The purification, analysis and validation of a service quality scale

Abstract

The retail industry remains one of the largest sectors in the global economy. In South Africa, retailing is one of the toughest and the most competitive industries. In this study factor analysis were used during the pilot stage to examine the robustness of the factor structure of the quality variables. The variables were analysed using principal component analysis, initially u rotated and then through Varimax normalisation. The findings of this preliminary study do provide basic support for a three-factor structure for supermarket service quality in terms of reliability and validity. The reliability analysis, which followed the factor analysis reflected coefficient a values ranging from 0.85 to 0.90 indicating high internal consistency amongst variables within each dimension. In today's saturated retail markets, retailers' face increasing hurdles to attract and maintain customers.