Transformational leadership and service quality in e-commerce businesses

Abstract

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to examine the transformational leadership and service quality in the businesses active in the field of e-commerce with the mediating role of trust and team performance. Design/methodology/approach Survey questionnaires were administered on a 384-subject sample of the employees of the teams working in electronic businesses in Iran. The structural equation modeling and partial least square techniques were used to analyze the data. Findings The results showed that transformational leadership has a positive impact on service quality and improves team performance. The effect of transformational leadership on the interpersonal trust and the trust on the team performance are also positive and significant. In summary, the improved performance also has a positive impact on service quality. Research limitations/implications The main limitation is the assessment by questionnaire because the questionnaires measure the attitudes of individuals, not the facts as they are, and the attitudes of individuals usually involve personal judgments and prejudices in the research. Also, examining the research model in different cultural domains may provide different results because of being influenced by different cultures. Hence, the authors recommend that the findings should be examined in other communities with different cultures. Originality/value Evaluating the impact of the transformational leadership on service quality (SERVPERF scale) by a survey of team trust and performance in e-business is an innovation in the influence assessment of these variables. The present research is considered applicable to the management science as new findings in organizational behavior studies and recognition of transformational leaders, as well as the positive impacts of the characteristics of them on individuals and followers.