A BEHAVIORAL PROCESS MODEL OF CUSTOMER SERVICE EVALUATION BASED ON SUPPLIER-CUSTOMER DIFFERENCES IN PERCEPTION (LOGISTICS, PHYSICAL DISTRIBUTION, PERCEPTION, TRANSPORTATION, MARKETING)

Many of the contemporary techniques for customer service evaluation in the field of physical distribution are based on the measurement of customer perceptions of customer service requirements. The users of these techniques assume that there is a relationship between service perceptions and market response although adequate empirical support does not exist for such an assumption. In this dissertation, the relationship between customer service perceptions and market response is conceptualized and is empirically tested.; The theoretical structure tested in this research views supplier-customer differences in the perception of customer service as two independent variables: one related to the industry's typical service levels and the other related to the actual service levels provided by the supplier. The dependent variable is market response. The influence of the independent variables on the dependent variable is moderated by the customer's cognitive process of comparing the supplier's actual service levels against the industry's typical levels.; A unique feature of this research is that supplier-customer pairs (or dyads) are used as units of analysis, rather than aggregated groups of suppliers and customers. Responses were collected from 91 grocery manufacturerer-customer dyads using mail questionnaires.; After the purification of the measures to ensure unidimensionality, reliability, and validity, four research hypotheses were empirically tested by applying the causal modeling approach using the program LISREL VI.; The results of data analysis strongly support the conceptualized relationship between the customer's cognitive comparison process and market response. Higher customer perceptions of the supplier's actual service levels (measured against customer perceptions of the industry's typical levels) seem to result in more favorable market response.; The results of the analysis of the relationship between supplier-customer differences in the perception of customer service and market response are less conclusive. However, the results seem to indicate that higher supplier perceptions of the industry's typical service levels (measured against customer perceptions of the same) or higher customer perceptions of the supplier's actual service levels (measured against supplier perceptions of the same), lead to more favorable market response by an indirect influence on the dependent variable through the customer's cognitive process of comparison.