Current Issues and Conceptualizations of Service Quality in the Recreation Sport Industry

This study discusses current issues of service quality and proposes a conceptual model that is focused on consumers' perceptions of service quality toward organizations and services in the participant sport industry. The proposed model is based on the current conceptualization of service quality, which suggests that service quality is a multidimensional and hierarchical construct. In the proposed model, service quality consists of four primary dimensions which are defined by several corresponding subdimensions: (a) program quality range of program, operating time, and information, (b) interaction quality clientemployee interaction and inter-client interaction, (c) outcome quality physical change, valence, and sociability, and (d) environment quality ambient condition, design, and equipment. The hierarchical approach in the model allows researchers to integrate specific procedures and/or attributes of service delivery into primary dimensions of service quality. This study is designed to resolve the conceptual differences in service quality research and provide a comprehensive conceptual framework for sport management scholars and practitioners. Yong Jae Ko is an assistant professor in the sport management program at Washington State University. His area of interest is sport consumer behavior. Donna L. Pastore is a professor in the sport management program at The Ohio State University. Her areas of interest are identification of factors associated with the lack of females in intercollegiate coaching and administrative positions and development strategies to recruit and retain females in these positions, diversity management, and examination of current issues influencing and impacting intercollegiate athletics. "Leading scholars have become confident in their argument that providing quality service is not only the most important factor for customer satisfaction, hut it is the principal criterion that measures the competitiveness of a service organization." Current Issues and Conceptualizations of Service Quality in the Recreation Sport Industry As a society advances economically, matures culturally, and increases its knowledge base, the societal demands for quality service increase (Lakhe & Mohanty, 1995). Accordingly, the interest in 'service quality' has increased exponentially during the 1980s (Gronroos, 1990). Today, service quality is recognized as one of the most important topics in the field of service management and marketing, and the word quality has become a part of the everyday vocabulary of management (Gronroos, 1990). The increased interest in service quality has motivated many scholars to research the topic. As a result, leading scholars have become confident in their argument that providing quality service is not only the most important factor for customer satisfaction (Anderson, Fornell, & Lehmann, 1994; Berry, Parasuraman, & Zeithaml, 1994; Gronroos, 1990; Schneider & Bowen, 1995), but it is the principal criterion that measures the competitiveness of a service organization (Lengnick-Hall, 1996). Brady (1997) summarized the key outcomes of heightened levels of service quality as: (a) a higher than normal share of the market (Buzzell & Gale, 1987), (b) improved profitability relative to the competition (Anderson, et al., 1994; Gronroos, 1990), (c) consumer loyalty (Zeithaml, Berry, & Parasuraman, 1996), (d) the realization of a competitive price premium (Zeithaml et al., 1996), and (e) an increased probability of purchase (Zeithaml et al., 1996). Thus, marketers and managers now focus 158 Volume 13 • Number 2 • 2004 • Sport MarKetlng Quarterly on the process of service production and consumption as it governs consumer behavior in the service industry where services are produced and consumed simultaneously (Gronroos, 1992). Sport organizations face a new era of global competition. Within the saturated market of sport industries, the success of a sport organization may depend on the degree to which the organization can satisfy their customers with quality service. Within the sport industry, however, service quality was not recognized as a major area of research until the late 1980s (Crompton & Mackay, 1989; MacKay & Crompton, 1988). "The meaning of quality is a relative concept and can vary under different circumstances. Therefore, it is necessary to reanalyze the meaning of service quality in relation to the recreational sport industry." To date, the studies of service quality have focused on identifying dimensions of quality in fitness services, leisure and recreation services, and spectating sport services (see table 1). Although researchers have suggested several different factor structures, there is no general agreement as to the content of the dimensions. For example, although researchers emphasized the importance of facility and other elements of physical surrounding (e.g., equipment) in service delivery of recreational sport, the factors were included in different dimensions with different focus areas. Howat, Absher, Grilley, and Milne (1996) included facility and equipment as core services (program quality in this paper), while Papadimitrious and Karteroliotis (2000), and Ghelladurai and Ghang (2000) included them as separate dimensions with different terms, facility attraction/operation and context (facility, location, and equipment) respectively. In addition, it is apparent that there is a gap between the current conceptualizations of service quality in recreational sport/fitness programs and those from the general service marketing literature. For example, none of the literature in recreational sport discusses the actual outcome of service consumption, though it is included as an important area to be investigated in general marketing literature (Brady & Gronin Jr., 2001; Rust & Oliver, 1994). Therefore, the dimensions of service quality in the recreational sport industry need to be reexamined. In addition to the issue of factor structure, current service quality researchers suggest that service quality evaluation is a highly complex process that operates at several levels of abstraction. As such, the missing link of service quality research in our industry is a unifying conceptualization that reflects the multidimensional and hierarchical nature of service quality (Brady & Gronin, 2001; Garman, 1990; Dabholkar, Thorpe, & Rentz, 1996). The purpose of this paper is to present an integrated conceptual framework of service quality for the participant sport industry. This framework can provide a foundation for the development of instruments to measure and evaluate service quality of sport organizations. The intent of the proposed model is also to advance the knowledge base of service quality within the fields of sport management and marketing. Issues in Service Quality Research To date, the study of service quality has been conducted in various segments of the sport industry such as professional sport (McDonald, Sutton, & Milne, 1995; Milne & McDonald, 1999), fitness programs (Kim & Kim, 1995; Papadimitriou & Karteroliotis, 2000), and recreation and leisure (Grompton & Mackay, 1989; Grompton, MacKay, & Fesenmaier, 1991; Howat et al., 1996; MacKay & Grompton, 1988; Taylor, Sharland, Gronin, Jr., & BuUard, 1993; Wright, Duray, & Goodale, 1992). In general, the management of service quality is concerned with three distinct aspects: (1) designing the service product, (2) designing the service environment, and (3) delivering the service (Rust & Oliver, 1994). However, for the best conceptualization of service quality, researchers need to focus on (a) how the service quality construct is conceptualized (i.e., the meaning), (b) which factors determine the consumer's perception of service quality (i.e., determinant), and (c) how to measure the constructs (i.e., measurement means) (Brady, 1997; Ghelladurai 8c Ghang, 2000). The aforementioned areas warrant further investigation in order to improve the service quality research. Prior to presenting the proposed model of service quality, we first focus our discussion on the concept of service quality. This is then followed by a discussion of factors that have been identified in the literature to comprise service quality. Concept of Service Quality The basic concept of service quality needs clarification in order to develop a conceptual framework of service quality. Service quality has been defined in several ways. Bitner and Hubbert (1994) defined service quality as "the consumer's overall impression of the relative inferiority/superiority of the organization and its services" (p. 77). On the other hand, a more traditional definition of service quality is the comparison of consumer expectations with actual service performance (Berry, Parasuraman, & Zeithaml, 1988; Gronroos, 1984; Parasuraman, Zeithaml, & Berry, Volume 13 • Number 3 • 2004 • Sport Marheting Quarterly 159