Economic Aspects of Quality of Service for Internet Based IT Services

Economic Aspects of Quality of Service for Internet Based IT Services

Jochen Wulf, Rüdiger Zarnekow
DOI: 10.4018/978-1-61692-889-6.ch014
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Abstract

In academic research there is a long ongoing and vital discussion on the evolution and design of technologies that enable the management and control of quality of service (QoS) for Internet based IT services. Whereas technological aspects have been extensively discussed, from an industry perspective, there is a strong need for a structured research on economic aspects of QoS. A clear understanding of IT service quality and its dependency on the quality of data transmission is a precondition for an effective design of future service distribution technologies. This work provides an overview on the state of the art in economic QoS research. It discusses economic aspects of QoS on four central economic dimensions: the product dimension, the customer interface dimension, the infrastructure dimension and the financial management dimension. Moreover, this article discusses future QoS prospects and challenges.
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The Influence Of Quality Of Service On It Service Quality

The quality of Internet based IT services can be assessed by comparing a user’s expectations and perceptions of the performance level for a range of service attributes (Parasuraman et al. 1985). The International Organization for Standardization states: The quality of something can be determined by comparing a set of inherent characteristics with a set of requirements […] A quality characteristic is tied to a requirement and is an inherent feature or property of a product, process, or system. (ISO 2005) A requirement is understood as an expectation or a need of a user. Various authors discuss the types of requirements which are to be taken into account in an IT service quality assessment (Liao and Cheung 2008, Liu and Arnett 2000, Zeithaml et al. 2000, Zeithaml et al. 2002). For instance Zeithaml et al. (2002) define the following attributes: information availability and content, usability, privacy/security, graphic style, and fulfillment. Such attributes represent the factors relevant to a user’s perception of a service.

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