The effect of service quality on customer satisfaction, loyalty, and happiness in five Asian countries

Abstract

This research investigates and validates the cross-national applicability of a service quality model in five Asian countries: China, Hong Kong, Japan, South Korea, and Singapore. The objectives of this research are to establish whether or not a service quality model can be conceptualized in the same way across Asian countries and to explore whether or not scores on the items can be meaningfully compared among the Asian countries. The findings show that overall service quality has a positive influence on customer satisfaction, which in turn leads to customer loyalty and customer happiness and that the general pattern of structural paths is valid in the five countries. Furthermore, the comparisons of paths show that most of them are not significantly different across the five countries. The results of this study reveal four key findings. First, customer well-being or happiness was driven by service quality. Second, customer loyalty was driven by service quality across the five Asian countries, demonstrating that the economic values of service quality could be applied to Asian countries just as they are in North American and European countries. Third, customer satisfaction was driven by service quality. Fourth, customer income increased the effect of service quality on customer happiness via customer satisfaction in China, Hong Kong, and South Korea.