The assessment of service quality effect in higher education sector on satisfaction, suggestion, and behavioral intention of university students: The case of Turkey

Abstract

The number of enterprises in the service sector is increasing with the time and the market for service sector is expanding. Universities as higher education institutions were affected by these developments in the service sector and have included providing quality service to their internal and external stakeholders as their top priority. Providing quality service in a university affects the satisfaction of students, who are among the most important stakeholders, their intention to suggest university to potential students and to visit after graduation. Hedperf scale was used to measure the service quality at universities and various institutions in different countries. The construct validity of the Hedperf scale was investigated according to the student perceptions at a university in Turkey and it was found with exploratory factor analysis (EFA) that service quality dimensions were classified into four dimensions - academic, non-academic, reputation, and access. Among these dimensions, the effect of academic, reputation and access dimensions on satisfaction, suggestion, and behavioral intention for visiting after graduation was determined, while the effect of non-academic dimension was not determined. Service quality dimensions explain approximately 31% of the variability in overall satisfaction. Access affects satisfaction at the level of β = .322, which is more than other dimensions. It was determined that the service quality dimensions explained 17% of the behavioral intention to “visit the university after graduation” and the effect of access (β = .264) among these dimensions was higher than the other dimensions. University service quality dimensions explain 23% of the intention for “suggest the university to potential students”, and it was determined that the reputation dimension has the strongest effect (β = .367). The research explores the link between service quality and satisfaction, suggestion, behavioral intention and determines the construct validity of the scale developed in a foreign culture. Received: 22 March 2022Accepted: 16 January 2023