A Service Quality Model Based on an Ideal Value Standard

The delivery of quality in goods and services has recently become a marketing priority. Marketers of services experience difficulty in understanding and controlling quality. Although a few academic researchers have attempted to define and model quality, serious conceptual and methodological difficulties remain. Argues for a formal value approach to service quality, modelling it as a satisfaction process incorporating an implicit matching of two value‐based constructs: ideal standard and experienced outcome. During this match a negative cognitive bias occurs. Therefore, only negative disconfirmation determines satisfaction. The proposed model was tested in three hotel service encounters in Sweden and found reasonable support.