engleski

Students’ perceptions of service quality, satisfaction and word- of-mouth – scale adaptation and validation on the case of ICT and STEM students

Purpose – The purpose of this empirical research is to adapt and adopt a measurement tool, which will accurately assess students’ perceptions of Higher Education (HE) Service Quality (SQ), as well as the students’ overall satisfaction and their Word-of-Mouth (WoM) behaviour. The target groups are the Information Communication Technology (ICT) and Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) students. Methodology – The paper introduces the process of adaptation, adoption and psychometric validation of the proposed ICT & STEM SQ-SS-WoM measurement scale, consisting of four sections: Students’ Demography, Perceptions of SQ, and WoM intentions survey. After the initial test administration, followed by the pilot testing and scale purification, the quantitative data were collected from 214 ICT and STEM students. Statistical tests were applied in two stages, involving the scale's validity analysis, followed by the scale’s reliability and dimensionality. Findings and implications – The confirmatory factor analysis yielded 24 SQ items categorised under 5 factors, 4 SS items and 3 items measuring students’ positive WoM intentions, confirming all the scale’s psychometric characteristics except its discriminant validity. Limitations – Besides the unconfirmed discriminant validity, this student- focused study used a sample of 4 public ICT and STEM HE settings in Croatia and confined only students' perspective, thus the results obtained should be interpreted within its limitations. Originality – The results of the research suggest an acceptable model fit, thus proposing usability of the adapted measurement scale and contributing to the existing literature reporting the findings on SQ, SS and positive WoM intentions within the ICT and STEM HE context.

Higher Education ; Perceived Service Quality ; Scale Development ; Students’ Satisfaction ; Word-of-Mouth

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