ABSTRACT
Aside from success stories and case studies there have been very few in-depth studies of TOC in service industries. This study assesses the dissemination of TOC principles into services and looks at benefits that services are reaping as a result. An instrument to explore the penetration of TOC principles into services without using a vocabulary specific to TOC is developed and validated. SERVQUAL is adapted to evaluate the impact of the TOC principles on the five dimensions of customer service quality--tangibles, reliability, responsiveness, assurance, and empathy.
Using responses solicited from a broad range of organizations, the use of the principles ...
<.0001
tangibles = 3.114 + 0.367 (THNKPROC)
Pr><.0001 1.0000
[y.sub.i] = Reliability
[R.sup.2] = 0.4617
F = 110.22 Pr><.0001
reliability = 2.232 + 0.436 (THNKPROC) + 0.179 (LOGISTIC)
Pr><.00012.685
[y.sub.i] = Responsiveness
[R.sup.2] = 0.4378
F = 100.07 Pr><.0001
responsiveness = 2.30672 + 0.48421 (THNKPROC) + 0.11948 (LOGISTIC)
Pr><.00012.685
LOGISTIC 0.119480.05701 2.10 0.03712.685
[y.sub.i] = Assurance
[R.sup.2] = 0.4464
F = 103.61 Pr><.0001
assurance = 2.79798 + 0.35687 (THNKPROC) + 0.18746 (LOGISTIC)
Pr><.0001 2.68461
LOGISTIC 0.187460.05148 3.64 0.0003 2.68461
[y.sub.i] = Empathy
[R.sup.2] = 0.4467
F = 111.56 Pr><.0001
empathy = 2.72448 + 0.41636 (THNKPROC) + 0.13816 (LOGISTIC)
Pr><.0001
PERFMEASn.s. n.s.
LOGISTIC 0.0003 0.0060
n.s. = not significant
TABLE VI. MULTIVARIATE SIMPLE
REGRESSION RESULTS
Independent Variable Pr><.0001
* Dependent Variable is the vector
of Customer Service Quality Dimensions
TABLE VII. MULTIVARIATE MULTIPLE
REGRESSION RESULTS
Variable *Pr>