Evaluate the quality of ICT service provided by rural ICT offices using SERVQUAL model

Authors

  • Mohammad Sadegh Ebrahimi Assistant professor of rural development department, College of Agriculture, Isfahan University of Technology, Isfahan, Islamic Republic of IRAN
  • Fariba Farhadi Rural development department, College of Agriculture, Isfahan University of Technology, Isfahan, Islamic Republic of IRAN

Keywords:

Quality of service, rural ICT offices, SERVQUAL model

Abstract

Identify gaps in service quality can be the basis for planning, prioritize and make decisions about allocating resources. In rural ICT offices could be provided the various government services such as: telecommunications services, Post, Post Bank, and etc. Examining the gap between expectations and perceptions of quality of ICT service provided by rural ICT offices could be improved the quality of services. This study aims was conducted to evaluate the quality of ICT service provided by rural ICT offices using SERVQUAL model, field sampling from the perspective of the villagers. The statistical population of this study was the households villagers in rural areas that have the rural ICT offices (N= 4660). Using Cochran's formula the statistical sample was selected 188 people and the necessary data was collected through a questionnaire. The results of research showed that the services provided by rural ICT offices could be covered properly the expectations and perceptions villagers in five dimensions: physical, responsiveness, reliability, assurance and empathy. The maximum amount gaps were observed in physical (0.6), responsiveness (0.53), reliability (0.48), and empathy (0.29) and assurance (0.1) respectively. The results of research showed that the gaps between expectations and perceptions of the physical, responsiveness and reliability dimension were significant at 99% level. Also in empathy dimension the difference between expectations and perceptions was significant at the 95% level. While the results of research showed that was a not significant difference between expectations and perceptions in ensured dimension for service provided by rural ICT offices.

References

Akbaba, A., 2006. Measuring service quality in the hotel industry: A study in a business hotel in Turkey. Int. J. Hosp. Manag., Volume 25, Issue 2, Pages 170–192.

Saraei, S., Amini, A.M., 2012. A study of service quality in rural ICT renters of Iran by SERVQUAL, Telecommunications Policy 36 (2012) 571–578, URL: www.elsevier.com/locate/telpol.

Akhlaghi, E., Amini, S.h., Akhlaghi, H., 2012. Evaluating educational service quality in technical and vocationalcolleges using SERVQUAL model. Procedia – Soc. Behav. Sci., 46. 2012. 5285 – 5289.

Kang, H., Bradley, G., 2002. Measuring the performance of IT services:An assessment of SERVQUAL Measuring the performance of IT services: An assessment of SERVQUAL.

Rahaman, M., Rahman, A., Abdullah, M., 2011. Measuring Services Quality Using SERVQUAL Model:A Stady on PCBs(Private Commercial Banks) in Bangladesh Bus. Manag. Dynam., Vol.1, No.1, July 2011, pp.01-11.

Parasuraman, A., Zeithaml, V.A., Berry, L.L., 1988. SERVQUAL: a multiple-item scale for measuring consumer perceptions of service quality. J. Retail., 64 (1), 12–40.

Sekaran, U., 2000. Research Methods for Business: A Skill-building Approach. Wiley, New York, NY.

Frochot, I., Hughes, H., 2000. Histoqual: the development of a historic houses assessment scale. Tour. Manag., 21 (2000), 157–167.

Alibaygi, A., Karamidehkordi, M., Karamidehkordi, E., 2010. Effectiveness of Rural ICT Centers. A perspect. from west Iran Proced. Comp. Sci., 3 2011 1184–1188.

Alavion, S.J., Allahyarim, S., 2012. E-readiness of Rural ICT Offices for Rice e-marketing in Rasht Township, Iran Deloje prispelo 6. novembra 2011, sprejeto 28. marca 2012.

Aydemira, S.D., Gernib, C., 2011. Measuring Service Quality of Export Credit Agency in Turkey By Using Servqual. Proc. Soc. Behav. Sci., 24 (2011) 1663–1670.

Gita, H.M., Sulaiman, S.H.A., 2012. Measuring Service Quality of a Multi-Disciplinary Engineering Course Procedia. Soc. Behav. Sci., 56 ( 2012 ) 31 – 41

Enayati, T., Modanloo, Y., Behnamfar, R., Rezaei, A., 2013. Measuring Service Quality of Islamic Azad University of Mazandaran using SERVQUAL Mod. Iran. J. Manag. Stud., (IJMS) Vol.6, No.1, January 2013 pp: 99-116.

Published

2014-08-27

How to Cite

Sadegh Ebrahimi, M. ., & Farhadi, F. . (2014). Evaluate the quality of ICT service provided by rural ICT offices using SERVQUAL model. Scientific Journal of Crop Science, 3(8), 92-97. Retrieved from http://www.sjournals.com/index.php/sjcs/article/view/1200

Issue

Section

Articles