An assessment of knowledge gap in service quality for air freight carriers

The moderate effect of analytics capabilities on the service quality

“…To the majority of the service companies, the concern with quality has become a fundamental factor to develop the business strategy, because it has great influence on the company's performance and it impacts positively customers' satisfaction (Akbar & Parvez, 2009;Bloemer & Kasper, 1995;Huang, Tseng, & Hsu, 2016;Johnston, 1995;Oliver, 1997;Orel & Kara, 2014;Prado & Marchetti, 1997;Spreng & Mackoy, 1996;Sureshchandar, Rajendran, & Anantharaman, 2002). Specifically to the service sector, delivering to the customer a service with superior quality has become a prerequisite to the success of this kind of business (Parasuraman et al, 1988), since, and unlike it happens with products, the perception of service quality occurs through the subjective analysis of who's consuming it, and not through specific physical characteristics that are easy to control, demanding, thus, an efficient structure of quality management, that enables the survival of the organization in its competitive market.…”

“…This gap exists when the manager has an inconsistent perception about what the customer really wants, and the reason of its existence is the lack of focus properly directed to the market (Ghobadian et al, 1994). Huang et al (2016) refer to this gap as the knowledge gap.…”

“…The second gap (Gap 2) is "the difference between the perceptions of the managers regarding the customers' expectations and the definition of the service quality specifications" (Parasuraman et al, 1985, p. 45). This occurs when the managers cannot specify the proper standards to the service, so that they are in accordance with the customers' expectations (Huang et al, 2016. According to Parasuraman et al (1985; there is often the knowledge of the expectations, but it lacks the means to meet them.…”

“…According to Parasuraman et al (1985; there is often the knowledge of the expectations, but it lacks the means to meet them. Huang et al (2016) refer to this gap as the design gap.…”

“…Parasuraman et al (1985) points out that, in their research, the managers acknowledged that the employees of a service company have a strong influence on the perceived quality and that it is not always possible to standardize the service delivered. Huang et al (2016) refer to this gap as the performance gap.…”