An integrative approach to diagnosing service quality of public parks.

Purpose – Aims to examine the services and facilities provided by public parks revealing that the attributes corresponding to performance of service delivery involve the interaction between non‐human aspects of physical environment and emotional experience of users which differ from common human aspects of service quality. Also, a service quality programme without reference to other service providers can easily lead to misguided or counterproductive service improvement strategies.Design/methodology/approach – The present study suggests an integrative approach to diagnosing service quality of public parks that comprises an assessment of performance outcomes and desires to obtain a more comprehensive understanding of service quality and visitor satisfaction as regards frequent users and low users of public parks. Measures pertaining to this approach were examined by a survey of nine public parks in the county of Derbyshire in the UK.Findings – The results show the effect of individual attributes on visitor ...

[1]  Gilbert A. Churchill,et al.  An Investigation into the Determinants of Customer Satisfaction , 1982 .

[2]  Gilbert A. Churchill,et al.  Improving the measurement of service quality , 1993 .

[3]  A. Parasuraman,et al.  Alternative scales for measuring service quality: A comparative assessment based on psychometric and diagnostic criteria , 1994 .

[4]  W. Burch The ecology of metaphor - spacing regularities for humans and other primates in urban and wildland habitats. , 1981 .

[5]  Michael D. Reilly,et al.  Value-Percept Disparity: an Alternative to the Disconfirmation of Expectations Theory of Consumer Satisfaction , 1983 .

[6]  D. Prelec,et al.  Contrast Effects in Consumer Judgments : Changes in Mental Representations or in the Anchoring of Rating Scales ? , 2007 .

[7]  Emin Babakus,et al.  An empirical assessment of the SERVQUAL scale , 1992 .

[8]  A. Parasuraman,et al.  A Conceptual Model of Service Quality and Its Implications for Future Research , 1985 .

[9]  Youjae Yi A Critical review of consumer satisfaction , 1989 .

[10]  Shirley Taylor Waiting for Service: The Relationship between Delays and Evaluations of Service , 1994 .

[11]  Peter K. Mills,et al.  Clients as “Partial” Employees of Service Organizations: Role Development in Client Participation , 1986 .

[12]  Pamela Walker Laird,et al.  New and Improved: The Story of Mass Marketing in America , 1991 .

[13]  J. Vaske,et al.  Resource and activity substitutes for recreational salmon fishing in New Zealand. In: Proceedings - symposium on recreation choice behavior, Missoula, Montana, March 22-23, 1984. , 1985 .

[14]  Vikas Mittal,et al.  Attribute Performance and Customer Satisfaction Over Time: Evidence from Two Field Studies , 2001 .

[15]  V. Zeithaml,et al.  A Dynamic Process Model of Service Quality: From Expectations to Behavioral Intentions , 1993 .

[16]  Thomas A. Heberlein,et al.  Carrying Capacity in Recreation Settings , 1986 .

[17]  D. Williams Great expectations and the limits to satisfaction: a review of recreation and consumer satisfaction research. , 1989 .

[18]  Catharine Ward Thompson,et al.  Urban open space in the 21st century , 2002 .

[19]  Walfried M. Lassar,et al.  Why do customers switch? The dynamics of satisfaction versus loyalty , 1998 .

[20]  B. Shelby,et al.  Recreation substitutability: A research agenda , 1993 .

[21]  Gilbert A. Churchill A Paradigm for Developing Better Measures of Marketing Constructs , 1979 .

[22]  Bo Shelby,et al.  Temporal and Spatial Displacement: Evidence from A High-Use Reservoir and Alternate Sites , 2000 .

[23]  W. Burch Much ado about nothing—some reflections on the wider and wilder implications of social carrying capacity , 1984 .

[24]  F. Buttle SERVQUAL: review, critique, research agenda , 1996 .

[25]  Tom J. Brown Using norms to improve the interpretation of service quality measures , 1997 .

[26]  Steven A. Taylor,et al.  Measuring Service Quality: A Reexamination and Extension , 1992 .

[27]  Mary Jo Bitner,et al.  Servicescapes: The Impact of Physical Surroundings on Customers and Employees: , 1992 .

[28]  John B. Loomis Counting on Recreation Use Data: A Call for Long-Term Monitoring , 2000 .

[29]  D. Cole,et al.  Number of Encounters and Experience Quality in Grand Canyon Backcountry: Consistently Negative and Weak Relationships , 2001 .

[30]  B. Driver,et al.  The benefits of leisure. , 1991 .

[31]  An Experienced-Based Measure of Service Quality , 1993 .

[32]  Richard A. Spreng,et al.  A Reexamination of the Determinants of Consumer Satisfaction , 1996 .

[33]  P. Brown Quality in recreation experience. , 1989 .

[34]  John L. Crompton,et al.  An Empirical Investigation of the Relationships Between Service Quality, Satisfaction and Behavioral Intentions among Visitors to a Wildlife Refuge , 2002 .

[35]  Bo Shelby,et al.  Comparative analysis of crowding in multiple locations: Results from fifteen years of research , 1989 .

[36]  Jaishankar Ganesh,et al.  Understanding the Customer Base of Service Providers: An Examination of the Differences between Switchers and Stayers , 2000, Journal of Marketing.

[37]  J. Wagar Recreational Carrying Capacity Reconsidered , 1974 .

[38]  H. E. Tinsley,et al.  Park Usage, Social Milieu, and Psychosocial Benefits of Park Use Reported by Older Urban Park Users from Four Ethnic Groups , 2002 .

[39]  James H. Gramann,et al.  Ethnic factors and the use of public outdoor recreation areas: The case of Mexican Americans , 1993 .

[40]  John Haywood-Farmer,et al.  A Conceptual Model of Service Quality , 1988 .

[41]  J. Stanley,et al.  Educational and Psychological Measurement and Evaluation , 1972 .

[42]  J. Gutman A Means-End Chain Model Based on Consumer Categorization Processes , 1982 .

[43]  A. Parasuraman,et al.  SERVQUAL: A multiple-item scale for measuring consumer perceptions of service quality. , 1988 .

[44]  Eric J. Johnson,et al.  The adaptive decision maker , 1993 .

[45]  S. LaTour,et al.  Conceptual and Methodological Issues in Consumer Satisfaction Research , 1979 .

[46]  R. Oliver A Cognitive Model of the Antecedents and Consequences of Satisfaction Decisions , 1980 .

[47]  D. W. Schumann,et al.  Comparing Consumers' Recall of Prepurchase and Postpurchase Product Evaluation Experiences , 1994 .