What is Perceived Airport Service Quality

The European airport industry has experienced an extensive transformation over the last decade. Air traffic liberalization, airport privatization, and corporatization required airports to become more commercially focused. In response to competitive pressure to attract airlines and passengers, airports needed to take a genuine customer-centric approach to airport service quality. The advent of public Social Software Platforms (SSP), such as the online social network Facebook, provided airports with the opportunity to build a relationship with their passengers and leverage rich knowledge about passenger needs and requirements. The purpose of the chapter is to propose and test a theoretical framework on how the motivation of passengers to volunteer information on the corporate Facebook pages of airports can be increased. The framework draws on the “need-satisfier” approach of economist Max-Neef and insights from self-determination theory. Self-determination theory considers the satisfaction of socio-psychological human needs as motivator of behavior. Finally, the chapter suggests success factors for harnessing the Relationship Marketing potential of SSP.