Abstract
For many outsourcing service providers, the Deming circle often comes down to Plan, Do, Hope, and Forget. The service providers start planning, and delivering the service accordingly, but forget to check whether the delivered service actually meets the quality expectations. The reason that so many service providers stop after the first two phases can be attributed to the fact that it is difficult to measure the actual service quality that is delivered to the customer and to identify areas for improvement. This chapter aims to develop a model that addresses the estimation of IT service quality in an outsourcing relationship. Based on the SERVQUAL model and inspired by the intense debates on the correctness of the model, this chapter tries to combine the favorable characteristics of the SERVQUAL and derived models. By uniting the best aspects of every model, managers are given an instrument that delivers valuable information on the level of service quality that customers expect and how they perceive the delivered quality. If service providers use the tool that is presented in this chapter, they finally will be able change their Deming cycle into Plan, Do, Check, and Act.
Keywords
These keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.
“In God we trust; all others must bring data.”
W. Edwards Deming
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
References
Asubonteng, P., McCleary, K. J., and Swan, J. E. (1996). SERVQUAL revisited: a critical review of service quality. Journal of Services Marketing 10(6): 62–81.
Babakus, E., and Boller, G. W. (1992). An empirical assessment of the SERVQUAL scale. Journal of Business Research 24(3): 253–68.
Bon, J. V., Jong, A. D., Kolthof, A. et al. (2007). IT service management: an introduction. Norwich, NL: Van Haren Publishing.
Brown, S.R. (1986). Q technique and method: Principles and procedures. In W.D. Berry & M.S. Lewis-Beck (Eds), New tools for social scientists: Advances and applications in research methods (pp. 57–76). Beverly Hills, CA: Sage Publications.
Buttle, F. (1996). SERVQUAL: review, critique, research agenda. European Journal of Marketing 30(1): 8–32.
Chakrabarty, S., Whitten, D., and Green, K. (2007). Understanding service quality and relationship quality in IS outsourcing: Client orientation and promotion, project management effectiveness, and the task-technology-structure fit. Journal of Computer Information Systems 48(2): 1–15.
Cronin, J. J. and Taylor, S. A. (1992). Measuring service quality: A reexamination and extension. The Journal of Marketing 56(3): 55–68.
Croteau, A. and Bergeron, F. (2001). An information technology trilogy: business strategy, technological deployment and organizational performance. The Journal of Strategic Information Systems 10(2): 77–99.
Dyke, T. P. V., Leon A. Kappelman, and Prybutok, V. R. (1997). Measuring information systems service quality: Concerns on the use of the SERVQUAL questionnaire. MIS Quarterly 21(2):, 195–208.
Gewald, H. and Helbig, K. (2006). A governance model for managing outsourcing partnerships: A view from practice. In HICSS(2006).
Grönroos, C. (1984). A service quality model and its marketing implications. European Journal of Marketing 18(4): 36–44.
Grönroos, C. (2001). The perceived service quality concept – a mistake? Managing Service Quality 11(3): 150–2.
Henderson, J. C. and Venkatraman, H. (1999). Strategic alignment: Leveraging information technology for transforming organizations. IBM Journal of Research and Development 38(2/3): 472.
ITIL Definition: IT Service (v1, v2, v3). (2010). Retrieved June 4, 2010, from http://www.knowledgetransfer.net/dictionary/ITIL/en/IT_Service.htm.
ITU: Committed to connecting the world. (2010). International Telecommunication Union. Retrieved May 20, 2010, from http://www.itu.int/en/pages/default.aspx.
Jiang, J. J., Klein, G., and Carr, C. L. (2002). Measuring information system service quality: SERVQUAL from the other side. MIS Quarterly 26(2): 145–166.
Jiang, J. J., Klein, G., and Crampton, S. M. (2000). A note on SERVQUAL reliability and validity in information system service quality measurement. Decision Sciences 31(3): 725–44.
Johnston, R. (1995). The determinants of service quality: Satisfiers and dissatisfiers. International Journal of Service Industry Management 6(5): 53–71.
Kano, N., Seraku, N., Takahashi, F., and Tsuji, S. (1984). Attractive quality and must-be quality. The Journal of the Japanese Society for Quality Control 14(2), 39–48.
Kern, T. (1997). The gestalt of an information technology outsourcing relationship: an exploratory analysis. In Proceedings of the eighteenth international conference on information systems. (pp. 37–58).
Kettinger, W. J. and Lee, C. C. (1994). Perceived service quality and user satisfaction with the information services function. Decision Sciences 25(5–6), 737–66.
Kettinger, W. J., Park, S., and Smith, J. (2009). Understanding the consequences of information systems service quality on IS service reuse. Inf. Manage. 46(6): 335–41.
Kim, D. R., BeugrÉ, C. D., and Coverdale, T. K. (2003). Information systems outsourcing: exploration on the impact of outsourcing service providers’ service quality. Issues in Information Systems (IIS) 4(2): 528–34.
Ladhari, R. (2009). A review of twenty years of SERVQUAL research. International Journal of Quality and Service Sciences 1(2): 172–98.
Landrum, H., Prybutok, V., Zhang, X., & Peak, D. (2009). Measuring IS system service quality with SERVQUAL: Users’ perceptions of relative importance of the five SERVPERF dimensions. Informing Science: The International Journal of an Emerging Transdiscipline 12, 17–33.
Lewis, R. C. and Booms, B. H. (1983). The marketing aspects of service quality. Emerging Perspectives on Services Marketing. Chicago: American Marketing Association, 99–107.
Luk, S. T. K., and Layton, R. (2002). Perception gaps in customer expectations: Managers versus service providers and customers. The Service Industries Journal 22(2): 109.
Myerscough, M. (2002). Information systems quality assessment: REPLICATING Kettinger and Lees USISF/SERVQUAL combination. AMCIS 2002 Proceedings, 153.
OMB Circular A-11. (2010). Retrieved June 10, 2010, from http://www.whitehouse.gov/omb/circulars_a11_current_year_a11_toc/.
Parasuraman, A., Zeithaml, V. A., and Berry, L. L. (1988). SERVQUAL: A multiple-item scale for measuring consumer perceptions of service quality. Journal of Retailing 64(1): 12–40.
Parasuraman, A., Zeithaml, V. A., and Berry, L. L. (1985). A conceptual model of service quality and its implications for future research. The Journal of Marketing 49(4): 41–50.
Parasuraman, A., Zeithaml, V. A., and Berry, L. L. (1994). Alternative scales for measuring service quality: A comparative assessment based on psychometric and diagnostic criteria. Journal of Retailing 70(3): 201–30.
Pitt, L. F., Watson, R. T., and Kavan, C. B. (1995). Service quality: A measure of information systems effectiveness. MIS Quarterly 19(2): 173–187.
Roses, L. K., Hoppen, N., Ballaz, B., & Mello Freire, K. D. (n.d.). Quality evaluation in information systems outsourcing. In: AIM – Association Information and Management, 2006, Luxemburgo. 11th Conference of the Association Information and Management, 2006.
Shostack, G. L. (1977). Breaking free from product marketing. The Journal of Marketing 41(2): 73–80.
Song, H. M. and Wong, S. F. (2009). Understanding customer satisfaction in the IT outsourcing environment: A classification of quality attributes. Journal of Outsourcing and Organizational Information Management: 5–10.
World Internet Usage Statistics News and World Population Stats. (2010). Internet world stats. Retrieved May 28, 2010, from http://www.internetworldstats.com/stats.htm.
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Copyright information
© 2012 Jonathan Aarnouts
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Aarnouts, J. (2012). IT Service Quality in Outsourcing Relationships. In: Brinkkemper, S., Jansen, S. (eds) Collaboration in Outsourcing. Technology, Work and Globalization. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230362994_13
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230362994_13
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, London
Print ISBN: 978-1-349-34493-2
Online ISBN: 978-0-230-36299-4
eBook Packages: Palgrave Business & Management CollectionBusiness and Management (R0)