Service Quality of E-Commerce for Global Consumers

3.2. Electronic-Commerce Service Quality

Practitioners and academics experience growing interest in the service sector’s operations and in service quality in particular. The service sector has become an important part of core business strategy. The service management literature of the 1990s (both marketing and operations) supports a view that excellent service and prescriptions for improving service quality is an important way to enhance customer satisfaction and loyalty leading to increased competitiveness and profitability, both in manufacturing and in service industries. Service is an act or combination of acts to assist others. It can be measured by performance. It is intangible and may or may not be associated with product transactions (Kotler, 1973). Therefore, service is characterized by the fact that it is intangible, simultaneous, and heterogeneous. Generally, service marketing defines service in three dimensions: Core service, Facilitating service, and Supporting or Supplementary service. The core service is the main reason for the company to be on the market. Facilitating service is mandatory for presenting the service accessible. Supporting or supplementary service is value adding component that is used to distinguish the service from the competitors’ offerings (Gronroos, 1990). Business service is under different labels like, business-to business service, professional service, and industrial service in the literature. It is a process for providing significant value-added benefits to the supply chain in a cost-effective way. At present, service like, pre-sale service, on-sale service, after-sale service, and delivery service, starts to play a crucial role in business and are considered a success factor for better performance (Davis et al., 1992).