Measuring service quality in city restaurant settings using
DINESERV scale
SUZANA MARKOVIC
Faculty of Tourism and Hospitality Management in Opatija
University of Rijeka
Primorska 42, pp. 97, 51415 Opatija
CROATIA
suzanam@fthm.hr http://www.fthm.uniri.hr
JELENA KOMSIC
Faculty of Tourism and Hospitality Management in Opatija
University of Rijeka
Primorska 42, pp. 97, 51415 Opatija
CROATIA
jelenak@fthm.hr http://www.fthm.uniri.hr
MIHAELA STIFANIC
Faculty of Tourism and Hospitality Management in Opatija
University of Rijeka
Primorska 42, pp. 97, 51415 Opatija
CROATIA
mihaela.stifanic@gmail.com http://www.fthm.uniri.hr
Abstract: -Many researchers invest a lot of effort to evaluate service quality in tourism and hospitality
industries using SERVQUAL scale, either in its original form or with modifications. The purpose of this study
is to empirically investigate service quality in Zagreb city restaurant settings, based on the DINESERV scale.
The questionnaire was designed in accordance with Stevens et al. (1995), and Andaleeb and Conway (2006).
The main goals are to assess restaurant customers’ expectations and perceptions and to identify the main
dimensions of perceived and expected city restaurant service quality. The model was tested on a sample of 12
restaurants in Zagreb (Croatia), resulting with 103 usable questionnaires on which statistical analysis was
performed. The empirical study shows that 21expectations scores are higher than perceptions scores, which
indicate a low level of service quality. As service quality is one of the key factors for achieving competitive
advantages in restaurants, this study would help managers to identify the strengths and weaknesses of service
quality in their businesses.
Key-Words: - service quality, SERVQUAL, DINESERV, statistical analysis, restaurant industry, Croatia
1 Introduction
Service quality is recognized as an important factor
leading to the successful business performance of
customer-focused firms. Considering the fact that
service quality leads to higher profitability [1] and
customer satisfaction [2], managers invest
tremendous effort to measure and improve the
service quality in their business.
As customers are more exposed to different types
of restaurant settings, they have developed a
complex set of attributes for selecting a restaurant
for their excellent dining experience.
Previous studies on customer expectation and
service quality perception in the food-service
industry have revealed certain important attributes,
such as price, food quality, value for money,
service, location, brand name, and image [3].
There is a variety of measurement tools and
techniques for assessing service quality. One of the
most popular and widely used is the SERVQUAL
Recent Advances in Business Management and Marketing ISBN: 978-960-474-306-3 176
instrument. In restaurant settings, service quality is
usually measured with an adapted version of
SERVUQL, called DINESERV (Stevens et al.
1995). A modified version of DINESERV is applied
in this study as well.
This study is divided into several sections. First,
a brief review of service quality measurement in
restaurant industry is provided. Next, the research
methodology used in this study is described,
followed by presentation and discussion of results.
Finally, the conclusion with main research findings,
limitations and suggestions for future researches are
described.
2 Literature Review
Service quality applied in a variety of service
industries represents an important issue to managers
and academic researchers. Service quality is more
difficult for the consumer to evaluate than product
quality because of the lack of tangible evidence
associated with services [4]. Therefore, a service
firm needs standardized, systematic and qualitative
measurement to assess its performance, because
service quality is an important measure for the
success of a firm.
Parasuraman, Zeithaml and Berry (1988)
developed the SERVQUAL instrument for
measuring service quality [5]. SERVQUAL is an
instrument for measuring the gap between the
service that consumers think should be provided and
what they think actually has been provided [6]. The
SERVQUAL instrument consists of 22 items that
measure consumers’ expectations and 22
corresponding items that measure consumers’
perception of the service they received, grouped in
five dimensions: tangibles, reliability,
responsiveness, assurance, and empathy.
Although the SERVQUAL instrument has been
widely used in measuring service quality,
researchers have suggested that it has limitations,
including issues relating to measuring time,
measuring scale and service quality dimensions [7].
In terms of restaurant studies, Bojanic and Rose
(1994) adapted the SERVQUAL instrument in a
chain restaurant with a diverse clientele and a varied
menu that included international items. Stevens,
Knutson and Patton (1995) created an instrument
called DINESERV to assess customers’ perceptions
of restaurant service quality. The instrument was
adapted from SERVQUAL and was proposed as a
reliable and relatively simple tool for determining
how customers view a restaurant’s quality [8]. The
original DINESERV instrument contained 40
service quality items, but the final version of
DINESERV contained 29 items, measured on a
seven-point scale. DINESERV items fall into five
service quality dimensions. Reliability was found to
be the most important dimension, followed by
tangibles, assurance, responsiveness, and empathy.
This hierarchy of dimensions is very similar to that
of SERVQUAL; the only difference is that tangibles
are in fourth place in Parasuraman et al.’s (1988)
SERVQUAL research [9].
Many studies within the restaurant industry,
using SERVQUAL, have been conducted: Saleh &
Ryan, 1991 [10]; Richard, Sundaram & Allaway,
1994 [11] ; Bojanic & Rosen, 1994 [12]; Lee &
Hing, 1995 [13]; Johns & Tyas, 1996 [14]; Stevens
et al., 1995 [15]; Fu & Parks, 2001 [16]; Andaleeb
& Conway’s, 2006 [17]; Markovic, Raspor, Segaric,
2009 [18]; Wu & Liang, 2009 [19]; Ryu & Han,
2010 [20]; Markovic, Raspor, Dorcic, 2011 [21].
3 Research Methodology
The main purpose of this study is to empirically
investigate service quality in Zagreb city restaurant
settings. The study examines the level of
perceptions and expectations regarding restaurant
service.
The study intended to answer three research
questions:
1. What is the level of customers’ expectations
regarding city restaurant service quality?
2. What is the level of customers’ perceptions
regarding city restaurant service quality?
3. What are the differences between perceived
and expected service quality in Zagreb city
restaurants?
In order to answer the research questions, the
following hypotheses were proposed:
H1: Reliability is the most important expected
service quality dimension in city restaurant settings.
H2: Reliability is the most important perceived
service quality dimension in city restaurant settings.
H3: There is a significant difference between
expected and perceived service quality in city
restaurants.
The level of expected and perceived service
quality was measured on the basis of 35 restaurant
attributes. The first 29 attributes were adapted from
the Stevens et al. (1995) study. These attributes
represent five dimensions: tangibles, reliability,
responsiveness, assurance, and empathy. The
remaining six attributes were selected from
Recent Advances in Business Management and Marketing ISBN: 978-960-474-306-3 177
Andaleeb and Conway’s (2006) research and
represent two dimensions, namely, price and
satisfaction. The level of agreement with given
statements was assessed using a seven-point Likerttype
scale, with anchors “strongly disagree” as 1
and “strongly agree” as 7.
The questionnaires were distributed in 12 city
restaurants in Zagreb (Croatia). Restaurants that
were included in the research represent different
types of cuisine, e.g., national and international,
Italian, Chinese, Greek, and Mexican. The research
was conducted only in those settings in which
managers agreed to participate in the study. Data
were collected during a four-week period in March
2013.
The restaurant’s staff helped to distribute and
collect the survey sheets from the participating
customers. A convenience sampling method was
utilized to collect data. Questionnaires were
distributed to the customers who were willing to
participate in the research, after their dining
experience (e.g. after they paid the bill). Data
analysis is based on 103 valid questionnaires. The
response rate was 34.3%.
Data were analyzed using the statistical package
SPSS 20.0. In order to meet the survey’s goals,
descriptive, bivariate (paired sample t-test)
statistical analyses were conducted.
Descriptive statistics was used to examine the
demographic profiles of the respondents and to
evaluate service quality expectations and
perceptions of restaurant customers. At this stage,
the first two research questions were answered. The
paired sample t-test was performed to determine the
significance of differences between perceived and
expected scores of service quality and to answer the
third research question.
4 Research results
Descriptive statistical analysis was run on
respondents’ demographic variables. The results are
shown in Table 1.
Table 1: Demographic characteristics of respondents (N=103)
Items Percentage Item Percentage
Gender Age
Male 42.7 16-25 37.9
Female 57.3 26-35 18.4
36-45 29.1
Level of education 46-55 13.6
Primary school 1.0 56-65 0.0
Secondary school 69.9 66 and above 1.0
College and university 23.3
MSc or PhD 5.8 Number of previous visits to the restaurant
Never 8.7
Country of residence Once 25.2
Croatia 100 Twice or more 66.0
Source: Authors
From the demographic characteristics it can be seen
that female respondents (57.3 per cent) slightly
outnumbered male restaurant customers. Most of the
respondents were a younger population with
secondary school or college and university level of
education. Fully 91.2 per cent