Exploring Research Relationships - Essay Example

Running head: RELATIONSHIP Exploring Research Relationships ___________ ________________________ ________________ Exploring Research Relationships Introduction This paper has the primary objective to examine the various relationships that can be established amongst the various constructs and variables relevant to the research area of service quality in the entertainment industry and as identified from a comprehensive literature review of relevant works in this research topic. More specifically this paper aims to determine the kinds of relationships (e.g. causal vs. descriptive) among such identified constructs and variables that have received attention in other research papers. Particular attention has been devoted to those variables that impact the relationships to be studied in the extant research at hand which seeks to utilize the 1991 SERVQUAL instrument to measure service quality performance vis a vis customer service quality needs in the marketplace. The literature has been specifically reviewed to establish and identify internal and external validity issues relevant to the research topic. The paper ends with description of the nature of the relationships that would be finally assumed in subsequent dissertation on the research topic. The research at hand and identified Variables As has been stated in the introductory paragraph, this research utilizes the 1991 SERVQUAL instrument to measure service quality performance vis a vis customer service quality needs in the marketplace. The SERVQUAL instrument helps diagnose service quality problems (Berry, Zeithaml, & Parasuraman, 1990).See Bruner, James, & Hensel (2001) for an updated description of SERVQUAL. The data going through this instrument is expected to effectively answer the research questions by addressing both the null and alternative hypothesis statements, formed for the purpose. The more specific intent of this research is to establish a predictive relationship between SERVQUAL survey results and the success of a special event firm in any major city within the United States. The primary constructs identified are: reliability, responsiveness, assurance, empathy, tangibles, and business success. It is posited here that answers to the proposed research questions, will enable special event firms to ascertain if there is a positive relationship between their business successes and the service quality they proffer. This analysis can also help identify the negative gaps in service quality from expected levels as well as determine as to which SERVQUAL dimensions are critical in determining the level of success this type of company will experience in the marketplace. Parasuraman, Zeithaml & Berry (1985) illustratively explain the arrival of gap in service quality through the use of 10 dimensional model. The final research will benefit industry firms by providing revealing information on the linkage between service quality and business success in the entertainment industry. Relationships from Literature Review Axelrod (1991) describes in relation to referral marketing that a firm should be consistent in continuing its marketing. The firm should also not behave in an opportunistic manner in calling customers only when it intends to obtain referrals. This is defined under the important construct of integrity. Consistency in marketing is likely to be causally important for a special event firm as it is likely dissipate substantially expectations of service quality through advanced and structured information to the market. While temporal precedence viz that the cause happened before effect could be reckoned from one observational cycle and some kind of co variation of the cause and effect was also observed however, since the concept of consistency in marketing covered several underlying factors; the internal validity was not maintainable (Trochim, 2006).Hence it would be far better to consider this construct in descriptive form. Trochim(2006) also confirms the above view when he states that," in most applied social research that involves evaluating programs, temporal precedence is not a difficult criterion to meet because you administer the program before you measure effects. And, establishing covariation is relatively simple because you have some control over the program and can set things up so that you have some people who get it and some who don't (if X and if not X). Typically the most difficult criterion to meet is the third -- ruling out alternative explanations for the observed effect. That is why research design is such an important issue and why it is intimately linked to the idea of internal validity". Integrity, the manner in which it is defined above, can be included as part of consistency construct and can manifest in on and off customer calls away from special events. Two other important measurable variables suggested by this researcher are thank you letters as part of the variable correspondence with customers and testimonials from customers to prove and reinforce special events' success claims. These would have measurable causal relationships with service quality. Similarly Berry, Parasuraman, & Zeithaml (1994) have identified service design (mapping), surprising customers and teamwork as three of the ten lessons for improving service quality. These formed dimensions on their SERVQUAL model. These dimensions are apparently quite important for special event industry as well. While service design and mapping and teamwork can be descriptive; surprising customers can be a very interesting causal dimension in special event industry and can be measured with consumer response each time a surprise element is instilled in special event(s).It can meet all the three prerequisites of a causal relationship as well. Getz O'Neill, & Carlsen (2001) have described service mapping and illustrated it in the context of evaluating and improving service quality at special events.. However these short term operational tactics apart the special event firm must always keep on course for what Berry (1999) says ' sustaining long-term success'. Saget(2006) also says that," that event marketing is a strategic, dynamic discipline linked to a firm's business objectives and sales goals. The key, according to Saget, is a great BLT-Brand recognition, Lead generation, and Thought leadership.Clow(1992),however describes an important construct which has not only long term implications for a service provider but often survives the firm offering such services viz.expectations of customers.Clow says," that the location of the facility and tangible cues were found to be more important for the hedonistic-type services. In addition, hedonistic-type services tend to be more episodic in terms of the impact of the last service encounter upon consumer expectations" (Clow,1992).Thus these conceptual insights in consumer behaviour can be milestones for measuring consumer expectations which in turn can be descriptively linked to offered service quality. This dimension holds promise for special event entertainment firm too as this service is strictly hedonistic. More listing of attributes of successful special events (festivals) can be found in quite a few research papers, one such paper is that of Love and Crompton(1996).Pricing of a special event can be an important variable in determining service quality. However various researchers maintain that the object of the marketeer should be to so effectively pack and present the service offering with various attributes and client benefits that pricing subsides into background (e.g. Long, D. 1999). Thus while pricing is patently a measurable variable some intangible constructs have been suggested by O'Neill, Getz, & Carlsen (1999) when they state," Likewise, intangible aspects of an event such as the atmosphere, the uniqueness and other innate qualities of an event experience must also be managed and monitored to ensure ultimate visitor satisfaction". These can be very important constructs and can be utilized in validating the attained levels of consumer satisfaction past such special events and thus they can descriptively work as effective testimonials. At least quite a few of the constructs to be reckoned in the present research were bundled in one construct by Parasuraman (1987).This author states that," Successful services marketing must have good corporate culture. Service factors include customer orientation, creed, and consistency". Thus this enveloping construct could be identified as customer oriented corporate culture. It may be observed that almost all of the primary constructs identified for the research in hand viz. reliability, responsiveness, assurance, empathy, tangibles go on to define some kind of customer oriented corporate culture. It is considered preferable to examine the impacts of these constructs on a stand alone basis rather than lump them in one construct. Setthawiwat & Barth (2002) researched special events' role in promoting restaurants' sales by hypothesizing to increase consumer's purchase intention, propensity to spend, expectations of service quality and reduce perceived purchase risk for personal special events such as birthdays, anniversaries, etc., and general special events such as Thanksgiving, New Year's day, etc. All hypotheses were supported in the case of personal special events. In the case of general special events, only the increase in propensity to spend was supported. Subjects indicated that they were less likely to attend general special events, expectations of service quality were lower and purchase risk was higher. The effect of special event promotions on customer perceptions was similar to that of coupons. Of the above consumer's purchase intention and propensity to spend can be the other measurable variables in SERVQUAL.The data collected under these two variables can be used to validate overall service quality as well in terms of increasing consumer interest in the offering and in terms of actually propelling the consumer to go in for higher spends. The above shows that there can be several descriptive dimensions/constructs, considered in other research efforts which can improve the SERVQUAL model to better address the issue of special events business success prediction. References Berry, L. L., Zeithaml, V. A., & Parasuraman, A. (1990). Five imperatives for improving service quality. MIT Sloan Management Review, 44 (4). Bruner, G. C., James, K. E., & Hensel, P. J. (2001). Marketing scales handbook: A compilation of multi-item measures. Chicago: American Marketing Association. Parasuraman, A., Zeithaml, V. A., & Berry, L. L. (1985). A conceptual model of service quality and its implications for future research. Journal of Marketing, 49. Axelrod, M. (1991, November 18). Agent/broker: Referral marketing: You only get what you give. National Underwriter, 95(46), 7. Trochim ,William M.K.(2006). Establishing a Cause-Effect Relationship. Research Methods Knowledge Base. Berry, L. L., Parasuraman, A., & Zeithaml, V. A. (1994). Improving service quality in America: Lessons learned. The Academy of Management Executive, 8(2). Getz, D., O'Neill, M., & Carlsen, J. (2001). Service quality evaluation at events through service mapping. Journal of Travel Research, 39(4), 380-390. Berry, L. L. (1999). Discovering the soul of service: The nine drivers of sustainable business success. New York: The Free Press. Saget, A. (2006). Event marketing: Beyond logistics and planning. Chicago: Kaplan Publishing. Clow, K. E. (1992). Conceptual and empirical identification of the variables impacting the expectations consumers have of a service encounter. ProQuest, 53 (08), 2896. (PQ No. 744686191) Love, L. and Crompton, J. (1996), "A conceptualization of the relative roles of festival attributes in determining perceptions of overall festival quality", paper presented to the Research Symposium, annual conference of the International Festivals and Events Association (unpublished). Long, D. (1999). When The Price Is RightStick to It! Special Events Magazine. Retrieved August 10, 2006, from http://specialevents.com/mag/meetings_price_ri ght_stick/index.html. O'Neill, M., Getz, D., & Carlsen, J. (1999). Evaluation of service quality at events: The 1998 coca-cola masters surfing event at Margaret River, Western Australia. Managing Service Quality, 9(3), 158. Parasuraman, A. (1987). Customer-oriented corporate cultures are crucial to service marketing success. The Journal of Services Marketing, 1 (1). Setthawiwat, A., & Barth, J. E. (2002). The impact of special event promotions on full- service restaurant customers. Journal of Foodservice Business Research, 5(3), 37- 49. Read More