Dimensions for evaluating information systems service quality expectations of e-Commerce SMMEs

Abstract

With growing invesbnent in WWW technologies bye-Commerce businesses the measurement of Information Systems (IS) effectiveness in this area has become increasingly important over the last decade. As business users have become reliant on outsourced IS service providers for a wide range of services, the quality of service rendered by the latter is an important issue which impacts on IS effectiveness. Researchers have for many years recognised the importance of service quality as a measure of IS performance. Service quality measurement tools such as SERVQUAL from the marketing field, have been proven to be applicable to the IS domain. However, empirical studies in this regard are concentrated in the context of large, non- eCommerce organisations only. In South Africa, e-Commerce has been recognised as an important driver for growth in SMMEs. The literature suggests that IS service delivery to eCommerce businesses needs to be evaluated differently to that of traditional brick-and-mortar businesses. There is however a paucity of research regarding IS evaluation in e-Commerce environments, including that of the application of service quality principles. It is thus difficult for managers of IS service providers in this context to develop a complete picture of the effectiveness of the IS they deliver. Furthermore, because e-Commerce SMMEs are almost wholly reliant on these service providers for the supply of IS and support, their service expectations could be different from those in traditional businesses. The primary objective of this research was to investigate whether IS service quality criteria applied in large traditional businesses, are also applicable to SMME e-Commerce businesses. The applicability of a service quality measurement instrument, based on SERVQUAL, was tested in an ev Commerce SMME context. Specifically, this instrument measures the service quality expectations that e-Commerce SMMEs have of IS service providers. A SERVQUAL measurement scale from a recent MISQ paper was adapted and used to collect data concerning service quality expectations of e· Commerce SMMEs. Using a structured survey method, the research was delineated to e-Commerce enabled bed-and-breakfast and self-catering accommodation businesses in the Western Cape, South Africa. The research results indicate that, although SERVQUAL principles were applicable to the e-Commerce SMME context, the service quality dimensionality was different. There are four derived dimensions for service quality expectations of e-Commerce SMMEs in this research, viz., Credibility, Expertise, Availability and Supportiveness. A fifth dimension is the Tangibles dimension, which is retained from SERVQUAL. Furthermore the results indicate that the Credibility was the most important dimension in this research context, while the Tangibles dimension was the least important.