What can’t be ignored in service quality evaluation: Application contexts, tools and factors

Abstract

This  paper  locates  a  Relevant  Literary  Space  (RLS)  about  service  quality  evaluation,  between  2006  and  2011,  in  order  to  characterise  the  following:  service  typologies,  evaluation  approaches,  measurement  models,  reliability  indexes, scales, quantitative techniques, factors (or quality dimensions) and likely variables affected by them. For this we use a systematic literature review methodology, taking the Scopus database to browse the research papers. The procedure was carried out through the plan-do-check-act cycle. The findings show that the e-service is the most studied typology; the hybrid models are the most used as well as the 7-point Likert scale and Cronbach’s Coefficient Alpha (average value of 0.87). Also, the findings show that the majority of  the  research  community  applies  Structural  Equation  Modeling.  From  a  holistic interpretation, a general structure of service quality is proposed. This article offers findings about the application of reproducible methods, open-to-scrutiny, and free of inclusion/exclusion biases of studies.