A Systematic Review of Measures on Service Quality in Sport

Background/Purpose: According to Asubonteng, McCleary and Swan (1996), the SERVQUAL was regarded as the first and most popular service quality measurement in general. However, the SERVQUAL was considered to be inadequate in specific industries. Consequently, numerous researchers in the sport and recreation discipline attempted to develop instruments to measure the service quality in their own fields.  Despite these increasing interests, there was no singularly accepted paradigm for organizing the literature in service quality measurement of sport. Thus, the purpose of this systematic review was to critically appraise and compare the most relevant and widely used instrument of assessing service quality of sport, leisure and recreation sectors (i.e., fitness centers, sport clubs, sport grounds, and etc.).

Method: Studies which were written in English and published in peer-reviewed journals were identified from a systematic search of the following computerized bibliographic databases: ABI/INFORM Global, Academic Search Premier, ERIC, ProQuest, PsycINFO and SPORTDiscus. The following keywords were adopted for all searches: “service quality” and (“sport” or “recreation” or “leisure”) and (“scale” or “measure”). For instance, studies which that reported on at least one or more measurement properties of service quality in sport were included. Data extraction was conducted by three independent reviewers with a standardized critical appraisal instrument (i.e. Service Quality for Sport Measures Rating Form). Any disagreements that arose between the reviewers were resolved through analytical discussions and consensus building.

Analysis/Results: From the 305 papers identified, several outcome measures met the inclusion criteria, such as OSQ, PESPERF, QIRS, QSEH, QSport, QUESC, SERVQUAL, SQAS, UPARQUAL, and etc. There was evidence on validity and reliability for the measures.

Conclusions: The results of this review provided researchers and practitioners with a compendium of information regarding the strengths, weaknesses and measurement properties of service quality for sport. This information was useful for identifying measurement instruments that need further validation and development.