Proceedings of 6th Annual American Business Research Conference
9 - 10 June 2014, Sheraton LaGuardia East Hotel, New York, USA, ISBN: 978-1-922069-52-8
Measurement of Service Quality GAP in the Selected Private
Universities/Institutes of Afghanistan Using SERVQUAL Model
Sajjad Ahmad Afridi and Roeen Rehmani
The aim of this research is to measure the service quality of higher education in
the selected private universities of Kabul Afghanistan using servqual model.
Quantitative approach has been used by distributing 205 questionnaires in three
selected universities of Kabul. The data was analyzed through SPSS and found
that the perceptions of students are lower than expectation. The mean of expected
service quality and perceived service quality found 4.3 and 3.3 respectively. The
difference between expectation and perception of service quality was around 0.97. The highest split mean found for “responsiveness” which was -1.1 and the
least split mean found for “assurance” -0.748.
Introduction
Background
There is no doubt that, Higher education plays an important role in enhancement of an individual's
quality of life. Literature shows that, college graduates have longer life spans, better access to health
care, better dietary and health practices, greater economic stability and security, more prestigious
employment and greater job satisfaction, less dependency on government assistance, greater
knowledge of government, greater community service and leadership, more volunteer work, more
self-confidence, and less criminal activity and imprisonment. In addition, college graduates
supposedly have greater use of seatbelts, more continuing education, greater Internet access,
greater attendance at live performances, greater participation in leisure and creative activities, more
book purchases, and higher voting rates.
Higher education in Afghanistan is playing a vital role in the community development. There are 124
higher education universities and institutions in Afghanistan out of which 30 are public and 94 are
private universities and institutions (Ministry of Higher Education Afghanistan). Higher education
universities and institutions are mostly offering Bachelor and now Master programs as well.
There is continues demand of skillful and competent human resource in different sectors of
Afghanistan. But the question is whether they are getting such education in the Country. For this
reason there is a need of a research to measure the quality of these educational institutions and give
recommendations on such basis. This research is to measure the service quality of higher education
while using SERVQUAL model (Parasuraman et al., (1985))
________________________________________________________________________________
Sajjad Ahmad Afridi, Assistant Professor, Business and Economics Department, Kardan University, Kabul, Afghanistan,
Cell no: 0093796197661/00923339993323, Email: mrafridi79@yahoo.com
Roeen Rehmani, Chancellor, Kardan University, Kabul Afghanistan, Email: chancellor@kardan.edu.af
Proceedings of 6th Annual American Business Research Conference
9 - 10 June 2014, Sheraton LaGuardia East Hotel, New York, USA, ISBN: 978-1-922069-52-8
Propose of the study:
The purpose of this study is:


To measure the service quality of private higher education universities and institutions in Afghanistan
To identify the Gap between students expectations and perceptions of service quality in private
universities/institutions
Research Problem:
Higher Education improves individual’s quality of life. There is demand of competent human resource in
different sectors of Afghanistan such as, Communication, infrastructure, banking, retail etc. But the question is
that whether the private universities and institutions are providing such quality education to meet the demands
and requirements of such industries. For this reason the researcher intentions are to measure the service quality
in higher education and identify the Gaps if any while using SERVQUAL model [Parasuraman et al., (1985)]
Significance of the study
Literature shows that there is a great deal of confusion in terms of the definition of quality in service oriented
industry. The best definition of the service quality based on literature is customer satisfaction. The quality that
is what customer expecting from the companies that is important. This study will identify the Gap of customer
expectation and perception and will give recommendation based on Gaps that would be very useful to the
owners of Higher education universities and institutions.
Literature Review:
This part of the study will review work done on the measurement of service quality. Literature shows a great
deal of confusion while defining quality in terms of services, as it is easy to measure the quality in terms of
tangible goods. Different authors define quality for services differently. The below literature will discuss some
of the well known definitions of service quality and then will discuss the empirical work done by well known
researchers.
Service Quality:
Service quality in such a challenging and competitive environment is very critical for organizational success.
Unlike product where quality can be measured against standards, service quality is measured against
performance. Customers determine the value of service quality in relation to available alternatives and their
particular needs. In general, problems in the determination of good service quality attributable to differences in
the expectations, perceptions and experiences regarding the encounter between the service provider and
consumers.
Customers form service expectations from many sources, such as past experiences, word of mouth, and
advertising. Customers compare the perceived service with the expected service. If the perceived service falls
below the expected service, customers are disappointed.
Proceedings of 6th Annual American Business Research Conference
9 - 10 June 2014, Sheraton LaGuardia East Hotel, New York, USA, ISBN: 978-1-922069-52-8
These gaps between customer’s expectations and perceptions are follows:
1.
2.
3.
4.
Gap between customer expectation and management perception
Gap between management perception and service quality perception
Gap between service quality specification and service delivery
Gap between service delivery and external communication
The American Society for Marketing, defines service as activities or benefits that are offered for sale, or that are
offered for being related to a particular product. Service is kind of performance that is offered by one party to
another and in corporeality is a must part of it (kotler&keller, 2006). Hakesver (2000) looked at service as a set
of economic activities that provide time, location form and psychological benefits. Beer (2003) defined service
as a set of characteristics and overall properties of the service which aim to satisfy the clients and meet their
needs. Mohamed & Shirley (2009) emphasized that banks have to care about the quality of their services since
this quality is considered the essence or core of strategic competition. Walfried, et. al. (2000) defined service as
a set of characteristics that meet the clients' needs, strengthen the links between the organization and them, and
enhance the clients' value as well.
Service is a product that consists of any activity, benefit or satisfaction that one party can offer to another for
sale. Services are essentially intangible and do not result in the ownership of anything (Kotler et al., 2005).
From the above literature one can conclude that there should be proper dimensions of service quality against
which service quality should be measured.
Parusaman et al (1985) determined five dimensions for the measurement of service quality. They indentified
these dimensions for Retail, Repair and maintenance, credit card and long distance telephone calls. The
dimensions identified by them are as follows:
1.
2.
3.
4.
Tangibles: include the physical evidence of the service
Reliability: involves the consistency and dependability of the service performance
Responsiveness: concerns the willingness or readiness of employees or professionals to provide service
Assurance: refers to the knowledge and competence of service providers and the ability to convey trust
and confidence
5. Empathy: refers to the service provider’s efforts to understand the customer’s needs and then to provide,
as best as possible.
Babakus and Mangold (1992) measured the service quality gap in hospitals. They used the modified form of
SERVQUAL (Parasuraman et al 1985). They used quantitative approach by designing questionnaire of 15 pair
of questions with 5 point likert scale. They found reliability coefficients for all five dimensions more than 0.5
Bagherzadeh and Bagherzadeh (2010) evaluated the service quality of higher education in Tabriz through
servqual model. He found that the higher education centers in Tabriz failed to deliver quality education as he
got negative signs for all the five dimensions of servqual model. He got the minimum gap for assurance and the
highest for empathy.
Proceedings of 6th Annual American Business Research Conference
9 - 10 June 2014, Sheraton LaGuardia East Hotel, New York, USA, ISBN: 978-1-922069-52-8
Arbuni et al. (2009) measured the service quality while using servqual model in Zanjan university of Medical
Sciences. They found negative signs for five dimensions. They found the highest gap for empathy and the least
for assurance.
Aghamolaie, Zare, and Abedini, (2007) measured the service quality in Hurmuzgan University of medical
sciences. Their results showed gap among all the five dimensions of servqual model. They found the highest in
responsiveness and least in reliability.
Ahmadi and Ghelichli (2006) in their study "designing the management model for educational services quality
in Payamenoor University" in which they evaluated the perceived quality service against the expected quality
service. They got gap of -0.7. Which shows that students expectations were higher than perceptions. Chau
(2006) did his study on “perception quality in higher education” and observed the highest gap in assurance
dimensions.
Kang and James (2004) used the SERVQUAL model in order to measure the service quality in cell phone
industry in South Korea. They used 464 users of two cellular companies of South Korea. Their result indicates
functional and technical quality influence the perceptions that related to the overall service quality.
Karassavidou (2009) evaluated the service quality in NSH (National Service Hospital) in Greek while using
SERVQUAL. He designed instrument of 26 pairs of questions both for expectation and perception and
distributed among 137 patients in six hospitals in Northern Greece. Factor analysis resulted in three extracted
factors. Alpha coefficient ranged from 0.785 to 0.996 and confirmed the reliability of all three dimensions. Gap
analysis was also performed to determine the degree to which the difference between expectations and
perceptions exist among patients surveyed.
Zabed Ahmad and Zahid Hussain Shoab (2009) measured the service quality in Library Sciences in one of the
state university of Bangladesh while using servqual model. They evaluated that the expectations were higher
than perceptions of students.
Lim and Tang (2000) used the same SERVQUAL model with two additional dimensions, “accessibility and
affordability”. They used the extended SERVQUAL model in order to measure the service quality gap of
patient expectation and perception in Singapore hospitals. They used 25 items paired questionnaire with 3
additional questions for the two extra dimensions. They found assurance and responsiveness to be the most
important dimensions of hospital services.
Manaf and Nooi (2009) used the SERVQUAL model to measure the patient satisfaction between service quality
expectations and perceptions in Malaysia’s hospitals. They conducted their survey on 570 outpatients and 646
inpatients and did factor analysis for both outpatients and inpatients. The result come up with two factors,
clinical and physical dimensions of service.
Oliveria and Ferreira’s (2008) measured the service quality at higher education institute in Brazil. They used
the same five dimensions SERVQUAL model. They designed instrument which consist of 19 questions. They
collected data from 38 students in the Production and Engineering department. They designed questions in two
parts; one for expectation and other for perception. They found negative signs for all the 19 items, which shows
Proceedings of 6th Annual American Business Research Conference
9 - 10 June 2014, Sheraton LaGuardia East Hotel, New York, USA, ISBN: 978-1-922069-52-8
that student expectations are higher in higher education in Brazil than perception. Bradley (2006) measured the
service quality of Chinese post graduate students and found the perceptions of students lower than expectations.
Arambewela and Hall (2006) evaluating the comparative analysis of the international education satisfaction
using Servqual model on the Chinese, Hindi, Indonesian and Thai post graduate students studying at five
Australian concluded that the priorities of each variable in different groups (based on their origin) was different.
According to their findings the most effective dimension was tangibility and the least one was empathy.
Taraneh Enayati et al; (2012) measured the service quality of Islamic Azad university of Mazandaran by using
original five dimensional SERQUAL model. 373 students were chosen through stratified random sampling.
They did their data analysis through paired sample t-test and Friedman’s test. Their findings showed a
significant gap between customer satisfaction and perception of service quality at Islamic Azad University.
Lisa Amelia et al (2011) used the SERVQUAL model to identify the service quality gap between expectation
and perception in universities they were engaged in IS/IT field. They designed questionnaire and distributed
among 200 students. They found that overall service quality offered by such universities is satisfactory, but they
still got some gaps in reliability and assurance.
Albuni et al (2009) measured the service quality gap in Zanjan University of Medical Sciences. Their result
showed that there was a gap in service quality in all aspect of SERQUAL dimensions.
Zavvar et al (2008) did the same study in Payamenoor University of Azarbaijan and their findings revealed that
students are not happy from the services provided by their higher education centers.
Zabed Ahmad and Zahid Hussain Shoab (2009) measured the service quality in library sciences in the state
university of Bangladesh. They used SERVQUAL model to identify the gap between expectation and
perception. Their findings showed that the services provided by stat university of Bangladesh were not
according to the expectation of students. They got significant gap between all aspects of service quality
dimensions.
Methodology:
Quantitative approach used to identify the gap by designing instrument for each dimension of SERVQUAL. 21
items questionnaire designed for all the five dimensions of SERVQUAL. That is 4 questions for tangibles, 5 for
reliability, 4 for responsiveness, 4 for assurance and 4 for empathy. 5 point Likert scale used to measure the
expectation and perception level of students.
The objective of the study is to measure the Gap between customer expectation and perception of service
quality. The quality gap is measured by the equation:
Proceedings of 6th Annual American Business Research Conference
9 - 10 June 2014, Sheraton LaGuardia East Hotel, New York, USA, ISBN: 978-1-922069-52-8
Quality = Perceived Quality – Expected Quality. [(Perasuraman et al; 1985) (Ford, Walker, and Churchill
1975)]
Questionnaire is designed in two sections; first 21 questions were regarding expectation of customer, in which
customers were asked about their expectation from the excellent private universities/institutions of Afghanistan.
Second part questions are regarding their perception of service quality of the university they had chosen.
Questionnaires were distributed among 205 students in the selected universities and institutions using
convenience non probability random sampling. Data was collected from 205 students of selected private
universities in Kabul, Afghanistan.
The instrument reliability was checked separately for Expected questionnaire and Perceived questionnaire
through SPSS and found the Cronbach’s alpha 0.853 and 0.880 respectively. Cronbach’s alpha is greater than
0.7, which shows good reliability of questionnaire
(1978, cited in Mostafa, 2007).
Table 1:
Reliability Test for both Expected and Perceived Service Quality Questionnaire
Expected Service Quality Reliability
Cronbach's Alpha
No of Items
0.853
21
Perceived Service Quality Reliabiity
Cronbach's Alpha
No of items
0.880
21
The collected data was then analyzed through SPSS. The researcher found the mean of expected quality and
perceived quality as 4.3207 and 3.373211 respectively. The mean for all five dimensions of servqual model is
given below.
Table 3:
The Expected and Perceived Quality Means
Expected Service quality
Dimensions
Tangibles
Reliability
Responsiveness
Assurance
Empathy
Expected Service
Quality Mean
Mean
4.315
4.43
4.179
4.358
4.3219
4.3207
Perceived Service Quality
Standard
No. of
Deviation Items
1.86529
205
2.68773
205
2.25309
205
2.00289
205
2.22290
205
Mean
3.429
3.36878
3.0695
3.60975
3.389
Perceived 3.373211
Service
Quality
Mean
Standard No. of
Deviation Items
2.55104
3.49019
2.96479
2.73188
2.94941
205
205
205
205
205
Proceedings of 6th Annual American Business Research Conference
9 - 10 June 2014, Sheraton LaGuardia East Hotel, New York, USA, ISBN: 978-1-922069-52-8
According to Ford, Walker, and Churchill 1975 and parasuraman 1985 they measured the quality gap by
subtracting expected quality from perceived quality, in this papers the researchers did the same.
Quality = Perceived Quality – Expected Quality [(Perasuraman et al; 1985) (Ford, Walker, and Churchill
1975)]
Quality = 3.373211 - 4.3207= - 0.974
Result shows that student’s expectations in higher education from private universities in Afghanistan are higher
than from the perceived quality of the universities they have chosen for their higher studies. The gaps in all the
dimensions are given below:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Tangibles = -0.886
Reliability = -1.06
Responsiveness = -1.1095
Assurance = -0.748
Empathy = - 0.9329
The highest gap identified in “Responsiveness” -1.1095 followed by “Reliability” -1.06. The least gap found in
Assurance which is -0.748 followed by tangibles -0.886.
The mean of perceived quality is 3.37211which is not bad. It seems that student’s satisfaction level from the
universities they have chosen for their higher studies is not bad.
Discussion:
This study was to examine the gap between service quality expectation and perception in higher education
sector of Afghanistan. Original SERVQUAL model used while doing it so, and questionnaire was designed for
five dimensions of servqual model that is tangibles, reliability, responsiveness, assurance and empathy. 205
questionnaires were distributed among students of 3 different private universities in Kabul, the capital city of
Afghanistan. The responses then analyzed through SPSS software. Finding shows gap among all the dimensions
of servqual model. It is found that the perceived quality is lower than student’s expectations. The gap measured
was -0.974. It is also found that the gap in responsiveness is very high and assurance got the least gap. History
shows the same trend, previous researchers also got the negative signs for all the five dimensions of servqual
model in higher education sector.
Zavvar et al. (2008), Aghamolaie et al. (2007), Ahmadi and Ghelichli (2006), Zabed Ahmad and Shoeb (2009),
Arambewela and Hall (2006), Bradley (2006) and Chau (2006) in which there existed a gap between samples‟
expectations and perceptions of the service quality. In this study, the lowest gap was seen in Assurance and the
highest was related to the Responsiveness while in the study by Bagherzadeh and Bagherzadeh (2010) and
Arbuni et al. (2009) the lowest and highest gaps were seen in assurance and empathy, respectively, and in the
Proceedings of 6th Annual American Business Research Conference
9 - 10 June 2014, Sheraton LaGuardia East Hotel, New York, USA, ISBN: 978-1-922069-52-8
study by Aghamolaie, Zare and Abedini (2007) the lowest and highest gaps values were seen in reliability and
responsiveness
This study and all previous studies in same respect got the negative signs which show the expectations are
higher than the perceived quality. Service sector such as university, they should identify the gap and work on
those areas which show highest gap. In this study the highest gap found in responsiveness. Responsiveness is
related to the performance of faculty and administrative members of the university. Universities should interact
with employees and educate them the importance of student’s satisfaction. They should provide them training
and development; they should encourage and motivate their employees by offering them rewards. Universities
should change their traditional approach of teaching; they should interact with students, and should record the
student’s complaints and settle disputes on time and in friendly environment.
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