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Uncertainty Avoidance as a Moderator of the Relationship between Perceived Service Quality and Customer SatisfactionStanford University
California State University, Sacramento
University of Southern California The extent to which members of different cultures vary in their reactions to uncertainty can have a major impact on how perceived service quality affects customer satisfaction. This article addresses the issue of cultural differences in the context of business-to-business relationships. A study involving 303 Spanish, German, and Swedish business-to-business customers reveals that clients from cultures with a high degree of uncertainty avoidance were less satisfied than low-uncertainty avoidant clients when, as a result of a service defect, their service expectations were not met. In light of the tolerance zone concept, the finding suggests a narrower range of acceptable outcomes for high-uncertainty avoidance cultures. Important management implications of this study relate to service quality efforts, which should be explicitly designed to reflect intercultural differences in operations planning and training of service personnel.
Key Words: perceived service quality • customer satisfaction • cultural values • uncertainty avoidance • business-to-business
This version was published on August
1, 2008 Journal of Service Research, Vol. 11, No. 1,
63-73 (2008) This article has been cited by other articles:
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