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An Exploratory Study of the Variables which Impact Service Quality and Brand Trust Levels of Adults Shopping in Major Irish Supermarket Chains

Delaney, Niamh (2019) An Exploratory Study of the Variables which Impact Service Quality and Brand Trust Levels of Adults Shopping in Major Irish Supermarket Chains. Masters thesis, Dublin, National College of Ireland.

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Abstract

The purpose of this research is to conduct an exploratory study on the variables that impact service quality and brand trust levels in the five main Irish supermarket chains. Brand trust levels were measured both before and after the introduction of a hypothetical food scandal to assess the impact of this situation on the respondent. To this end, the following study determines the underlying demographic, socioeconomic and lifestyle factors of the respondent and investigates their baseline service quality and brand trust levels prior to the introduction of the scandal.

This paper adopts a cross-sectional research design and takes a quantitative approach, with an online questionnaire administered to 280 people, of which 269 were valid and/or complete responses. A snowball and convenience approach was taken to distribute the survey. Data analysis is performed using SPSS, with supermarket chain of choice shown as a driver of service quality and service quality a strong predictor of both initial and remeasured brand trust levels.

Univariate testing was first completed using non-parametric methods such as Krustal-Wallis, Mann-Whitney and Spearman’s correlation. All variables which showed differences between groups when compared against service quality and/or brand trust levels were then used to build the most parsimonious linear regression models to predict both service quality and brand trust levels (initial and remeasured). The findings provided strong predictive power between service quality and brand trust levels throughout Irish supermarkets and finds a weak statistical significance level between choice of supermarket and resultant service quality and/or brand trust levels.

This study adds to existing research on how service quality and brand trust are interlinked concepts which drive customer satisfaction and purchase re-intention within the supermarket chain of choice.

Item Type: Thesis (Masters)
Subjects: H Social Sciences > HF Commerce > Marketing > Consumer Behaviour
H Social Sciences > HF Commerce > Customer Service
H Social Sciences > HD Industries. Land use. Labor > Specific Industries > Retail Industry
Divisions: School of Business > Master of Business Administration
Depositing User: Caoimhe Ní Mhaicín
Date Deposited: 17 Oct 2019 13:34
Last Modified: 17 Oct 2019 13:34
URI: https://norma.ncirl.ie/id/eprint/3964

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