An investigation into the impact of Chinese cultural values on service quality and the resultant implications for customer satisfaction : the Taiwanese experience

This primary aims of this study are three-fold: (i) to shed light on the influence of Chinese cultural values on expectations of service quality, (ii) to explore the determinants of service expectations, and (iii) to analyze the relationship between service quality, value for money, satisfaction, and behavioural outcomes. To accomplish these aims, the study utilizes a survey instrument and draws evidence from a sample of 524 customers of two types of restaurant in Taiwan: five star hotel chain restaurants and local chain restaurants. Overall, the findings pose a challenge to the marketing and service research scholars in terms of applicability of Western dominated cultural frameworks to study customer expectations of more specific cultural contexts. For example, the results offer no support for the relationship between gunaxi (personal relationship), and customer service expectations in the five-star hotel chain restaurants. Instead, the positive impact of mien-tzu (face-giving) on service expectation of tangible is significant. Findings also refute the significant relationship between perceived value for money and customers behavioral intentions. Or they disprove a positive relationship between perceived value for money and customer satisfaction in the local chain restaurants.

Overall, this study makes a contribution to the advancement of Asian management research by diverting its emphasis from primarily Western-dominated service management research context to the more unique context of the Asian region so as to explore and examine the peculiarities of Chinese cultural norms and values and its implications for customer expectations, perceptions, perceived value for money, and resultant behavioral outcomes, thereby modification of existing theoretical service quality models. The insights offered in this research suggest that academics, practicing managers, and policy makers need to acknowledge the importance of cultural norms and better understand the determinants underpinning a customer’s expectations towards service offerings into their conceptualizations and practices of managing services and their customer relationships.