An empirical investigation into consumer perceptions of combined product and service quality: The automobile

Despite the widely received notion that consumers purchase offerings composed of both tangible (product) and intangible (service) elements, empirical work on perceived quality has yet to incorporate both aspects into a holistic framework. This research broadens the scope of existing knowledge on consumer quality judgments by integrating perceived product and service quality into a holistic model, and empirically testing the model within a purchase-consumption setting having both product and service components.;Specifically, the perceived quality of a composite product/service offering is hypothesized to be a function of perceived product and service quality. Product quality is postulated to result from multiple product-related determinants (Garvin's dimensions), whereas service quality postulated to result from multiple service-related determinants (SERVQUAL's dimensions). Utilizing multi-attribute measures for each determinant, as well as multiple manifest indicators of perceived product, service, composite offering quality and behavioral intentions, a structural model incorporating all components and anticipated relationships was developed and tested using LISREL.;The composite offering of study was the automobile and associated dealership services. Data collection employed a direct mail survey, and a national sample of automobile purchasers, yielding 609 usable responses. Selected results revealed that Garvin's performance, reliability, conformance and image dimensions significantly affected perceived automobile quality; SERVQUAL's reliability, assurance and empathy dimensions significantly affected perceived dealership service quality; dealership service quality exhibited a stronger influence on perceived composite offering quality than did automobile product quality; and automobile product quality affected behavioral intentions indirectly through the intervening construct of composite offering quality, whereas dealership service quality showed both a direct and indirect relationship.;These results underscore the importance of service quality for even product-dominated consumer offering such as the automobile. Marketing practitioners can use the diagnostic information provided by this approach to critically evaluate their total market offerings in order to develop more effective marketing strategies. Beyond the integration of perceived product and service quality, this research enhances academic understanding by incorporating subjective disconfirmation in the measurement of SERVQUAL's attributes, and by developing one of the first comprehensive measures of perceived product quality, encompassing Garvin's generic dimensions, for a consumer durable.