Technology Readiness in the Quality-value-loyalty Chain

Today service providers need to mobilize all the internal energies in order to face the increasing competition and a changing market environment. Knowing the customer and the ability to provide flexible services has become crucial to building customer loyalty. With regard to technology-intensive services, Parasuraman [57] proposed that customer technology readiness (TR) has an impact on the perception of the market offering and thus has profound implications for the marketing practice of high-tech products. Focusing on employees of the semiconductor industry this study intends to investigate the following five proposals: (1) the relationship between TR and demographic traits. (2) the relationship between TR and service quality perceptions. (3) the relationship between TR and value perceptions. (4) the relationship between TR and customer loyalty. (5) the impact of TR in the quality-value-loyalty chain. Findings show that most of semiconductor industry employees are pioneers and skeptics. Pioneers place emphasis on price while explorers value quality. Education and gender are significantly related to Technology Readiness which, in turn, significantly impacts service quality and value perceptions as well as customer loyalty.