Dimensions of service quality in the virtual world: implications for extranets

The Internet has taken globalisation of the marketplace from hyperbole to present day reality. In this marketplace, information technology can be used to create and sustain competitive advantage. One such technology is the Extranet. Extranets are increasingly being used to add value in the virtual world through business-to-business information sharing and transaction handling. Yet there is limited research into perceptions of service quality when using Extranets. This paper relates the literature on service quality to the developing literature on Extranets. Five dimension of service quality from the physical world (Parasuraman, Zeithaml, and Berry, 1985) are applied to the virtual world of extranets. It is concluded that dimensions of quality in human-to-human interations may also apply to human-to-computer interactions, but that the factors which contribute to them may differ. MOTIVATION FOR THE STUDY In competitive environments organisations must take every opportunity to strengthen relationships with existing customers. Information technologies are increasingly being used for this purpose. As Abrahamson and Telford (1998) observe: Organisations which harness the powerful new benefits of information [technology] to establish intangibles, such as service quality, should enjoy an enhanced and sustainable competitive advantage. cited in Lloyd & Boyle (1998) p. 93 One information technology which is increasingly being used to improve customer service is the Extranet. Extranets are “permeable yet secure commerce enabled networks, which electronically link distributed organisations over the Internet in a private forum” (OneSoft, 1998). They are IP networks which allow a company to run web applications for customers, suppliers and trusted partners. They differ from e-commerce retailing in that they are open only to selected partners and tend to involve greater information sharing on the part of the host firm. Extranets first caught on in vertical industries and have been used to automate the supply chain (see Benjamin & Wigand, 1995). Strong use is expected in the near future from the finance and health industries (Shein & Neil, 1998). In New Zealand we see strong moves into Extranets by Government and quasigovernment agencies supplying information to producers and exporters. An early adopter was the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries (MAF) whose Extranet supplied complex and changing regulatory information to primary producers. Currently, there is little reported research dealing with the success of Extranet systems. This paper addresses this deficiency by reviewing the service quality literature and relating that literature to Extranet systems.