The impact of service intangibility on consumer service quality expectations

Research consistently demonstrates the strategic benefits of providing quality in service delivery (Tse and Wilton 1988; Anderson and Zeithaml 1984). However, to deliver a quality service, it is first necessary to determine the level of quality expectations that consumers have for a particular service industry. This paper examines whether quality expectations vary across services based on their degree of total intangibility. A controlled, repeated measures design is utilised, whereby subjects are each asked to evaluate three services that vary in their degree of intangibility. Contrary to past findings, results indicate that consumer expectations for service quality do not vary with the level of intangibility of the service.