Applying the SERVQUAL model to describe the satisfaction of the Aviva Company’s employees in Dublin, Ireland, regarding to the canteen service quality in their workplace Dissertation submitted in Dublin Business School and Liverpool John Moore’s University of part fulfilment for the Master of Business Administration in Marketing degree Juan Carlos Marroquin Brandt Student number: 1784732 Supervisor: Mr David Hurley May, 2014 Declaration I declare that all the content and the effort put to develop this dissertation is entirely my own, except those sentences included in the text in inverted commas which have been referenced with their original source and can be found in the reference section at the end of this thesis. Furthermore, there is no part of this thesis that has been used previously for any other assignment or in support of any education qualification, either at Dublin Business School or any other institutions of learning. Additionally, this material was completely developed under the supervision and guidance of Mr David Hurley which is a Senior Marketing Lecturer at Dublin Business School, in Ireland. Signed: Juan Carlos Marroquin Brandt Date: 23/05/2014 2 Table of Contents List of Figures ....................................................................................................................... 6 List of Tables ......................................................................................................................... 7 Acknowledgement ............................................................................................................... 11 Abstract ............................................................................................................................... 12 Chapter 1: Introduction ..................................................................................................... 13 1.1 Introduction ............................................................................................................ 13 1.2 Research Background and its Academic Justification ........................................... 13 1.3 The Catering Industry, Customer Satisfaction and its Justification for the Research 14 1.4 Personal Justification on the Interest in the Subject of the Research ......................... 16 1.5 Organisation of the Dissertation ................................................................................. 17 1.5.1 Chapter 1: Introduction ........................................................................................ 17 1.5.2 Chapter 2: Literature Review ............................................................................... 17 1.5.3 Chapter 3: Research Methodology ....................................................................... 17 1.5.4 Chapter 4: Data Analysis and Findings ................................................................ 17 1.5.5 Chapter 5: Conclusions and Recommendations ................................................... 18 1.5.6 Chapter 6: Self Reflection on Own Learning ...................................................... 18 1.6 Scope and Limitations of the investigation ................................................................. 18 Chapter 2: Literature Review ........................................................................................... 20 2.1 Introduction ................................................................................................................. 20 2.2 The Concept of Service ............................................................................................... 20 2.3 The Concept of Quality ............................................................................................... 23 2.4 The Product Quality .................................................................................................... 25 2.5 Service Quality and customer satisfaction .................................................................. 27 2.6 The SERVQUAL Model ............................................................................................ 30 2.7 Customer Expectations ............................................................................................... 35 2.8 Customer Perceptions ................................................................................................. 36 2.9 The Relationship between the Catering Industry and Customer Satisfaction ............ 37 Chapter 3: Research Methodology ................................................................................... 39 3.1 Introduction ................................................................................................................. 39 3.2 Research problem definition ....................................................................................... 39 3 3.2.1 The research objectives ........................................................................................ 40 3.3 Proposed Methodology and its structure .................................................................... 42 3.3.1 The research philosophy layer.............................................................................. 43 3.3.2 The approaches layer ............................................................................................ 44 3.3.3 The strategies layer............................................................................................... 45 3.3.4 The choices layer .................................................................................................. 49 3.3.5 Time horizons layer .............................................................................................. 50 3.3.6 Secondary Research ............................................................................................. 51 3.3.7 Quantitative approach .......................................................................................... 51 3.3.8 Sample .................................................................................................................. 53 3.4 Ethics .......................................................................................................................... 53 3.5 Limitations .................................................................................................................. 54 Chapter 4: Data Analysis and Findings ............................................................................ 55 4.1 Introduction ................................................................................................................. 55 4.2 The Questionnaire of the Investigation ....................................................................... 55 4.3 Demographic Section .................................................................................................. 55 4.3.1 Gender .................................................................................................................. 55 4.3.2 Age ....................................................................................................................... 56 4.4 Expectations versus Perceptions ................................................................................. 56 4.4.1 Tangible Dimension ............................................................................................. 57 4.4.2 Reliability Dimension .......................................................................................... 61 4.4.3 Responsiveness Dimension .................................................................................. 66 4.4.4 Assurance Dimension ........................................................................................... 70 4.4.5 Empathy Dimension ............................................................................................. 74 4.4.6 Groceries Dimension ............................................................................................ 79 4.5 Descriptive Statistics Section for the Dimensions and their description .................... 81 Chapter 5: Conclusions and Recommendations .............................................................. 84 5.1 Introduction ................................................................................................................. 84 5.2 Research Question and Research Objectives .............................................................. 84 5.3 Recommendations ....................................................................................................... 90 Chapter 6: Self Reflection on Own Learning ................................................................... 92 4 6.1 Introduction ................................................................................................................. 92 6.2 Learning Style ............................................................................................................. 92 6.3 A Master of Business Administration ......................................................................... 94 6.4 The Dissertation Stage ................................................................................................ 95 6.5 A New Beginning ....................................................................................................... 97 References............................................................................................................................ 99 Appendices ........................................................................................................................ 108 5 List of Figures Figure 1: Measuring service quality using SERVQUAL ...................................................