Purpose -The concerns of service quality may differ from one country to another. It is therefore crucial to develop measures of service quality that are pertinent to the country and culture where the service is offered. This paper proposes developing a measure of service quality in the UAE and then testing this measure in UAE conventional and Islamic banks. Design/methodology/approach -The components of service quality were developed through a brainstorming and sorting exercise. Based on the results of this exercise, the authors developed a 30-item questionnaire comprising the five dimensions of SERVQUAL and two other dimensions called values and image. The questionnaire was distributed to customers of UAE conventional and Islamic banks in Dubai and Sharjah. Factor analysis of the responses resulted in four dimensions. The reliability and predictive validity of these dimensions were confirmed. Finally separate regression models were developed for conventional and Islamic banks. These models were analyzed and compared. Findings -Factor analysis resulted in four dimensions: personal skills, reliability, values, and image. Results of regression analysis revealed that all four dimensions were significant in determining service quality in conventional banks. Values and image were however the most important of these dimensions. On the other hand, only personal skill and values were significant in determining service quality in Islamic banks. Originality/value -This paper emphasizes the need to customize measures of service quality to different countries. This is particularly important for multi-national corporations. This paper also provides guidelines for bank managers in the UAE on which dimensions of service quality they should emphasize in order to retain their customers and attract new ones. This paper has important research implications on the relationship between national culture and service quality and on the service quality of Islamic banks.

Service quality is becoming more critical for banks to maintain their market shares. This paper develops a modified SERVQUAL for measuring service quality in the United Arab Emirates commercial banks. The instrument includes thirty items that belong to the five dimensions of SERVQUAL. The developed instrument was tested for reliability and validity and the results indicated that the instrument had only three dimensions. This paper also investigates the difference in significance between the instrument's dimensions. This is supposed to help managers focus their attention on the service quality dimension that matters most to customers.

Healthcare is a highly competitive global industry. People accept to travel to remote parts of the world in order to receive the service quality they hope for. Patients usually prefer to go to private hospitals, hoping to receive high service quality. On the other hand, healthcare organizations operating in the public sector are undergoing pressure from governments and the general public to improve quality and compete effectively with their counterparts in the private sector. This paper compares the service quality rendered by private and public hospitals. A questionnaire based on SERVQUAL is developed and tested for this purpose. This questionnaire is found to have five dimensions; namely, empathy, tangibles, reliability, administrative responsiveness and supporting skills. These dimensions, as well as overall service quality, are compared between private and public hospitals. Finally the implications of the results are highlighted for healthcare managers.

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PurposeThis paper investigates the relationship between transformational leadership and service quality in UAE hospitals. The paper first determined the level of satisfaction of patients with the service quality they received. The paper also analyzed how hospital employees perceived the dimensions of transformational and transactional leadership of their leaders. Finally, the relationship between the dimensions of service quality and those of transformational and transactional leadership was investigatedDesign/methodology/approachTwo questionnaires were administered. The first questionnaire addressed service quality using an adapted SERVQUAL. The second one addressed transformational and transactional leadership using the multi‐level leadership questionnaire. The first questionnaire was distributed to patients of six major UAE hospitals while the second one was distributed to employees of the same hospitals. Data were collected and analyzed using SPSS.FindingsThe paper found that UAE patients were generally satisfied with the service quality rendered by their hospitals. It however found that hospital employees had a low rating of their leaders in terms of the transformational leadership and contingent reward. Finally, service quality was found to be positively related to all dimension of transformational leadership and the transactional leadership dimension of contingent reward. The two dimensions of active exception and passive avoidant leadership were negatively related to service quality.Originality/valueThis paper bridged an important gap in the literature by addressing the relationship between service quality and transformational leadership. It provided important guidelines for managers on the dimensions of leadership that needed to be enhanced in order to improve service quality.