Internal service quality and job satisfaction synergies for performance improvement: Some evidence from a B2B environment

Abstract

The aim of this article is to assess the performance of business units in a business-to-business (B2B) environment, by presenting a framework including tangible (hard) and intangible (soft) elements. The intangible part encapsulates internal service quality and job satisfaction, whereas the tangible part includes quantifiable elements. In this study, the dimensionality of the INTSERVQUAL instrument is tested in a B2B environment through Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA), and its ability to explain job satisfaction is explored with regression analysis, both in isolation and together with other tangible elements. An optimisation framework is then proposed, with respect to the satisfaction-internal-service quality-performance triad in a B2B environment, based on a two-phase data-envelopment analysis model. Interactive and physical quality, as extracted from INTSERVQUAL, assesses internal service quality (ISQ) sufficiently and appropriately in a B2B environment. In addition, the results suggest that internal customers job satisfaction, which depends on the soft (interactive and physical) ISQ dimensions, as well as the hard ISQ dimensions, succeeds in accounting for measurable effects on the outcomes (performance) of the businesses. Managers of service firms should focus on both soft and hard dimensions of internal service quality, as they influence job satisfaction and, as a consequence, business performance. Moreover, the benchmark method (DEA) provides useful information about the efficiency of the set of decision-making units. © 2011 Macmillan Publishers Ltd.