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The purpose of this paper is to examine how job stress and the embodiment of the police culture influence levels of job satisfaction for two mid-sized law enforcement agencies in the Southeastern United States.

A survey was conducted of police officers from two mid-sized law enforcement agencies in the Southeastern United States. Ordinary least squares regression models were utilized to assess the impact of job stress and the embodiment of the police culture on job satisfaction.

Results indicated that officers with higher levels of job stress reported being less satisfied with their careers. Contrary to prior research, officers with a greater embodiment of the police culture were significantly less satisfied. Demographic variables were not statistically noteworthy; however, working on a rotating shift and having more years of service significantly decreased job satisfaction.

Survey data collected from two mid-sized police agencies in the Southeastern United States may not be generalizable to other areas or regions.

These findings provide practical insights for police agencies to address the operational strains of working in law enforcement and the cultural component embedded in this field. Based on these findings, there is a clear need to increase future work on the interplay between job satisfaction, job stress, and occupational culture.

This article presents an empirically induced “high-performance” “human resources (HR) bundle”, comprising six HR practices, for supporting lean service operations.

This was a multiple case study. A qualitative data set, including transcripts from 27 semistructured in-depth interviews with lean practitioners from across five service organizations that have adopted lean practices, was thematically analyzed to establish key HR practices on the road to lean maturity.

A “high-performance” HR bundle of three work practices and three employment practices emerged from the analysis. These practices typically mature implicitly rather than systematically to support organizations in successfully implementing lean service operations by resourcing the most suitable people for carefully defined roles, providing workers with extensive lean training opportunities, appraising workers' performances such that lean behaviours are recognized and rewarded and encouraging a participative teamworking culture.

This article uses cross-sectional data from five case studies to induce a “high-performance” “HR bundle” theoretical model and process. A larger number of case studies and/or longitudinal data would add credence.

Lean service managers should regard HR practices as integral to the lean maturation process and might usefully conceive of them as processes allowing for greater management control to achieve incremental improvements to lean service provision.

The article provides deeper understanding of the importance of HR practice for lean service organizations and offers practical suggestions for managing HR practices in this context.

In a pursuit of excellence, it is increasingly important to identify customer values and demands. Service quality has been identified as one such demand. The purpose of this paper is to develop the model for service quality in higher education.

The proposed model is based on a current conceptualization of service quality, which suggests that service quality is a multidimensional and hierarchical construct.

In the proposed model, service quality consists of two primary dimensions which are defined by several corresponding sub‐dimensions: program quality: curriculum, industry interaction, input quality, academic facilities; and quality of life: non‐academic processes, support facilities, campus and interaction quality.

The paper has value for the institutes seeking to improve the quality of services they provide.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the service quality and its relationship to customer satisfaction among the customers of conventional banks and Islamic banks. A modified SERVQUAL scale is utilized to ascertain the functional dimensions of service quality specific to the industry and service context under study. In addition, the study examines the differences in service quality satisfaction and its impact on the behavioral intentions of customers.

A field survey carried out with the help of a questionnaire constructed by using a modified SERVQUAL scale. Data were collected from 200 walk‐in customers conveniently drawn from three major conventional banks and three Islamic banks located in urban areas of Pakistan. Data were analyzed using the analytical hierarchy process to identify service quality and customer satisfaction‐related factors for Islamic and conventional banks.

By using factor analysis, 52 measurement items with a factor loading greater than (0.5) were identified to form five service quality dimensions namely empathy, service architecture, convenience service encounter, employee service criteria, customer focus and five customer satisfaction dimensions: responsiveness, competency, safe transaction, competitive services, knowledge for the overall banking industry explained 56 percent of the variance. Results from regression analysis of the relationship between multidimensional service quality dimensions and unidimensional customer satisfaction factors also validated the importance of service quality aspects for behavioral intentions (satisfaction, feelings) for customers from conventional banks and Islamic banks.

This study has practical significance for conventional and Islamic banking policy makers for understanding the behavioral intentions of their customers and using them for effectively positioning the service quality of their banks.

The purpose of this paper is to analyse how five price image dimensions influence shopping intentions for different store formats.

In total, 306 espondents evaluated three stores from a list of 18 retailers on a multiple‐item scale, resulting in 918 price‐image measurements. Based on these data, a covariance structure analysis in Mplus analyses the direct and indirect impact of five price image dimensions on shopping intentions. A multiple group analysis identifies differences in the effects between store formats.

The impact of image dimensions differs substantially between store formats. For discount stores, value for money is by far the most important image dimension. For supermarkets, price level and value are equally important, but price perceptibility and price processibility are also relevant. For organic food stores, value is most important, followed by price processibility and evaluation certainty. For the weekly market, price perceptibility plays a key role in explaining customers' shopping intentions.

The results carry several implications for retail pricing practice, as they indicate that retailers should not focus exclusively on price level competition. Depending on the store format, retailers should attach importance to the price image dimensions in varying degrees.

The study contributes to the literature by: advancing price‐image measurement; modelling direct effects on shopping intentions; analysing a number of different indirect effects in an integrated model; and taking the moderating effects of store format into account.

This research aims to examine the applicability of the Retail Service Quality Scale (RSQS) in retail stores in Kazakhstan, a country of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) that is in the transition stage from a controlled economy to a market economy. This research also attempts to identify the dimensions and sub‐dimensions that contribute to increasing the customer base.

A sample of 220 shoppers from department stores, discount stores, and supermarkets in Almaty city, Kazakhstan, was surveyed to examine the validity and reliability of the five dimensions (physical aspects, reliability, personal interaction, problem solving, and policy) and six sub‐dimensions (appearance, convenience, promises, doing‐it‐right, inspiring confidence and courteousness/helpfulness) of RSQS. The findings are cross‐validated hierarchically using confirmatory factor analysis (CFA). Step‐wise regression methods are used to identify the dimensions and sub‐dimensions contributing to increasing the customer base.

The research finds that the RSQS structure is a good fit in the Kazakhstan retail setting. The five dimensions and six sub‐dimensions together provide significant usefulness in measuring the quality of retail services. The research also finds that while all the dimensions and sub‐dimensions have a positive relationship, two dimensions (personal interaction, physical aspects) and one sub‐dimension (inspiring confidence) are strongly related to increasing the customer base through return customers and word of mouth from satisfied customers.

The present study does not distinguish applicability of the RSQS in the different formats of the retail store. Future research should examine the impact of the different retail formats in using the scale for measuring retail service quality.

Prospective and existing retail service providers who place a high priority on quality can use this instrument to track the high growth potential of the retail sector in CIS countries. It will help to measure their services and increase their customer base by targeting the appropriate dimensions and sub‐dimensions.

The authors believe that this research reveals new insights about the retail sector in the context of CIS countries. This research also has managerial and research implications for designing and formulating operations strategy in providing retail services for new markets.

The aim of this study is to demonstrate suitability of the continuous improvement framework and use of benchmarking method in the context of sports.

This study uses non‐financial performance measures that are indicative of performance and are closely related to the desired outcomes. Use of such measures seems necessary in the sports and appropriate in relation to professional sports organizations' recruiting, attendance, and profit maximizing objectives. Analyses of this study are based on data of National Basketball Association (NBA) games over three basketball seasons.

The results indicated significant correlation between attendance and winning percentages. Furthermore, the results suggest that a team can improve its winning percentages by changes in the roster that help it emulate superior teams. Comparing teams that advanced in a given season and reach the playoffs with those that did not, revealed the more important skill factors for success in the NBA. The results also indicated that some players' skills might be more critical for a given team in reaching the playoffs.

The results presented in this paper are influenced by the NBA's basketball rules. Because basketball rules are not the same for all leagues and such rules change over time, the findings are time‐specific and should be considered in that light. Additionally, the research design used in this study must be modified for other professional sports.

This paper provides an example for application of continuous improvement framework to professional sports.

The purpose of this paper is to develop and test a multi-level healthcare service quality (HSQ) model in Jakarta, Indonesia.

The research used a quantitative research method. Data were collected via a survey with questionnaire. The respondents are 154 patients of a healthcare institution in Jakarta, Indonesia.

The research result shows a multi-level HSQ model. The HSQ model consists of three primary dimensions, namely, healthcare service outcome, healthcare service interaction, and healthcare service environment. Healthcare service outcome has three subdimensions, i.e. waiting time, medicine, and effectiveness. Healthcare service interaction has three dimensions, namely, soft interaction, medical personnel expertise, and hard interaction. Healthcare service environment has two dimensions, which are equipment condition and ambient condition.

This research was only conducted in one healthcare institution in Jakarta, Indonesia. The data collection using convenience sampling method as well as the use of small sample size caused the limitation of the research results in representing across the customer of the healthcare institution. This study can be replicated with larger sample size and involving more healthcare institutions in order to examine the stability of the HSQ model.

Healthcare institution’s managers can use the HSQ model to monitor, measure, and improve their service quality.

There is a lack of research that develops and tests HSQ model based on multi-level approach in the context of developing country. This paper has fulfilled the gap.

The aims of this paper are to examine the antecedent and mediation effects of core, relational and tangible service quality on rapport and customers' overall satisfaction.

A survey has been conducted on 212 bank customers to validate the conceptual model. Structural equation modeling is used by AMOS for data analysis.

Results show that relational service qualities have significant antecedent and mediation impact on the rapport-satisfaction relationship. Core quality has only antecedent influence on rapport, whereas none of the relationships is found significant in the case of tangible service quality.

The study has been conducted on one single country and focused on one type of services – banking services. Therefore, future research endeavors may consider different countries as well as a variety of services.

Providing individual attention to each customer and understanding their specific need are the most important steps required from service employees for building successful rapport with customers. Keeping promises and offering flawless services are also more significant for customers than the tangible features of a bank. Management should consider these issues to develop effective rapport because it has a direct and strong effect on customers' overall satisfaction.

The paper reveals the importance of relational service quality for developing customer rapport and satisfaction. It also identifies the antecedent role of core service quality for rapport.