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How do perceptions of the importance of service-quality determinants differ across key stakeholder groups in the Pakistan higher education sector

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thesis
posted on 2012-10-02, 15:29 authored by Asma Asrar-Qureshi
Quality is critical to organizations as it strongly influences organizational performance. It can be defined in various ways depending upon the organizational type, but it is generally easier to define the concept in a manufacturing setting. However, the concept of quality is much more difficult and complex to define in service sector, in which it is generally referred to as Service-Quality. In this study Service-Quality has been defined, operationalized and conceptualized as multi-dimensional construct based around the Service-Quality determinants approach derived from a number of existing Service-Quality models. As well as developing and utilising a novel, multi-dimensional conceptualisation of Service-Quality, incorporating thirteen distinct determinants, which have been explicitly tailored to the higher education context, this study also breaks new ground in a number of other ways. For example, whilst most prior studies are based upon the more common disconfirmation paradigm, this study argues that in a higher education the perception paradigm is more appropriate, and consequently the study adopts this less common perspective. This study is also unusual in that it explicitly adopts a multiple stakeholder perspective, which helps to deliver a more holistic picture of the determinants of Service-Quality. Finally, although there have been some prior studies of Service-Quality in an higher education, none have been found which explicitly focus upon the provision of MBA education, and none have focussed on the provision of Service-Quality in HE, from the perspective of the developing country. The study has used a mix of qualitative and quantitative approaches, to exploring and evaluating the perceptions of a variety of stakeholder groups. Based upon a thorough analysis of the qualitative and quantitative data-sets, it has been found that the three most important determinants of Service-Quality, in a business school context, are: curriculum and programme design, faculty profile and the teaching methods.

History

School

  • Business and Economics

Department

  • Business

Publisher

© Asma Asrar-Qureshi

Publication date

2012

Notes

A Master's Thesis. Submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the award of Master of Philosophy of Loughborough University.

Language

  • en