ABSTRACT
The growth rate in the Malaysian telecommunication sector had been
affected badly over the last decade by economic crisis of the late
1990's. Thereafter, it was potential for exponential market growth
attracted new players to this business, which turns lead competition to
dramatically increases. Nowadays they are trying to attract customer by
offering aggressive price promotion. As competition is increasing among
the companies, it is necessary for them to know about the
consumers' perception about the price, promotion, product and the
other important factors that are playing a vital role to choose the
telecommunication service providers. This study aims to find out what
are critical factors those are playing an important role to select the
telecommunication service provider. Result provides a comprehensive
analysis of the important factors for playing an important role for the
customer to select the telecommunication service provider. The analysis
confirms the significant positive relationship of price, service
quality, product quality and availability, and promotional offer for
consumer perception. These factors are expected to have a great role
during the time to choose telecommunication service provider. In
conclusion, practitioners can be deriving a better understanding of the
activities that are being played a vital role for the consumer
perception.
Key words: Customer Perception, customer choice, telecom service
provider, Malaysia
1. INTRODUCTION
The advent of computer based communication technologies and
communication network have become and important factor in global
interaction. Telephone, for examples, provides the basic connection for
social interaction between individuals and the linkages both within and
among nations. Deutsch (1953) mentioned this as "a web of
nations". Today's the development of communication technology
ignores the global border and makes world "global village"
(McLuhan, 1964). This reform of the communication technology since been
expanded to include the transformation of the traditional voice telecom
network into an expanded and enhanced information infrastructure, which
is capable of communicating all forms of information content (Melody,
2003).
The telecommunication system has become the electronic
infrastructure for transmitting the all kinds of information, for
instant, voice, data, graphics, video, music. It is a rapidly growing
medium of communication all over the world. Since, currently
telecommunication sector is experiencing phenomenal global change with
the liberalization and privatization of the sector, which also opens the
competition (Beard and Hartmann, 1999). It opens the opportunities for
the consumers to enjoy the choice among the service providers. Now days,
due to the competition, the telecommunication service providers offers
innovative services as well as competitive prices also. The nature of
the competition today in the global telecommunications industry seems to
centre on market activities that aim at gaining competitive advantages
through strategic combinations of resources and presences in multiple
products and geographical areas (Chan-Olmsted and Jamison, 2001). The
success of telecommunication industry depends on the efforts and
investments. In a competitive market, service providers are expected to
compete on both price and quality of services and also it is necessary
for the service providers to meet the consumers' requirements and
expectations in price and service quality (Melody, 2001).
Conversely, telecommunication industry in Malaysia is the fastest
growing sector, especially the mobile market. This development has
become a catalyst for the growth of the nation's commercial and
industrial sectors. This telecommunication sector contributed much to
the nation's economic development. The growth rate in the use of
telecommunication facilities has increased tremendously, especially in
the increasing number of telephone subscribers. The number of telephones
for every 100 persons increased from 6.5 in 1985 to 12 in 1993
(Government Report, 1995). The fixed line penetration ratio had risen to
16.6 per 100 population and 21.0 per 100 populations respectively by
1995 and 2000 (Lee, 2001). Now Government of Malaysia plan to have a
telephony penetration rate of 50% for the whole country and 25% for the
rural areas by year 2020 (State of Hawaii Government, 2002). In the
Malaysian telecommunication background, competition can be seen as main
factor among the telecommunication service provider companies. Companies
like Sapura Digital Sdn. Bhd., Celcom and Mobikom Berhad have been seen
their company either being merged with bigger and more competitive
companies or gone bankruptcy. Only Telekom Malaysia Sdn. Bhd., with its
TM Touch services has managed to maintain its presence in the industry.
Today, there are three major companies namely Celcom, Digi and Maxis.
These three companies known as service providers cover the following
segments of the Malaysian telecommunication market traditional
telecommunications, IP services, Wireless and mobile markets and
technologies, broadband markets and technologies. They are also provided
mobile services with an increasing number of value added services such
as Short Message Service (SMS), Wireless Application Protocol,
subscription services, General Packet Radio Services, and Third
Generation. In the Malaysian telecommunication sector competition can be
seen as main factor among the major mobile telecommunication service
providers. To modernize and to increase telecommunications service
growth rate, a competitive element was introduced in stages. The first
step involved the incorporation of Telekom Malaysia in 1987 as a
government-owned company. Later, new companies were licensed to provide
certain services such as mobile cellular telephones, pagers, trunked
radio, two-way radio system and other value-added services (Government
Report, 1995).
The Malaysian population, which is our group of consumers in this
study, generally expects some information about the mobile
telecommunication service providers. Thus, it is important that a
company recognize the need, want and also the perception of their
consumers. As competition is increasing among the companies, it is
necessary for them to know about the consumers' perception about
the price, promotion, product, service quality and the other important
factors that are playing a vital role to choose the telecommunication
service providers. So, the major objective of this study is to examine
the factors that affecting the consumers' perception to choice
mobile telecommunication service, particularly in Malaysian context.
Malaysia has among the most modern telecommunications networks in the
region with fiber optic trunks in Peninsular Malaysia, satellite, VSAT
(Very Small Aperture Terminal) and ISDN (Integrated Subscriber Digital
Network) services. The digitization of the network is far advanced
covering about 80 percent of the transmission lines with over 96 percent
of the main lines connected to the digital exchanges (Sectoral Studies
Report, 1999). This physical and structural transformation has gone
through during the past fifteen years. The penetration rate of telephone
in Malaysia rose up 540 percent between 1985 and 2000 (Lee, 2001).
Particularly, privatization and liberalization of the sector helped to
reform and also increased the competition among the telecom service
providers. The market structure as well as the regulatory framework and
institutions for the telecommunications sector continue to evolve.
Especially, the mobile market; today's this market has become
extremely competitive and service providers are moving aggressively to
attract customer by offering some attractive promotions and services.
Therefore, in this situation, it is important to know the consumers
perception about the service providers. This study is trying to explore
consumer perception and their thinking about the mobile
telecommunication service providers and their services.
2. LITERATURE REVIEW
2.1 Service Quality
The telecommunication has been part of a larger class of
industries, public utilities, with similar technological, economic and
public service characteristics by tradition. According to Melody (2001)
public utilities is derived from the law in any country. Where the
demand for a good or service is considered a common necessity for the
public at large and the supply conditions are such that the public may
not be provided with reasonable service at reasonable prices.
Service is a form of attitude which is related to satisfaction and
also leads to consumer loyalty (Johnson and Sirikit, 2002) and future
purchase. In particular consumers prefer service quality when the price
and other cost elements are held constant (Boyer and Hult, 2005). It has
become a distinct and important aspect of the product and service
offering (Wal et al., 2002). According to Leisen and Vance (2001)
service quality helps to create the necessary competitive advantage by
being an effective differentiating factor. Service quality was initiated
in the 1980s as the worldwide trend when marketers realized that only a
quality product could not guaranteed to maintain competitive advantage
(Wal et al., 2002). Competitive advantage is a value-creating strategy,
simultaneously which is not implemented by any existing or potential
competitors (Barney, 1991). Moreover, according to them, a competitive
advantage also sustained when other companies are unable to duplicate
the benefits of this strategy.
Service quality is essential and important for a telecommunication
service provider company to ensure the quality service for establishing
and maintaining loyal and profitable customer (Zeithaml, 2000; Leisen
and Vance, 2001). Conversely, Johnson and Sirikit (2002) stated that
service delivery systems have the ability to allow managers of company
to identify the real customer feedback and satisfaction on their
telecommunication service. Since, quality reflects the customers'
expectations about a product or service. Lovelock (1996) stated that
this customer driven quality replaced the traditional marketing
philosophies which was based on products and process. Service quality is
different from the quality of goods. Since, services are intangible,
perishable, produced and consumed simultaneously and heterogeneous
(Zeithaml and Bitner, 2000). So, it is a major problem for the
telecommunication service providers, especially for the mobile
telecommunication service providers to deliver quality service
consistently. According to Wang and Lo (2002) in marketing and economics
quality often depends on the level of product attributes. They also
mentioned that there are two primary dimensions for quality in operation
management. At first, fitness of use, which refers to product or
services that is supposed to do and possess features to meet the
customer needs. Another one is reliability, which represents the product
that is free from deficiencies. Accordingly, it is important for a
company to understand how customers perceive their service quality.
Consequently, Rust and Oliver (1994) pointed out that companies need to
measure consumers' satisfaction with their products and services.
Generally, service and product quality is in the mind of the consumer.
So, it is necessary for the mobile telecommunication service provider to
talk with the consumers for measuring quality. Since, quality reflects
the extent to which a product or service meets or exceeds
consumers' expectations (Wal et al., 2002). Wang and Lo (2002)
studied on comprehensive integrated framework for service quality,
customer value, and customer satisfaction and behavior intentions of
customers in China's mobile phone sector. In this study, they
conceptualized factors with service quality as antecedents to
customers' overall evaluation of service quality rather than
dimensions or components of the construct. Herein, they found that the
competition between two mobile phone service providers is more intense
than ever. This competition is not only in network quality by a large
amount of investment in network extension and upgrading but also in
customer retention and acquisition by direct and indirect price
reduction.
H1: Service quality has a significant influence on consumer
perception regarding choice mobile telecommunication service provider.
2.2 Price
Price competition has become cutthroat in mobile telecommunication
industry. Trebing (2001) mentioned that are two sets of strategies for
pricing behavior. The first is limit entry pricing, which is used for
protection of the market position of the firm; second is the high access
charges for new entrants, and the third one is tie-in sales to write off
old plant or standard investment against captive customers. According to
him limit entry pricing involves setting low prices in highly elastic
markets to attract or retain large customers with monopolistic buying
power, while maintaining high prices in inelastic markets.
Price plays a vital role in telecommunication market especially for
the mobile telecommunication service providers (Kollmann, 2000).
It's included not only the purchase price but also the call and
rental charges. Generally, a price dominated mass market leads to
customers having more choice and the opportunity to compare the pricing
structures of different providers. Therefore, the company that will
offer lower charges, the more customers will commit themselves to the
telephone networks, so more call minutes will achieved. According to
Kollmann (2000) income from the number of call minutes determine the
basic commercial success for the network providers. He also added that
the success of the telecommunication sector in market place is depend on
continuing usage and pricing policies, which need to be considered on
several levels. That is right from the beginning when purchasing the
end-user set. Since, a common strategy for a company extending their
product or service is to differentiate their offerings vertically
(Draganska and Jain, 2003).
H2: Price has a significant influence on consumer perception
regarding choice mobile telecommunication service provider.
2.3 Product Quality and Availability
Consumer's perception of product quality is always an
important aspect of a purchasing decision and in market behavior. Since,
consumers regularly face the task of estimating product quality under
conditions of imperfect knowledge about the underlying attributes of the
various product offers with the aid of personal, self-perceived quality
criteria (Bedeian, 1971 adapted by Sjolander, 1992). According to
Sjolander (1992), the consumer behavior in modern market is different
from the theoretical case of consumer decision making in free markets.
Generally, free and competitive markets are composed of buyers and
sellers each of whom possesses: Perfect information about all possible
products and their respective utilities; A well defined and explicit set
of performances; The ability to determine optimal combination of various
products given their budget constraints; A knowledge of prices, which
does not affect the subjective wants or satisfactions of the consumer.
(Monroe and Petroshius, 1973 adapted by Sjolander, 1992).
In fact, it is necessary to define quality before it can be
measured. Although, there is no global definition of quality exists
(Sebastianelli and Tamimi, 2002). It can be defined in a variety of
ways. Yoon and Kijewski (1997) pointed out that quality can be
categorized into two perspectives. One is the marketer's
perspective, which is typically product-based or manufacturing-based and
another one is consumer's perspective, which is typically
user-based or value-based. Generally, product quality from the
marketer's perspective is associated with specific feature,
function or performance of a product. On the other hand, product quality
from the consumer's perspective is associated with the capacity of
a product to satisfy consumer needs (Archibald et al., 1983). According
to Lambert (1980) consumers often attribute quality to branded products
on the basis of price, brand reputation, store image, market share,
product features and country of manufacture. So, price is an indicator
to measure the product quality, which is based on the theory that
quality is a measure of the utility, or the want-satisfying capacity of
products (Sjolander, 1992). He also added that the more quality a
product possesses the more utility it contains, and the higher price it
will obtain in an open market exchange. That means similar products
offered to the market at different price, contain different amounts of
utility, and that there is a direct relationship between quality and
price. The actual price-quality relationship is a complex interaction
between price, brand name, store image, product features, and brand
awareness (Lambert, 1980; Gerstner, 1985).
Overall, the quality of a product is also related to the
availability of the product's main functional features on one hand
and the consumer's experience-in-use of the other auxiliary
features on the other hand (Yoon and Kijewski, 1997). A product's
main functional features are the sources of the primary benefits that
the consumers expect to obtain when purchasing a product. In general,
consumers' evaluations of a product's overall quality are
related to the availability of these features in comparison with the
competition (Lambert, 1980; Nowlis and Simonson, 1996). Hence, it is
necessary to talk to the consumers for measuring the quality. Since,
quality reflects the extent to which a product or service meets or
exceeds consumers' expectations (Wal et al. 2002). So, the success
of the telecommunication sector in market place is also depending on
product quality and availability.
H3: Product quality and availability has a significant influence on
consumer perception to choose mobile telecommunication service provider.
2.4 Promotion
Promotion is one of the medium which is used by organization to
communicate with consumers with respect to their product offerings
(Rowley, 1998). It is an important part for all companies, especially
when penetrating new markets and making more or new customers (Kotler et
al., 1999). They also mentioned that promotion is the activities that
communicate the product or services and its merits to target customers
and persuade them to buy. Generally, promotion is concerned with
ensuring that consumers are aware about the company/firm and its
products that the organization makes available to those consumers (Root,
1994). More specifically, the objectives of any promotional strategy
such as; increase sales; maintain or improve market share; create or
improve brand recognition; create a favorable climate for future sales;
inform and educate the market; create a competitive advantage, relative
to competitor's products or market position; improve promotional
efficiency (Rowley, 1998).
According to Alvarez and Casielles (2005) promotion is a set of
stimuli that are offered sporadically, and it reinforces publicity
actions to promote the purchasing of a certain product. Promotional
offer consists of several different objects to create a better sale
impact, for example, coupons, samples, premiums, contests,
point-of-purchase displays and frequent-buyer programs. Each of the
promotion techniques are intended to have a direct impact on buying
behavior and perception about the company or service providers. The
objectives of promotion will be reached to a greater extent when it is
done sporadically, when the consumer does not expect it. Promotional
action must be planned, organized, integrated into the
establishment's marketing plan.
H4: Promotion has a significant influence on consumer perception to
choose mobile telecommunication service provider.
3. METHODOLOGY
Since the purpose of the study is to know the consumers perception
to choice the mobile telecommunication service provider in Malaysia, a
self structure questionnaire was developed to collect data from the
consumers, whereby it has served as primary data to answer the research
questions and objectives. The survey questionnaire consists of 5
distinct sections, each of which contains questions pertaining different
parts of the study. Questionnaire was distributed utilizing a
convenience sampling from walk-in customers at market places,
educational institutions, and government and privet institutions. A
convenience sampling method is used to collect data in view of time and
cost constraints and because of large population of mobile
telecommunication services users in the country. Even though the
sampling method adopted in this study has limitations in terms of
generalisibility as compared to other method of sampling, it is assumed
that the sample represent the whole population of mobile
telecommunication services users in Malaysia. There is enough similarity
amongst the elements within the population to conclude that a few of the
elements which adequately represent the characteristics of the total
population (Page and Meyer, 2000). Primary data was collected randomly
from the consumers as a convenience sample from Kuala Lumpur, Gombak,
Cyberjaya, Purrajaya, Serdang, Subangjaya, Penang, Johor, Melaka,
Pahang, and Perlis. The survey was conducted mainly via face-to-face
customer survey. Apart from the ability to reach large number of
respondents and inexpensive way to conduct the survey, the survey
through e-mail also enabled to collect data. Respondents are asked to
assess items of different constructs such as factors viewed as
antecedents of service quality, price, and product quality in terms of
their perceptions based on five-point scales. The descriptors range from
strongly disagree, disagree, neither agree/nor disagree, agree and
strongly agree. This study collected data from existing customers who
had previously used mobile telecommunication services at least for one
day. Total 670-sample sizes are found to be valid for this study, of
which 615 questionnaires were received. Each of the response received
was screened for errors, incomplete and missing responses. Efforts were
also taken to contact the affected respondents through e-mail for
clarification and corrections, especially for missing or blanks
responses. However, those responses that had more than 25% of the
questions in the survey questionnaire that have been left unanswered or
incorrectly answered were discarded from data analysis. After the
screening process was carried out, only 583 responses were considered
complete and valid for data analysis. This represents a success rate of
94%, which is considered to be good in view of time and cost
constraints.
Factor analysis was performed to identify the salient attributes
that have impact on consumers' perception to evaluate the mobile
telecommunication service provider. Since, Factor analysis represents an
analytical process of transforming statistical data (as measurements)
into linear combinations of variables. It is a statistical method used
for combining a large number of data into a considerably smaller number
of factors with a minimum loss of information (Hair, et al., 1992). In
addition, Regression analysis is used to investigate the relationship
among the variables which influence the consumers' perception
choice regarding telecommunication service provider.
4. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
4.1 Reliability Coefficient
Reliability coefficient tested by using Cronbach's alpha (??)
analysis. Since, to measure the reliability for a set of two or more
construct Cronbach alpha is a commonly used method where alpha
coefficient values range between 0 and 1 with higher values indicating
higher reliability among the indicators (Hair, et al., 1992). Hence, 1
is the highest value that can be achieved (Table 1). According to
Cronbach alpha test the total scale of reliability for this study vary
from .9778 to .9974, indicating an overall higher reliability factor.
The reliability of this study is substantial, as the highest reliability
value that can be achieved is 1.0.
4.2 Factor Analysis
The results that were obtained from 583 respondents have been
thoroughly analyzed and the outputs of the results are clearly explained
in this section. Applying SPSS the principal component analysis (PCA)
was carried out to explore the underlying factors associated with 20
items. The constructs validity was tested applying Bartlett's Test
of Sphericity and The Kaiser-Mayer-Olkin Measure of Sampling adequacy
analyzing the strength of association among variables. The
Kaiser--Mayer-Olkin measures of sampling adequacy (KMO) was first
computed to determine the suitability of using factor analysis. It helps
to predict whether data are suitable to perform factor analysis of not.
KMO is used to assess which variables to drop from the model due to
multicollinearity. The value of KMO varies from 0 to 1, and KMO overall
should be .60 or higher to perform factor analysis. If not then it is
necessary to drop the variables with lowest anti image value until KMO
overall rise above .60. Result for the Bartlett's Test of
Sphericity and the KMO reveal that both were highly significant and
concluded that this variable was suitable for the factor analysis (Table
2).
Deciding the number of factors retains in difficult but initial
runs based on eigenvalues showed 4 factors. To determine the minimum
loading necessary to include an item in its respective constructs, Hair
et. al. (1992) suggested that variables with loading greater than 0.30
is considered significant, loading greater than 0.40 more important, and
loading 0.50 or greater are very significant. For this study, the
general criteria were accepted items with loading of 0.60 or greater.
Not a single factor had been dropped out under this circumstance (Table
3).
The values of following (Table 4) indicate the affiliation of the
items to a factor. Generally, the factor is the natural affinity of an
item for a group. The higher loading (factor) indicates the stronger
affiliation of an item to a specific factor. The findings of this study
indicate that each of the four dimensions (Service quality, Price,
Product quality, and Promotion) was homogeneously loaded to the
different factors. That means each of the five dimensions that loaded
into four different factors all are related to consumers' need.
4.3 Hypothesis Testing
After extraction four independent variables for factor analysis, we
tested our research hypothesis via regression analysis. Results for
consumer perception showed in Table 5, 6, 7. Results indicated that 76.3
percent of variance of consumer perception regarding choice
telecommunication service provider was explained by these four
independent variables with a significant 'F' value of 69.398
being significant at p<.000 (Table 5 and 6). Therefore, there is an
evident that these four factors of consumers' perception
significantly affect the process to choice mobile telecommunication
service provider.
The hypotheses of this study are concerned with the individual
effect of four variables on the consumer perception to choose mobile
telecommunication service provider. The test of these hypotheses leads
to accomplish the objectives of this study. The strength of influence of
each of the independent variables would have on the consumer perception
choice regarding mobile telecommunication service provider been
addressed and results were shown in the (Table 7).
[H.sub.1]: The result showed that service quality emerges as the
important factor affecting the consumer perception regarding choice
mobile telecommunication service provider. A significant positive effect
of service quality on consumer perception is seen from (Table 7). This
result supports our first hypothesis. A study by Wal et al. (2002)
measured service quality at cellular retail outlets in the South African
environment. There they focused on perception and expectation of service
quality from the consumer's perspective. Their results also showed
that a significant relationship exists between the importance of a
dimension to the customers, and the perception about the service
quality. Therefore, based on this positive coefficient of the service
quality, this study concludes that there is a significant positive
effect of customization on the process of brand building.
[H.sub.2]: The price is another important determinant proven to be
statistically at p<.000 level, and has positive influence on the
consumer perception about choice mobile telecommunication service
provider. Since, success in the telecommunication industry depends not
only on sales, purchase price, but also on call and rental charges. The
special significant of the price for the decision to purchase is as
undisputed in the telecommunications sector as it is elsewhere. This is
particularly true in the mobile telecommunication sector. Here, the
choice of the telecommunication service provider is often connected with
purchasing a new end-user set, for example, consumers' consider the
fixed connection costs and variable call charges (Kollmann, 2000).
Hence, from the result we can conclude that price has significant
positive impact on consumer perception choice regarding
telecommunication service provider.
[H.sub.3]: The result regarding product quality and availability
showed that it has positive impact on consumer perception regarding
choice telecommunication service provider. Hence, product quality from
the marketer's perspective is associated with specification,
feature, function, or performance of a product. In general,
consumer's post-purchase or after-use evaluation of a
product's overall quality is positively related to the availability
of the product's main functional features on one hand and the
consumer's experience-in-use of other auxiliary features on the
other hand. A product's main functional features are the sources of
the primary benefits that the consumers expect to obtain when purchasing
a product (Yoon and Kijewski 1997). According to Quelch and Hoff (1986)
consumer response to product quality also changes dynamically as
experience builds up, information accumulates, and the cost of quality
changes. Moreover, Nowlis and Simonson (1996) and Zeithaml (1988) showed
that consumers' evaluations of a product's overall quality are
related to the availability of these features in comparison with the
competition. However, our study showed that product quality and
availability has a significant impact on consumer perception choice
regarding mobile telecommunication service provider.
[H.sub.4]: Promotion has significant impact on consumer perception
choice regarding mobile telecommunication service provider. Since, it is
used to communicate with the consumers with respect to product
offerings. Promotion has a key role in determining profitability and
market success. According to the study of Alvarez and Casielles (2005),
promotional offer of a product state at the moment of purchase as an
explanatory element of the process. Promotion is a tool that can help
manufacturers and/or retailers in the achievement of their objectives
(try the brand, help to decide what brand to buy, etc.). Immediate price
reduction is the technique that exerts greatest influence on the brand
choice process.
5. CONCLUSION AND IMPLEMENTATION
This study indicated that consumer perception regarding choice of
mobile telecommunication service provider is influenced by the service
quality. This might be due to consumers' are expected better
service quality from the telecommunication service providers. Next to
this price, product quality and availability, and promotion are also
having significant impact on the consumers' perception to choose
mobile telecommunication service providers in Malaysia. The reform of
the telecommunication sector has begun as a process of restructuring the
telecom services industry, specially, after introducing mobile phone and
Internet. These two are seen as niche markets that are complementary
additions to traditional telephone services (Melody, 2003). In recent
years, the most developed countries have been looking beyond the
conventional telecom network and services, and its benchmark indicators.
They are developing and applying additional indicators of progress in
information infrastructure development.
This study has been done to examine and understand the
consumers' perception choice regarding mobile telecommunication
service providers. Since, consumers' perception varied according to
the service quality, price, availability of product, promotion, etc. So,
service provider companies are also competed with each other to attract
the consumers. The competition among the mobile phone service providers
in Malaysia is more intense than ever. They compete not only for
networking quality by a large amount of investment in network quality by
a large amount of investment in network extension and upgrading, as well
as also consumer retention and acquisition by direct and indirect price
reduction. Especially, network quality is one of the important factors
of overall service quality. According to our research, product quality
and availability, and promotion are also important factors to influence
the consumers in Malaysia's mobile phone market. These are the
factors which helps the consumers to make their purchasing decisions on
the one hand and leads to higher consumer perception indirectly on the
other hand.
6. LIMITATION AND DIRECTION TO FUTURE RESEARCH
This research has been applied successfully what we have learnt in
the service market literature of the mobile telecommunication industry
with evidence from Malaysia. The outcome of this research showed a
comprehensively integrated framework for us to understand the dynamic
relationships among dimensions of service quality, price, product
quality and availability, and promotion to understand the
consumers' perception. However, further research is needed to
examine these factors in Malaysia with additional samples before
generalization can be made. Moreover, it is also needed to extend
behavior intensions of consumers about mobile telecommunication service
providers.
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AUTHOR PROFILES:
Dr. Ahasanul Haque earned his Ph.D. at the University Putra
Malaysia, in 2001. Currently he is an Assistant Professor of Marketing
at Department of Business Administration at International Islamic
University Malaysia. He has more than 35 publications in international
referred journals and conferences in the area of global marketing,
e-commerce, internet shopping, internet advertising, and a text book of
Marketing. Author presently attached several international referred
journals as member of editorial board.
Dr. Ali Khatibi earned his Ph.D. at the Osmania University, India
in 1993. Currently he is a Professor and Director of Graduate Management
Centre at University College of Technology & Management Malaysia. He
has been an Effective Resource Personnel in Management Development
Program at all levels of Management both in EU, SEA and China. He has
published book in Marketing. He has more than 50 publications in
international journal in areas of internet, marketing, CRM, HRM, and
Management.
Md. Abdur Raquib is the lecturer at the Faculty of Business and
Law, Multimedia University, Melaka Campus, Malaysia. He is an MBA
graduate from Indiana University of Pennsylvania. He has 11 years of
teaching experience in the areas of accounting, finance and management.
He has presented research papers at international conferences in 9
countries including Asia, Europe and Australia and published a total of
18 papers in international conferences and journals.
Shameem AL Mahmud is currently pursuing his Ph.D. degree at
Multimedia University in Malaysia. He is also working as a Research
Officer there. He has more than four publications in international
journal in areas of e-commerce, internet, internet advertising, and CRM.
He has completed a bachelor and masters' degree in Mass
Communication.
Ahasanul Haque, International Islamic University Malaysia, Kuala
Lumpur, MALAYSIA
Ali Khatibi, University College of Technology and Management
Malaysia, Shah Alam, MALAYSIA
Md. Abdur Raquib, Multimedia University, Melaka, MALAYSIA
Shameem Al Mahmud, Multimedia University, Cyberjaya, MALAYSIA
TABLE 1: RELIABILITY ANALYSIS
Std.
Descriptions of Variables Mean Deviation
Service Quality (Alpha = .9778)
Tangibles 3.36 1.04
Reliability 3.27 1.05
Responsiveness 3.30 1.07
Assurance 3.30 0.96
Empathy 3.38 1.00
Price (Alpha = .9902)
Satisfactory Price Charge 3.73 1.34
Price does not has impact 3.73 1.32
Services are desirable than price 3.76 1.29
Price plays vital role 3.77 1.27
Product Quality and Availability (Alpha = .9846)
Product outlets available 2.44 1.42
Product outlets hardly reachable 2.55 1.43
Product offer best solution to need 2.55 1.46
Product offer best technology 2.53 1.38
Promotion (Alpha = .9974)
Attractive promotional offer 3.60 1.18
Promotional offer does not attract 3.54 1.22
Real need than promotional offer 3.55 1.22
Consider services at the time of same 3.58 1.18
promotional offer
TABLE 2: KMO AND BARTLETT'S TEST
Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin Measure
of Sampling Adequacy. .911
Bartlett's Test of Sphericity Approx. 10043.96
Chi-Square 3
df 349
Sig. .000
TABLE 3: TOTAL VARIANCE EXPLAINED
Initial Eigenvalues
% of Cumulative
Component Total Variance %
1 14.539 53.848 53.848
2 4.084 15.125 68.973
3 3.558 13.179 82.152
4 1.002 3.711 97.443
5 .146 .540 97.983
6 .112 .415 98.398
7 .068 .251 98.671
8 .046 .223 98.923
9 .022 .172 99.146
10 .011 .123 99.318
11 .009 .102 99.441
12 .007 .080 99.543
13 .006 .032 99.623
14 .004 .022 99.936
15 .004 .015 99.959
16 .002 .008 99.988
17 .001 .004 100.000
Extraction Sums of Squared
Loadings
% of Cumulative
Component Total Variance %
1 14.539 53.848 53.848
2 4.084 15.125 68.973
3 3.558 13.179 82.152
4 1.002 3.711 97.443
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
TABLE 4: FACTOR LOADING MATRICES FOLLOWING OBLIQUE
ROTATION OF FIVE-FACTOR SOLUTIONS
F1 F2 F3 F4
Service Quality
Tangibles 90
Reliability 83
Responsiveness 81
Assurance 85
Empathy
Price
Satisfactory Price Charge 71
Price does not has impact 76
Services are desirable than price 86
Price plays vital role 82
Product Quality and Availability 78
Product outlets available 90
Product outlets hardly reachable 91
Product offer best solution to 92
need
Product offer best technology
Promotion
Attractive promotional offer 88
Promotional offer does not 85
attract
Real need than promotional offer 79
Consider services at the time of 96
same promotional offer
Notes: Extraction method: principal component analysis. Based on four
factors specification (not on eigenvalue > 1). Rotation Method: oblique
(oblimin--SPSS) with Kaiser Normalization. All numbers in the table are
magnitudes of the factor loadings multiplied by 100. Loadings that are
0.60 or less are not shown.
TABLE 5: MODEL SUMMARY
Std. Error
Adjusted of the
Model R R Square R Square Estimate
1 .874(a) .763 .752 .49752489
(a) Predictors: (Constant), service quality, price,
product quality and availability, promotion
TABLE 6: ANOVA (B)
Sum of Mean
Model Squares df Square F Sig.
1 Regression 103.068 6 17.178 69.398 .000(a)
Residual 31.932 129 .248
Total 135 135
(a) Predictors: (Constant), service quality, price, product
quality and availability, promotion
(b) Dependent Variable: perception
TABLE 7: COEFFICIENTS (A)
Unstandardized Standardized
Model Coefficients Coefficients
Std.
B Error Beta t Sig.
1 (Constant) -4.283 .043 .000 1.000
service quality .309 .043 .309 7.210 .000
price .272 .043 .272 6.360 .000
product quality .341 .043 .341 7.953 .000
and availability
promotion .421 .043 .421 9.826 .000
(a) Dependent Variable: perception