| Service quality has become a predominant part of all advanced organizations' strategic plans. Increasing attention paid to service quality has resulted in more progress and profit for organizations. At the international marketing level, in a struggle for a share of world market, managers have to understand and know how to modify their operations for success in the various culture of other counties. This research focuses on the resulting expectation and perception of service quality in one culture versus another, looking at differences between American and Thai customers of the fast food industry in the respective countries. Specification, this research investigates the five dimensions of SERVQUAL and also examines the influence of demographics. The independent variables classify subjects by nationality (American and Thai), age groups, levels of income, and educational levels. The dependent variable is perceived service quality of American and Thai customers. The data collection involved customers of Pizza Hut in the USA and in Thailand using the SERVQUAL survey instrument. Two hundred nineteen American customers were selected at random from five Pizza Hut restaurants located within the State of Florida, and two hundred seventeen Thai customers were random from five Pizza Hut restaurants located within Bangkok, Thailand. The SERVQUAL survey instrument was translated from English into the Thai language and translated back to the English language, as modified by removing all negative wordings. This study used the Cronbach alpha coefficient to measure reliability and found a high reliability of both countries. Convergent validity was measured by factor analysis and found the same scale items supported the SERVQUAL's convergent validity.; This study found a difference in "Gap 5" of service quality between American and Thai customers and a difference when segmented by five dimensions. Except for the Tangibles and Assurance dimensions of Thai customers, this study also found a discrepancy between perceived and expected service quality on the part of American and Thai customers when segmented by five dimensions. The expectation and perception of service quality between American and Thai customers are also different when segmented by five dimensions. Except for the perception of the high level income group and graduate degree level, all demographic characteristics showed a significant difference in expectation and perception of service quality between American and Thai customers. This study supports the five dimensions and matches the same dimensional pattern of the SERVQUAL instrument when used in both countries. |
