of
service
switching.Consequently,
there have been calls
forresolving issues such
as establishing discriminant validity between
service quality and satisfaction and assessing
their causal ordering and interactive relation-
ships in predicting customer switching
inten-INTRODUCTION
Service satisfaction and service quality
have been identified as potentially
importantdeterminants
of
service
switching. However,
their
exactrole in influencing service
switchingis
not known.
For example, are service quality
and service satisfaction even
distinct
con-
structs?If
so,
how
do these factors influence
switching;
does service quality mediate satis-
faction'srelationship
with
switching
intentions
or vice versa? Do service satisfaction and
service quality interact in their influence on
switching
intentions? This paper reports on a
study conducted
to
determine the role
of
ser-
vice quality and satisfaction in predicting
service
switching
intentions. Data on
184
banking customers' evaluations
of
service
satisfaction, service quality and switching
intentions are used
to
examine the following:
( 1) Are service satisfaction and servicequality distinct constructs?
(2) What is the nature
ofcausal ordering
between service satisfaction and ser-
vice quality?
(3) What is the impact of service satis-
faction and service quality on switching
intentions and do they interact in their
impact?
This paper proceeds as follows: First, the key
constructs are defined and hypotheses formed
304
tions. The results
of
this study
indicated
that
service quality and
satisfaction
are indeed dis-
tinct
constructs
and
thatquality
is an antece-
dent
to
satisfaction. In addition,quality was
found
to
be
the
key driver
of
switching
inten-
tions. We also
found no evidence
of
an inter-
action between quality and satisfaction in theirinfluence on
switching
intentions.
regarding the 3 research questions. Then
theempirical
study
is outlined and
theresults pre-
sented. We end
with
a discussion
of
theresults.SERVICE SATISFACTION ANDSERVICE QUALITY
Constructs Defined: Consumer satisfaction
has been recognized as a key concept in mar-
keting
thought
and practice. The realization
of
it's
importance has led
to
a proliferation
of
research in order
to
understand this concept
(Vi
1990).
This has resulted in various definitions
of
consumer satisfaction being proposed in theliterature such as:"the summary psychological
state resulting when the emotion surrounding
disconfirmed expectations is coupled
with
the
consumer's prior feelings about the consump-
tion experience" (Oliver
1981,
p. 27); and"theconsumer's response
to
the evaluation
of
the
perceived discrepancy between prior expecta-
tions [or some other norm
of
performance] and
the actual performance
of
the product as per-
ceived after
it's consumption" (Tse and Wilton
1988,
p. 204). In general,
it
is accepted
thatthe most commonly recognized
view of
con-
sumer satisfaction is (Westbrook and Oliver
(1991, p. 84)):
Consumer satisfaction has been var-
iously defined in the literature, but the
conceptualization that appears to have
the greatest support is the view that
satisfaction is a postchoice evaluative