Proceedings of 30th International Business Research Conference
20 - 22 April 2015, Flora Grand Hotel, Dubai, UAE, ISBN: 978-1-922069-74-0
The Role of Emotion, Behavior and SERVQUAL Scale
behind Customer’s Choice of Mobile Service Providers
Mohammed Ahmad Alsaggaf
The recent dramatic increase in the number of mobile users has driven
telecommunications companies to offer a variety of deals and promotions in order to
earn customer loyalty and gain a competitive advantage. This study provides
significant value to telecom companies that want to lead the industry by achieving a
competitive advantage and high market share. Through this study, marketers will be
able to identify the most important factors of service quality needed to maintain their
customers and gain customer loyalty. Therefore, the results will help decision makers
improve or modify their marketing strategies and services.
The main aim of this research is to develop a framework leading to better
understanding of the relationship between service quality and gaining loyal
customers by using the Saudi mobile operator market as an example. The objectives
were accomplished by seeking answers to the following questions: (1) Can merging
SERVQUAL dimensions with stimuli-organism-response (SOR) theory be used to
measure the quality of service delivered to mobile customers by mobile operators?
(2) What is the degree to which mobile customers are satisfied with the service they
receive? (3) Do perceived emotions and perceived service quality together explain
electronic word of mouth (EWOM) and switching intention better than service quality
alone?
A quantitative methodology is selected for this research on the relationships between
variables to be identified and quantified. Data will be collected through samples of
Saudi mobile and social network users. The targeted population sample for the paper
will be drawn mainly from university students in Saudi Arabia. There are three
reasons for the choice of users of both genders for this sample. The first aim is to
maximize the probability of a largely Saudi population. The second is to obtain
responses from the majority group of Saudi citizens that are emerging as consumers.
The third, and perhaps most important, reason is that this is a group of potential
users who are expected to use the available services to the maximum, which may
affect their choice of service provider.
Permission to gain access to students will be requested from the administrations of
the universities, and the students will be asked to fill out a questionnaire.
Approximately 1,000 responses are required. Primary and secondary data will be
collected. An online questionnaire designed in English and delivered by survey
software will be used to collect the primary quantitative data. SPSS Predictive
Analytics Software or equivalent will be used to analyze the collected data. Data
analysis will include validation, along with descriptive and inferential statistics, in
order to answer the research questions.
Conclusions are difficult to forecast at this early stage; however, this study seeks to
explain the relationship between service quality and loyalty via developing a
framework for integrating emotions, SERVQUAL dimensions and behavioral theory.
University students are of particular interest, as these individuals represent more than
half the population of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
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Mohammed Alsaggaf, PhD stundent, Business school, Brunel University, London, United Kingdom,
masagaf@hotmail.com