Respond to two or more of your colleagues’

Croning and Taylor (1992) presented research on the role of service performance on customer satisfaction and purchase intent. The problem statement is that service quality is difficult to define and measure. The authors presented two purposes for their research. Firstly to show that the concept and metrics introduced in the service quality (SERVQUAL) theory is inadequate. Additionally, the authors examined how service quality, customer satisfaction, and purchase intent are related. The theoretical framework is the disconfirmation paradigm in service quality. Cronin and Taylor (1992) explained that service quality could be an attitude built over long-term perceptions of quality or as a transaction-specific metric of the service received. The research question is determining If a performance-based measure can be an alternative to the existing SERQUAL scale based on attitudes

The authors presented the following propositions in lieu Hypothesis

P1: An unweighted performance-based measure of service quality (unweighted SERVPERF) is more appropriate for measuring service quality.

P2: Customer satisfaction precedes service quality perceptions.

P3: Customer satisfaction  significantly influences Purchase intentions

P4: Perceived service quality significantly affects Purchase intentions

Levels of Alignment

There is partial alignment in the service component of my study and Cronin and Taylor’s (1992). Leveraging existing research is intended to reduce or eliminate the need to develop and validate new scales. The problem, purpose, and scope are based on the work on SERVPERF because the methodology is reliable and the scale has significant predictive value (Cronin & Taylor, 1994).

Recommendation for change

SERVPERF can be improved by including the product received along the service in the scale, because service is not the sole contributor to customer loyalty (Hsiao, Shu, & Yeh (2017). Therefore the theoretical framework is augmented to include metrics to represent SERVQUAL, the product received, and the relationship between the customer and the company’s personnel.  This expanded view of customer satisfaction is intended as a more inclusive representation of the factors that contribute to customer loyalty and repurchase intent (Hsiao et al., 2017).

References

Cronin, J. J., & Taylor, S. A. (1992). Measuring service quality: A reexamination and extension. Journal of Marketing, 56(3), 55-68. doi:10.2307/1252296

Laureate Education (Producer). (2016c). The purpose statement [Video file]. Baltimore, MD: Author.

Hsiao, B., Shu, L., & Yeh, T.C. (2017) Establishing a stable prediction model of loyal customers for repurchase behavior. Proceedings of the Pacific Asia Conference on Information Systems (PACIS) 2017. 68. Retrieved from: http://aisel.aisnet.org/pacis2017/68

Saunders, M. N. K., Lewis, P., & Thornhill, A. (2015). Research methods for business students (7th ed.). Essex, England: Pearson Education Limited.

Gregory

Professor and classmates,

Portugal-Pereira, Ferreira, Cunha, Szklo, Schaeffer, and Araujo (2018) analyzed the change in construction costs of worldwide commercial nuclear reactors from 1955 and 2016.  The authors compiled a database from existing government and private sources that contained cost and construction duration information and compared the results on a country-by-country basis, concluding that delays contribute to escalated construction costs.

· Problem Statement.  The problem addressed by the authors was the impact of schedule delays nuclear construction costs in the worldwide nuclear industry.

· Purpose Statement.  The purpose of the study was to evaluate overnight construction costs for worldwide commercial reactors from 1955 to 2016.

· Theoretical Framework.  Prospect theory is the framework utilized by the authors.

· Research Question.  The research question is what is the effect of time escalation, increasing safety measures, and regulatory procedures as main proxies of escalation of costs in the nuclear technology?

· Hypothesis.  The hypothesis proposed by the authors is that unlike other energy technologies, nuclear energy can actually lead to high overnight construction costs and longer lead-times given the uncertainty associated with tighten safety procedures and increasing complexity of last generation reactors.

The Portugal-Pereira et al. (2018) study is reflective of the requirements of the DBA rubric and shows alignment throughout (Laureate Education, 2016c).  Additionally, the evaluation of previous literature reflects an emphasis on pragmatic results as described by Saunders, Lewis, and Thornhill (2015), requiring further evaluation of the regulatory impact on cost, which is the focus of my proposed study.  My recommendation for improvement is a change in the theoretical framework from prospect theory to cumulative prospect theory (Tversky & Kahneman, 1992).  Cumulative prospect theory utilizes multiple risk inputs and takes into account the cumulative effect on the results, whereas prospect theory considers each input separately.

References

Laureate Education (Producer). (2016c). The purpose statement [Video file]. Baltimore, MD: Author. 

Portugal-Pereira, J., Ferreira, P., Cunha, J., Szklo, A., Schaeffer, R., & Araujo, M. (2018). Better late than never, but never late is better: Risk assessment of nuclear power construction projects. Energy Policy, 120, 158-166. doi:10.1016/j.enpol.2018.05.041

Saunders, M. N. K., Lewis, P., & Thornhill, A. (2015). Research methods for business students (7th ed.). Essex, England: Pearson Education Limited.

Tversky, A., & Kahneman, D. (1992). Advances in prospect theory: Cumulative representation of uncertainty. Journal of Risk & Uncertainty, 5, 297-323. doi:10.1007/BF00122574