RELATIONSHIPS AMONG SERVICE QUALITY, CUSTOMER SATISFACTION AND PROFITABILITY IN THE TAIWANESE BANKING INDUSTRY

Abstract

This study examines whether there are economic benefits to be gained from improving service quality in the Taiwanese banking industry. Service quality is perceived quality; and different from objective or actual quality; being a judgment usually made within a customer evoked set. Service quality resembles an attitude in many ways, and service quality is distinct from customer satisfaction. Traditional financial ratios are not appropriate for measuring the economic benefits of service quality improvement. The main single factor influence on business unit performance is goods and service quality. The author develops a framework for this paper based on service quality and profitability theoretical background. Relationships are also established among service quality, customer satisfaction, and profitability. The main conclusion of this study is that the performance scale developed in the SERVPERF model and customer satisfaction in the profitability model are confirmed in the Taiwanese banking industry. The author finds that perception quality is an antecedent of attitude, service quality is an antecedent of customer satisfaction, customer satisfaction directly affects purchase intention, and customer satisfaction is an antecedent of profitability. Finally, the author finds gap between customers and service providers and thus demonstrates that Profitability is positively affected by service quality improvement. 1. Introduction The banking industry is traditionally conservative because of its traditional management methods and legal restrictions. Because the quality of business activities is very high and price competition is easily imitated, non-price competition can reach Porter's (1980) differentiation of competitive superiority; moreover, non-price competition inevitably increases service quality and introduces new financial goods. Recent research has begun to voice suspicions regarding whether or not several of the concepts underlying quality control operationalization to improve customer satisfaction and company quality actually achieve their intended goals. Numerous set backs can occur in the guest to improve quality, causing many companies to ignore quality improvements. Consequently, limitations in the relationships among research quality, level of customer satisfaction, and banking achievements are demonstrated to be extremely important, and represented the most interesting research topics in this study. The previously mentioned research background generated two ideas for researching banking service quality. First, the assessment of banking industry achievements includes important points for scholastic and business research, but the assessment of the related management performance of both domestic and foreign banks has mainly been limited to an analysis of financial ratios, and has rarely focused on qualitative analysis of service characteristics. second, the popularity of the service quality in industry and management periodicals has gradually increased. However, questionnaires on service quality investigations merely examine the customer perspective, and generally overlook the perspectives of quality managers. Based on the research questions, this study sets several research goals: (1) This study examines the causal relationship model of service quality, customer satisfaction, and purchase intentions, which was developed by Cronin and Taylor (1992). (2) This study designs a model of the causal relations among customer satisfaction, market share, profitability, and investigates the relationships among the empirical evidence. (3) Utilizing gap theory, this study attempts to merge and discuss the causal relationships among service quality, customer satisfaction, and profitability. 2. Literature Review Previously, service quality was not been explicitly linked to profit. Zeithaml (2000) has found evidence about the influences of service quality on profits. Rust, Zahorik, and Keiningham (1995) provided a model of service quality improvement and profitability and the submodels, which together constitute the ROQ approach. …

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