CHAPTER ONE

1.0 INTRODUCTION

1.1 Background to the Study

The Global System of Mobile Communications (GSM) is a second-

generation digital technology, it was originally developed in Europe and in
less than ten years after the commercial launch, it developed into the
world’s leading and fastest growing mobile standard (GSM Association,
2006). According to (Lonergan et al 2004), it was reported that at the
beginning of 2004, there were over 1.3 billion mobile phone users
worldwide and by 2007, the demand for mobile services would have
grown at an average annual rate of 9.1%.

The GSM Association estimates that the GSM technology is used by more
than one in five people of the world's population, which represent
approximately 77% of the world’s cellular market and is estimated to
account for 73% of the world’s digital market and 72% of the world’s
wireless market (GSM Association, 2006). This growth principally results
from the establishment of new networks in developing countries rather
than from an increase in mobile access lines in developed countries
(Serenko and Turel, 2006). African countries are actively involved in the
establishment of the mobile services and specifically Nigeria, which is the
focus of this study.

Since 1990s, the telecommunications sector has become an important key

in the development of the economy of developed countries.This results
from the saturated markets, de-regulation of telecommunications industry
(removal of monopoly rights, especially enjoyed by state-owned telecoms
networks), and increasing number of mobile service providers, enormous
technical development and intense market competition. (Gerpott et al
2000).

Szyperski and Loebbecke (1999) wrote that this increasing economic

importance and benefits of telecommunications firms motivated many
1
management scholars (especially marketing experts) to devote attention
to this sector. Wilfert (1999), Gerpott (1998), and Booz. Allen and
Hamilton (1995) pointed out that marketing strategies are very important
in telecommunications services because once customers have subscribed
to a particular telecommunications service provider, their long-term link
with this provider is of greater importance to the success of the company
than they are in other industry sectors. Hence, service providers need to
form a continuous lasting relationship with their customers to know them
better and satisfy their needs adequately.

This paradigm shift has undauntedly led to the growing interest in

customer relationship management initiatives that aim at ensuring
customer identification and interactions, customization and
personalisation that unservedly lead to customer satisfaction, retention
and profitability, among other things (Thompson.2004, Xu et al ,
2002:Dyche,2001:Ryals & Knox,2001: Stone,2000).

Organisations are therefore increasingly being more customer-centric and

are much interested not just in acquiring new customers, but more
importantly, retaining existing customers. This is perhaps because
Customer’s satisfaction holds the potential for increasing an
organization’s customer base, increase the use of more volatile customer
mix and increase the firm’s reputation (Fornell, 1992, Levesque and
McDaugall, 1996). One path to achieving customers’ satisfaction is
through customers’ service.

Zeithaml and Bitner (2003) defined customers service as a series of

activities designed to enhance the level of customer’s satisfaction that is,
the feeling that a product or service has met customer’s expectation.
Customer’s service varies by product, industry and customer. It however,
assume important dimension in service delivery and sales of product. This
is because Service firm such as Telecommunication firms, have no
inventory of finished goods to buffer production from random demand
variability (Dutta and Roy, 2006). Nevertheless, it is a demand for
corporation survival; profitability and growth that service firm hold their
own in competition.

The shift to devoting considerable attention and resources to customer

acquisition and retention through customer satisfaction is not different
with four of mobile telecommunication networks in Nigeria namely (MTN,
Zain (former Celtel, Vmobile), Etisalat, and Globacom.Though competition

2
has been keen in the industry, each of the mobile networks has been
growing in customer acquisition since Nigeria deregulated its
telecommunication in 1992.

Each of the telecom network companies is continually improving upon the

quality of their service delivery in order to survive the high competition in
the industry. Since Survival and growth or financial outcome is driven by
customer loyalty and retention which in turn is driven by customer
satisfaction and value (Rust and Oliver, 1994; Wang and Hing-Po Lo,
2002), delivering quality service and customer satisfaction have been
important goals and pursuit for each of the four expanding Mobile
Telecom Networks (MTNs) as well as the regulators of the industry.

RESEARCH QUESTIONS

Which dimensions of service quality are important to customers of MTNs

in Nigeria’s?

What is the switching intention among customers of MTNs in Nigeria?

1.3 RESEARCH OBJECTI VES

To describe using overall satisfaction measure, customer satisfaction with

service quality delivered by MTNs in Nigeria irrespective of which mobile
telecom network customers subscribe to.

To describe customer satisfaction with dimensions of service quality in

MTNs in Nigeria.

To examine switching intention among customers of MTNs within Nigeria.

1.4 Structure of Thesis

The study is organised into six chapters. Chapter one is the introductory
chapter that covers the Background to the study, Research Questions,
Research Aims/Objectives and Structure of thesis.

Chapter two is a review of literature. It covers mobile telecommunication,

state of telecommunication in Nigeria, Regulatory Bodies in Nigeria’s
Telecom and Overall sector Growth. Chapter three identify the hypotheses
and explains in details the main constructs and Concepts and Theoretical
Framework as well as their indicators and measurement in this study.

Chapter four is the Methodology section. It focuses on the research

perspectives, data collection: population sampling, research instruments,
access strategies and credibility of the study. Chapter five is presentation
of data and analysis of results and findings. Chapter six is the summary,
conclusion and implications.
3
CHAPTER TWO:

2.0 LITERATURE REVIEW

2.1.1 Industry /Sector Overview

Mobile telecommunications industry has grown exponentially over the last

two decades (Kenny and Keremane, 2007). In a country, mobile sector has
become a critical indicator of economic development. Mobile technology
provides a unique opportunity for the developing countries where
telephone diffusion has been very low. Specifically, due to its
comparatively low investment requirements, mobile telecommunications
allows these countries to take advantage of technology innovations to
provide communications services in the areas with limited or no telephone
network (Noll, 2000; Thompson and Garbacz, 2007).

However, the potential of mobile telecommunications has not been fully

utilised in many parts of the world. This is evident from its uneven pattern
of diffusion, over 94% penetration rate in Europe in contrast to that of
22% in Africa (ITU, 2007).

Today mobile telecommunications industry has become a more and more

important part of the world economy. With over 2.3 billion subscribers, the
user base is still increasing at the rate of about 1 million new subscribers
per day (Alam and Prasad, 2008).

2.1.2 State of Mobile Telecommunication in Nigeria

2.1.3 Brief Historical Overview of Nigeria’s Telecom Industry

Nigeria, a developing country, in 1992 introduced its first mobile phone

services, through the joint venture between NITEL and DSL of Canada to
form Mobile Telecommunications Service (MTS), (Ndukwe, 2005, pp 26). In

4
January 2001, the regulatory body NCC, modernised and expanded the
mobile telecommunications network and services by granting GSM license
to three service providers; MTN Nigeria, Econet Wireless Vmobile,(now
Zain), and the first national carrier, NITEL (initially MTS, privatised to form
Mtel). In 2002, the second national carrier, Globacom was also granted
license to commence operation. Since the launch of the GSM, the number
of subscribers in Nigeria has greatly increased. Ndukwe (2005, pp 37-38,
40) reported that between 1998 and 2000, the number of mobile lines
was 35,000 but grew to over 11 million as of March 2005, with a growth
rate of more than a million lines annually since 2002. This translated to an
increase from the total density of 0.4 lines per 100 inhabitants in 1998 to
9.47 lines per 100 inhabitants currently.

Additionally, this sector has attracted an investment of over US $8 billion

and has greatly increased the number of employed people directly (those
working with the GSM companies) or indirectly (this includes various
levels of dealerships, cell phone vendors, repair shops, suppliers of
accessories, fixed and mobile call shops and street recharge card
hawkers) (Hoff, 2006).

The number of the employed people is reported to be over 300,000

Nigerians in 2005 (Ndukwe, 2005). Other benefits include easy, affordable
and quick access to phone by different categories of the population,
reduced frequency of travelling, etc (Adomi, 2003), and all these benefits
contribute to the socio- economic development of the country.

Based on the annual growth rate of the subscribers, and increasing

teledensity, Nigeria is one of the fastest growing telecoms market in Africa
(Hoff, 2006).

Additionally, the population count of over 130 million people and GDP per
capita and PPP valuation of US $1,776 (estimated in 2005) (OECD, 2006)
presents a massive growth potential for the mobile telecoms sector and
the customer base is estimated to reach 23 million subscribers in 2007
and 32 million subscribers in 2009 (Hoff, 2006). This anticipated increase
in the customer base will translate into better social and economic
development, resulting from more financial investments from the service
operators.

Despite the economic and social benefits of the mobile

telecommunications to Nigerian economy and market, unlike the
developed countries, there is no marketing or management research

5
attention to this .According to Serenko and Turel (2006), customer
satisfaction measurement addresses both users and public interests and
such studies can assist in economic and social development. Therefore,
there is need to gain more understanding in the area of customer
satisfaction.

Customer behaviours and attitudes are greatly influenced by

demographic, situational, environmental and psychological factors and
these factors can be used by companies and policy makers to develop
strategies to meet different needs of the different customer segments.
Hence, there is need to gain more understanding of the influence of these
factors on customer satisfaction. (Jackson et al 1996; Platow et al, 1997;
and Homburg and Giering, 2001

2.2 Regulatory Bodies in Nigeria’s Telecom Industry

The Nigerian Communications Commission is an independent National

Regulatory Authority for the telecommunications industry in Nigeria.
According to (NCC 2006),the Commission is responsible for creating and
enabling environment for competition among operators in the industry as
well as ensuring the provision of qualitative and efficient
telecommunications services throughout the country.

The broad business and purpose of the NCC as derived from the enabling
Decree 75 of 1992 and it helps to facilitate private sector participation in
telecommunications service delivery, coordinate and regulate the
activities of all the operators to ensure consistency in availability and
survey of service delivery and fair pricing. NCC mission is to support a
market driven telecommunications industry and promote universal access
(NCC, 2006).

6
CHAPTER THREE

3.0 AREA OF MARKETING THEORY

3.1 CUSTOMER SATISFACTION AND SERVICE QUALITY IN MOBILE

TELECOMMUNICATION SERVICES

With the growth of the mobile telecommunication services around the

world, a significant body of literature has emerged over the past several
years. For example, Turel and Serenko (2006) empirically investigated
customer satisfaction with mobile services in Canada. They adapted the
American Customer Satisfaction Model to identify the antecedents and
consequences of customer satisfaction for young cellular subscribers.
They developed and estimated a model using a PLS (partial least square)
path modelling developed by Chin (1998, 2001).

7
The results indicated that perceived service quality and perceived value
are the key constructs affecting the customer's satisfaction with mobile
services. Satisfaction in turn leads to customer loyalty. Woo and Fock
(1999) investigated determinants of customer satisfaction in the Hong
Kong mobile phone services sector. They conducted an exploratory factor
analysis on 20 attributes followed by confirmatory factor analysis and
obtained four determinants of customer satisfaction viz. transmission
quality and network coverage, pricing policy, staff competence and
customer service.

In their study in the New Zealand's telecom services industry Danaher and
Gallagher (1997) identified that certain attributes of the personnel
delivering the service, such as friendliness and competency, more
strongly influence the overall service quality than other factors viz. clear
voice and time taken to respond. In another study Wang et al. (2004)
investigated the impact of quality-related factors on customer value and
customer satisfaction using structural equation modeling (SEM) in China.
They used the SERVQUAL (Parasuraman et al. 1988) factors (reliable,
tangible, responsive, assurance and empathy) to measure service quality,
but added "network quality" as another antecedent of customers'
perceived service quality. Results indicated that all the service quality
factors had significant and positive impact on customer satisfaction.

Also customer perceived value had a moderating effect on the service

quality and customer satisfaction link. Similarly, Lai et al. (2007) tested
the SERVQUAL model in China's mobile communication industry using
exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis. They found that the
SERVQUAL instrument is a valid means for measuring service quality.
They also identified "service convenience" as an important additional
dimension of service quality in China's mobile services sector. Johnson
and Sirikit (2002) conducted their study on both landline and mobile users
of Thai telecommunication industry using the service quality dimensions
(reliability, responsiveness, assurance, empathy and tangibles). Tangibles
emerged as the most important factor, but no significant link was found
between the service quality ratings and the customers' behavioural
intentions.

Athanassopoulos and Iliakopoulos' (2003) study of the residential

customers of a European telecommunication company revealed that
customer perceived performance (i.e., satisfaction, recommendation to
others, relationship and value for money) were affected by product
performance satisfaction, directory enquiries, branch network, billing and
corporate image. Gerpott et al. (2000), through a structural equation
modelling approach, found that customer retention, customer loyalty and

8
customer satisfaction are important goals for the telecommunications
operators in the German mobile telecommunications market. Results also
indicated that network quality, assessment of price and personal benefits
had positive and significant effect on customer satisfaction.

Mobile service price, personal service benefit perceptions and number

portability had the strongest effects on customer retention as well. Kim et
al (2004) investigated the effect of different service features and
switching barriers on customer satisfaction and customer loyalty in the
Korean mobile telecommunication services sector. They used SEM to test
their proposed structural model.

The results indicated that customer satisfaction is significantly and

positively affected by call quality, value added services and customer
support. They also found that customer satisfaction and switching barrier
had a significant and positive impact on customer loyalty.

Aydin and Ozer (2005) used the SEM technique to study the impact of
service quality, perceived value, customer expectations and complaint
handling on customer satisfaction in the Turkish mobile telephone market.
The results showed that service quality, customer expectations and
complaint handling had positive and significant effect on customer
satisfaction.

Service quality had the strongest effect than other constructs in their
model. All these studies have looked at different facets of service quality
or service features affecting customer satisfaction. In this study we
consider the service-related factors in the Nigerian mobile
telecommunications sector.

3.1.1 Customer Satisfaction

Customer satisfaction has been extensively studied in the field of

marketing over the last two decades (Oliver 1980, 1981, 1999; Fomell et
al 1996; Anderson and Fomell 1996; Yi 1989; Johnson et al 2001;
Anderson et al 2004). It is by far the most commonly used customer-
9
oriented metric by managers (Gupta and Zeithaml 2006) because it is
generic and can be measured universally for all products and services
including nonprofit and public services (Zeithaml et al 2006; Johnson and
Fomell 1996).

After an extensive and critical review of the customer satisfaction

literature, Yi (1989) conceptualized customer satisfaction as an attitude
like judgment following a purchase act or based on a series of consumer-
product interactions. The definition highlights that customer satisfaction is
essentially the customer's judgment about the extent to which a product
or service meets or falls short of expectations.

The literature has also emphasized the disconfirmation of expectations

paradigm to a great extent (Oliver 1996; Yi 1989). This explains that the
consumer compares the product/service with a pre-consumption
expectation. Tse and Wilton (1988) defined customer satisfaction as "the
customer's response to the evaluation of the perceived discrepancy
between prior expectations (or some form of performance) and the actual
performance of the product as perceived after its consumption." This
definition conforms with definition of Oliver (1977).

Customer satisfaction research has developed around two broad types of

evaluations: (1) transaction-specific satisfaction (2) cumulative
satisfaction or an overall satisfaction concept which is similar to the
attitude (Johnson et al 2001). Traditionally, satisfaction was considered to
be transaction-specific, which is a result of the immediate post purchase
judgment or affective reaction (Oliver 1993). De Ruyter et al. (1997) used
the transaction-specific concept and showed the relationship between
perceived quality and satisfaction.

A more economic psychology-based approach to satisfaction has been

developed in the literature over the last decade or so which is cumulative
satisfaction concept. This concept defines customer satisfaction as a
customer's overall experience to date with a product or service provider
(Johnson et al.2001). Studies done by Anderson and Fomell (1994); Fomell
et al. (1996); Johnson et al. (2001) etc. have used the overall customer
satisfaction concept.

According to these studies satisfaction is viewed as an "overall evaluation

based on the total purchase and consumption experience with a good or
service over time (Anderson et al. 1994, p.54)." More and more
satisfaction studies are now using the overall evaluation of

10
satisfaction concept which develops over all the experiences a customer
has with the firm (Gupta and Zeithaml 2006).

More so, previous studies of conventional retailing have pointed out that
service quality positively influences customer satisfaction (Johnson &
Fornell, 1991; Kristensen et al., 1999; Cronin et al., 2000). Similar
conclusions have been proposed in the studies of website and online
shopping (Kuo, 2003; Lee & Lin, 2005; Collier & Bienstock, 2006; Hsu,
2006; Park & Kim, 2006; Bauer et al., 2006). Among the studies of the
telecom industry, Wang et al. (2004) investigated the telecom industry in
China, and Kim et al. (2004), Tung (2004), and Turel and Serenko (2006)
investigated the mobile services in South Korea, Singapore, and Canada
respectively. These studies also supported that service quality positively
influences customer satisfaction. Thus, Hypothesis 1 is proposed as
follows:

H1: Service quality positively influences customer satisfaction in MTNs

mobile telecom Network

3.1.2 Service Quality

In the services marketing literature, service quality is defined as the

overall assessment of a service by the customers.

Parasuraman et al (1985) conceptualized service quality as perceptions

resulting from the comparison of customer expectations and actual
service performance.

Parasuraman et al (1988) went ahead to define Service quality as a

"global judgment, or attitude, relating to the superiority of the service.

They further pointed out that service quality perceptions are not solely the
outcomes of service but it also involves the evaluation of the service
delivery process by the customers. Lehtinen and Lehtinen (1982)
conceptualized service quality as a three dimensional construct viz.
"physical", "interactive" and "corporate." Physical quality is the quality
dimension which originates from the physical elements of service like
physical product and physical support.

Also, Service quality, consumers’ appraisal of overall quality or service

excellence, may influence decisions to remain with or switch service
providers. (Bitner and Hubbert, 1994; Cronin and Taylor, 1992; Zeithaml,
Berry and Parasuraman, 1996) These studies, as well as conventional
wisdom, indicate that by improving service quality, firms will satisfy their
customers and hence retain them. For example, customers who perceived

11
high service quality with their banks were more likely to stay with the
banks than those who perceived low service quality were (Caruana, 2002).

Likewise, a study across four industries – computer manufacturing, life

insurance, automobile insurance, and retail chains – showed positive and
negative behavioural intentions related to perceived service quality
(Zeithaml, Berry and Parasuraman, 1996). Favourable service quality
increased positive intentions such as remaining with the firms and
willingness to pay more, and reduced negative intentions such as
switching to other firms and complaining. Unfavourable service quality
related to negative intentions such as exit and negative word-of-mouth.

For mobile telecommunications, service quality also relates to loyalty. The

positive relationship between service quality and mobile loyalty cuts
across nationalities including French (J. Lee, Lee and Feick, 2001), Chinese
(Wang and Lo, 2002), and German (Gerpott, Rams and Schindler, 2001).
Extending these studies to MTNs mobile users in Nigeria:

Hypothesis (H2): Service quality relates positively to mobile loyalty.

3.1.3 Customer Value

According to Wang and Lo (2002), More and more firms are searching for
new ways to achieve, retain, upgrade and leverage competitive
advantages, given the fact that customers are becoming more
demanding, competition is getting more intense and technology is
changing more rapidly.

As some researchers have concluded (Day, 1990: Naver and Slater, 1990),
creating superior customer value is a major goal for market-driven firms.
In fact, delivery superior customer value is inevitably becoming one of the
most important success factors for any firm now and in the future because
of its significant impact on behaviour intensions of customers.

As a result, many firms are transforming their focus from looking

internally within the organisation for improvement by way of quality
management, downsizing, business process reengineering or lean
production and agile manufacturing to pursue superior customer value
delivery (Band ,1991:Day,Gale,1994:Naumann ,1995:Butz and
Goodstein,1996:Woodruf ,1997).

12
According to Wong and Lo (2002) the significance of customer value is
widely recognized, the growing body of research about customer value is
quite fragmented and the definition of customer value is divergent.

Perceived value is the customer’s overall assessment of the utility of a

product based on perception of what is received and what is given.
( Zeithaml 1988)

Doods et al. (1991) argues that the cognitive trade-off between

perceptions of quality and sacrifice results in perceptions of value
Butz and Goodstein (1996) define it as emotional bond established
between a customer and a producer after the customer has used a salient
product or service produced by that supplier.

Woodruff (1997) defines as a customer perceived preference for and

evaluation of those products attributes, attribute performances and
consequences arising from use that facilitate achieving the customer’s
goals and purposes in use situations based on customer perspective on
value derived from empirical research into how customers really think
about value.

However, it is obvious that there are some areas of agreement among the
different definitions mentioned above. For example, customer value is
inherent in or linked through the use to some products or services:
customer value is something perceived by customers rather than
objectivity determined by sellers or other stakeholders and those
perception processes typically involve a trade-off between what
customers receive such as quality, benefits and utilities and what they
give up such as price, sacrifices including opportunity cost, maintenance
and learning cost.

So in this study, we concur with the majority researchers who define

customer value in terms of get (benefit) and give (sacrifice) components
(Woodruff,1997:Slater1997:Berry and Yadav,1996:Ravald and
Gronroos,1996:Hass,1995:Mazumdar,1993:Slater and Narver,1992:Narver
and Slater,1990:Day,1990:Zeithaml,1988) although some researchers
argue that perceived value is made of only benefits (Hunt and Morgan ,
1995:Hamel and Prahalad,1994).

There is a clear indication that any factors influencing the benefits

customer can get or sacrifices customers have to endure will cause
different evaluation of customer value even though different customers
may form different opinions over time, for example, for product related
factors such as image, time/effort/energy and solidarity are all customer
value drivers or sources (Lapierre,2000: Ravald and Gronroos ,
1996:Bolton and Drew,1991: Zeithaml,1988).
13
According to the different researches of the relationships between service
quality and customer’s perceived value in conventional retailing and
online shopping, most of the empirical studies have pointed out that
service quality will positively influence perceived value (Cronin et al 1997,
Cronin et al 2000, Brady et al 2001; Bauer et al 2006).

In addition to the above researches are Wang et al. (2004) and Turel and
Serenko (2006) studies of the telecom industry which investigated the
mobile services in China and Canada and found out that service quality is
positively related to perceived value. Thus, Hypothesis 3 is proposed as
follows:

H3: Service quality positively influences perceived value in MTNs mobile

network

3.1.4 CUSTOMER LOYALTY

Coyne (1989) stated that customer satisfaction has measurable impact on

customer loyalty in that when satisfaction reaches a certain level; on the
high side, loyalty increases dramatically; at the same time, when
satisfaction falls to a certain point, loyalty reduces equally dramatically. Yi
(1990) expressed that the impact of customer satisfaction on customer
loyalty by stating that “customer satisfaction influences purchase
intentions as well as post-purchase attitude”. In other word, satisfaction is
related to behavioral loyalty, which includes continuing purchases from
the same company, word of mouth recommendation, increased scope of
relationship.

Fornell (1992) found out that there is a positive relationship between

customer satisfaction and customer loyalty but this connection is not
always a linear relation. This relationship depends on factors such as
market regulation, switching costs, brand equity, existence of loyalty
programs, proprietary technology, and product differentiation at the
industry level. Jones and Sasser (1995) proposed that link between
satisfaction and loyalty can be classified into four different groups:
loyalist/apostle (high satisfaction, high loyalty), defector/ terrorist (low
satisfaction, low loyalty), mercenary (high satisfaction, low loyalty), and
hostage (low satisfaction, high loyalty).

14
Roger Hallowell (1996) confirmed the link between customer loyalty (in
the context of behavioral loyalty) and customer satisfaction. Oliver (1999)
stated that the relationship between satisfaction and loyalty is that
satisfaction is transformed into loyalty with the assistance of a myriad of
other factors. However, this relationship is complex and asymmetric.

High levels of satisfaction lead to high levels of attitudinal loyalty.

Attitudinal loyalty involves different feelings, which create a customer’s
overall attachment to a product, service, or company (Lovelock et al.,
2001). Gerpott et al. (2001) in their study of the German mobile
telecommunication found that customer satisfaction is positively related
to customer loyalty, and both factors are important parameters in the
mobile telecommunications industry. Turel and Serenko, 2006, in their
study of Canadian mobile telecommunications also confirmed this finding.

3.2 Switching Costs

Unlike service quality and value, which entice customers to stay by

enhancing loyalty, switching costs deter customers from leaving via
inconveniences and penalties (Burnham, Frels and Mahajan, 2003; Jones,
Mothersbaugh and Beatty, 2007). The efficacy of switching costs in
deterring switching occurs across industries including online brokerage
(Chen and Hitt, 2002), travel, medical, and hairstyling services (Patterson
and Smith, 2003).

Similarly, a survey of UK bank customers revealed that dissatisfied

customers remained because they perceived time, effort, and uncertainty
costs as higher than the potential benefits from switching banks (Panther
and Farquhar, 2004).

Switching costs are also effective deterrents with mobile services

(Caruana, 2004; Gerpott, Rams and Schindler, 2001). To reduce switching,
thereby enhancing loyalty, mobile service providers often erect barriers
such as disallowing number portability (Haucap, 2003) – retaining one’s
phone number when switching mobile service providers – and committing
subscribers to long-term contracts with punitive penalties for premature
termination (Valletti and Cave, 1998). These switching costs may even be
more critical than price, service quality, and loyalty programs in retaining
mobile service subscribers ( Lee and Murphy, 2005). Thus for Nigeria
MTNs mobile Users:

Hypothesis (H4): Switching costs relate positively to mobile loyalty.

15
3.2.1 SERVICE QUALITY AND CUSTOMER SATISFACTION

During the past few decades service quality has become a major area of
attention to practitioners, managers, and researchers owing to its strong
impact on business performance, lowering costs, improving customer
satisfaction, customer loyalty and profitability (Leonard & Sasser, 1982;
Cronin & Taylor, 1992; Chang & Chen, 1998; Newman, 2001;
Sureshchandar, Rajendran, & Anantharaman, 2002). According to Brown
and Swart (1989), customers prefer organizations that deliver higher
service quality, and suppliers can charge a premium for service qualities.

Furthermore, customer-perceived service quality has been given

increased attention in recent years, due to its specific contribution to
business competitiveness and developing satisfied customers. However,
satisfaction is reported as a feeling which results from a process of
evaluating what was received against that expected, the purchase
decision itself and the fulfillment of needs or want (Kotler, 1991).

Researchers have also identified customer satisfaction, from a multi-

dimensional nature, and view overall satisfaction as a function of
satisfaction with multiple experiences with the service provider
(Sureshchandar et al., 2002). Therefore, it can be concluded that overall
satisfaction is based on the information from all previous experiences with
the service provider and is viewed as a function of all previous
transaction-specific satisfactions (Teas, 1993; Parasuraman et al., 1994).

3.2.2 Service Quality Dimensions

Parasuraman et al. (1988) identified five dimensions of service quality
(viz. reliability, responsiveness, assurance, empathy, and tangibles) that
link specific service characteristics
to consumers’ expectations.
(a) Tangibles - physical facilities, equipment and appearance of personnel;
(b) Empathy - caring, individualized attention;
(c) Assurance - knowledge and courtesy of employees and their ability to
convey trust and confidence;
(d) Reliability - ability to perform the promised service dependably and
accurately; and
(e) Responsiveness - willingness to help customers and provide prompt
service.

After a comprehensive review of service quality studies, Asubonteng,

McCleary, and Swan (1996) concluded that the number of service quality
dimensions varies in different industries. For example, Kettinger and Lee
(1994) identified four dimensions in a study of information systems (IS)
quality, which did not have tangible dimension. Cronin and Taylor (1992)
developed a one-factor measurement instrument instead of the five-factor
measures proposed by Parasuraman et al. (1988).

16
Besides SERVQUAL, Sureshchandar, Rajendran, and Anantharaman (2003)
have identified five factors of service quality from the customers’
perspective.
Those are: a) Core service or service product, b) Human element of
service delivery, c) Systematization of service delivery: non- human
element, d) Tangibles of service, and e) Social responsibility. After a close
inspection it could be safely concluded that the newly defined construct of
service quality by Sureshchandar et al. (2003) has some resemblance with
the definition provided by Parasuraman et al. (1988).

3.2.3 Definition and importance of measuring service quality

During the 1980s, service quality received a great deal of attention as a

key strategic factor for product differentiation to increase market share
and boost profits (Phillips, Chang, & Buzzell, 1983; Buzzell & Gale, 1987).
Thus, researchers focused on the process in which consumers evaluate
service quality. Earlier researchers suggest that customers assess service
quality by comparing what they feel a seller should offer and compare it
against the seller’s actual service performance (Grönroos, 1982; Lehtinen
& Lehtinen, 1982).

However, Bitner, Booms and Mohr (1994) define service quality as “the
consumer’s overall impression of the relative inferiority/superiority of the
organization and its services.” Other researchers view service quality as
“a function of the differences between expectation and performance along
the quality dimensions” (Parasuraman, Zeithaml, & Berry, 1985, 1988,
1991), “a relativistic and cognitive discrepancy between experience-based
norms and performances concerning service benefits” (Roest & Pieters,
1997), and “a form of attitude representing a long-run overall evaluation”
(Cronin & Taylor, 1994; Taylor & Cronin, 1994).

According to Berry, Parasuraman and Zeithaml (1988), service quality has

become a significant differentiator and the most powerful competitive
weapon which all the service organizations want to possess, and is found
to be measured regularly (Reichheld & Sasser, 1990) and most accurately
through the eyes of the customer.

17
 Therefore, measuring perceived service quality is considered to be the
fundamental in developing a customer oriented strategy that ensures the
long-term survival of the firm concerning customer satisfaction
(MacStravic, 1997). Some studies, however, have been undertaken to
identify quality dimensions and detailed aspects of services and their
relationship with customer satisfaction. The SERVQUAL approach further
integrates the two constructs and suggests that perceived service quality
is an antecedent to satisfaction. Spreng and Mackoy (1996) showed that
service quality leads to customer satisfaction.

3.3 THEORETICAL RESEARCH FRAMEWORK

Researchers and managers thrive for learning details about components

of perceived service quality for the kind of business they are in for obvious
reasons such as customer satisfaction and increased profitability. In this
context, different models of service quality gain specific importance as
they not only help in learning factors associated with it, but also provide a
direction for improvements.

However, the idea of linking service quality and customer satisfaction has
existed for a long time. Studies indicate that there are links among
customer satisfaction, service quality, customer value, customer loyalty,
and profitability (Grönroos, 1982; Parasuraman et al., 1985; Sewell &
Brown, 1990; Heskett, Sasser, & Schlesinger, 1997; Anderson & Mittal,
2000).

As for the relationship between service quality and customer satisfaction,

Oliver (1993) first suggested that service quality would be antecedent to
customer satisfaction regardless of whether theses constructs were
measured for a given experience or over time. Research exists (Anderson
& Sullivan, 1993; Anderson et al., 1994; Spreng & Mackoy, 1996) to
empirically support this idea, wherein customer satisfaction is a
consequence of service quality. However, at some point there must be
“diminishing returns to increasing customer satisfaction” (Anderson et al.,
1994).

3.3.1 Customer Satisfaction Theories

There has been a growing interest in studying customer satisfaction over

the last few decades. This is evident from the large number books, journal
articles, and research studies dealing with different aspects of the subject
in different disciplines.

18
Owing to the crucial of customer satisfaction, it is generally accepted that
its determinants must be analyzed and be compared across firms,
industries, sectors and nations (Fornell et al., 1996). For this purpose,
different models have been developed for determining various influencers
of customer satisfaction.

Social psychologists, marketing researchers, and students of consumer

behaviour, have extensively studied the concepts of customer satisfaction
and dissatisfaction. The increasing importance of quality in both service
and manufacturing industries has also created a proliferation of research,
with more than 15,000 academic and trade articles having been published
on the topic of customer satisfaction in the past two decades (Peterson
and Wilson, 1992). Several conferences have been devoted to the subject
and extensive literature reviews have been published (Day, 1977; Hunt,
1977; Latour and Peat, 1979; Smart, 1982; Ross, et., 1987, Barsky, 1992:
Oh and Parks, 1997).

Nearly all customer satisfaction theories are based on a structural model,

which comprises the antecedents and consequences of customer
satisfaction. Some of these models are going to be described here.

3.3.2 Customer Satisfaction Indices

Customer satisfaction indices have been developed and applied in several

countries (for example, Sweden, the USA, Russia, Switzerland, Norway,
Taiwan and Germany) for measuring and analyzing customer satisfaction.
A national customer satisfaction index is a market oriented performance
measure, which can be seen as complementary to traditional performance
measures, such as return on investment, profits and market shares or
Kaplan and Norton’s balanced score card approach. These satisfaction
indices help both consumers and product managers to assess the quality
of products and services, help companies to benchmark their operations,
and assist policy makers with decisions about quality-related aspects
(Hackl et al., 2000, p.999).

The Swedish customer satisfaction barometer (SCSB) was the first

national customer satisfaction index to provide a harmonized cross-
company, cross-industry, national measurement tool for customer
satisfaction and evaluation of the quality of products and services. It is
based on annual survey data from customers of about 100 leading
companies in some 30 industries (Fornell, 1992, p.6). In 1994, the
National Quality Research Centre in the USA (NQRC) adapted the Swedish
index, to produce its own America customer satisfaction index. This ACSI
was designed to be representative of the economy as a whole, covers
more than 200 firms, with 1994 sales of more than $2.7 trillion, competing

19
in over 40 industries in the seven major consumer sectors of the
economy. It estimates customer satisfaction for each company in the
national economy equivalents (Fornell et al., 1996,p.7).

Following the Swedish and American indices, the European Organization

for Quality (EQO), European Foundation for Quality Management (EFQM),
European Academic Network for Customer-Oriented Quality Analysis and
the European Commission developed the European Satisfaction Index
(ECSI). A pilot study was conducted in 12 European countries in 1999.

In all of these indices, customer expectations are considered as one of the

determinants of customer satisfaction. But some other models more than
CSIs completed this factor by considering customer expectation
disconfirmation rather than expectation. Because expectation by itself
can’t result in customer satisfaction or dissatisfaction but, the level of
disconfirming his expectations can lead to understand our customer’s
satisfaction.

3.3.3 Expectation Disconfirmation Theory

The importance of expectations in the consumer decision process has

been documented in the literature. Expectations play a major role in the
consumer decision making process (Van Raaij, 1991; Spreng et al., 1993).
In the pre purchase stage, expectations influence consumer decisions on
which brand or type of product or service to buy. During consumption,
expectations can be affected by the attitudes of service personnel, other
customers and equipment. In the post purchase stage, expectations form
the basis of evaluations of satisfaction ( Oliver,1980; Kurtz and Clow,1998)
and service quality (Parasuraman et al., 1998; Brown and Swartz 1989).

Most studies have treated expectations as a static variable that exerts

both a direct and indirect influence on customer satisfaction (Cadotte et
al.,1987; Tse and Wilton, 1988). In these studies, customer expectations
were formed prior to consumption; they formed as comparative referents
for quality judgements, for determining customer satisfaction, and
ultimately for behavioural intentions. It has been suggested that
marketers who wish to understand and favourably influence customer
satisfaction need to understand and influence expectations
(Anderson,1993). Success in influencing customer satisfaction may
depend, in part, on understanding how customer expectations are viewed
as dynamic since they may change as a result of the customer’s
experience.

A review of the literature suggests that consumers may use multiple types
of expectations in their satisfaction evaluation process (Cadotte et al.,

20
1987: Tse and Wilton,1988). However, the types most often referred to
are predictive expectations and normative expectations. Predictive
expectations are generally defined as consumer beliefs about the level of
service that a specific service firm would be likely to offer. These
expectations are frequently used as a standard of reference against which
satisfaction judgements are made (Churchill and Suprenant,1982).
Normative expectations are generally conceptualized as consumers’
ideals level of service which can be referred as desires too.

As mentioned before, numerous researchers have attempted to apply

customer satisfaction theories developed by consumer behaviourists in
different areas and industries.

In the 1980s, customer satisfaction was explained by the expectation

disconfirmation theory. While there are a variety of approaches to the
explanation of customer satisfaction/dissatisfaction, the most widely used
is the expectation disconfirmation theory (Oliver, 1980).

As explained by this theory in the late 1980s, in the marketing context,

customer satisfaction is a collective outcome of perception, evaluation,
and psychological reactions to the consumption experience with a
product/service (Yi, 1990). This theory suggests that satisfaction is
determined by the intensity and direction of the gap between
expectations and perceived performance. As such, expectations are
defined as a set of beliefs held by users about a product/service’s
performance (Teas, 1993; Szajna and Scamell, 1993).

The expectation disconfirmation model suggests that customers

determine satisfaction with a service by comparing perceptions of
performance against their expectations. If there is a disparity between the
expectations and the perceptions of performance, disconfirmation results,
which in turn may affect the level of customer satisfaction (Oliver,1980).
There is considerable empirical evidence to suggest that consumers who
perceive that a performance matches or exceeds their predictive
expectation are more likely to feel satisfied with the service than those
whose expectations are not met (Gupta and Stewart, 1996; Anderson and
Sullivan, 1993).

This model was somehow the dominant paradigm of

satisfaction/dissatisfaction formation for many years .It specifies that
consumer satisfaction/dissatisfaction results from a comparison of
expectations concerning the quality of consumption, with the actual
consumption experiences (Oliver,1980). This model provides the
theoretical basis for understanding the formation of consumer satisfaction
(Anderson and Sullivan, 1993; Churchill and Surprenant, 1982) and the

21
assessment of service quality (Brown and Swartz, 1989; Parasuraman et
al., 1988).

According to this theory, which has been tested and confirmed in several
studies (Oliver and DeSarbo, 1988; Tse and Wilton, 1988), customers
purchase goods and services with pre-purchase expectations about
anticipated performance. Once the product or service has been purchased
and used, outcomes are compared against expectations. When outcome
matches expectations, confirmation occurs. Disconfirmation occurs when
there are differences between expectations and outcomes.

Satisfaction is also of great interest to practitioners because of its

important effect on customer retention Patterson et al., 1997; Neal, 1999).

As discussed before, in the marketing literature (e.g. Churchill and

Suprenant, 1982; Oliver and DeSarbo, 1988), the disconfirmation theory
emerges as the primary foundation for satisfaction models. According to
this theory, satisfaction is determined by the discrepancy between
perceived performance and cognitive standards such as developed and
validated in the context of physical products (mainly brand names) where
customers were familiar with the attributes of the products and could
develop expectations based on their prior experience/knowledge.

Expectation disconfirmation occurs in three stages: 1) positive

disconfirmation where perceived performance exceeds expectations; 2)
confirmation, where perceived performance meets expectations; and 3)
negative disconfirmation, where perceived performance falls below
expectations. An individual is more likely to be satisfied if the service
meets (confirmation) or exceeds (positive disconfirmation) his/her
expectations (Oliver and Desarbo, 1988). On the other hand, he/she is
more likely to be dissatisfied if the service performance falls below his/her
expectations (negative disconfirmation).

By proposing expectation disconfirmation as the sole determinant of

satisfaction, this theory does not account for the possibility that the
confirmation of high expectations is more likely to lead satisfaction than
the confirmation of low expectations. To resolve this drawback, Tse and
Wilton (1988) included perceived performance as an additional
determinant of satisfaction. Their rationale was that if actual perceived is
expected and confirmed to be low, it may still negatively affect
satisfaction and override the impact of confirmation or positive
disconfirmation, resulting in dissastification. The authors found perceived
performance to be a direct and independent determinant of satisfaction.

22
Negative disconfirmation occurs when product/service performance is less
than expected. Positive disconfirmation occurs when product/service
performance is better than expected. Satisfaction is caused by
confirmation or positive disconfirmation of consumer

expectation and dissatisfaction is caused by negative disconfirmation of

consumer expectations.
Perceived

Performance

Expectation
Overall
Disconfirmati
Satisfaction
on
Desire
Disconfirmati
on

3.3.3.1 The Expectation Disconfirmation Model

3.4 Disconfirmation Theory

Researchers have debated the roles of expectations and desires in

explaining satisfaction. McKinney et al. (2002) applied the expectation
disconfirmation theory without taking into account the potential role of
desire disconfirmation that may possibly be a salient factor in satisfaction
formation. Other studies (e.g.Suh et.al., 1994; Sprieng et. Al., 1996)
argued for the superiority of desires over expectations as a comparison
standard, but did not operationalize or empirically validate the proposed
desire disconfirmation models.

These studies suggested that desires should be used instead of

expectations rather than in addition to expectations. But expectations and
desires are different concepts that can both play important roles in
explaining satisfaction. The main argument used by the desire
disconfirmation proponents (e.g Suh et al., 1994) is that services that
exceed the expected levels, but not the desired levels, may still lead to
feelings of dissatisfaction.

Conversely, one can argue that a customer’s desires for a particular

service may be lower than his/her expectations (i.e., the service is not

23
really wanted by the customer). In such a case, meeting the customer’s
desired level of service while failing to meet his/her expected level (e.g.,
based on what the merchant promised to deliver) may also lead to
dissatisfaction. The customer may still feel dissatisfied if he/she
expectations are not fulfilled, independently of his/her desires. Some
researchers therefore agree with Chin & Lee (2000) and Khalifa and Liu
(2002) on the need to include both desires and expectations as
comparison standards for disconfirmation.

Prior research did not provide conclusive results regarding what cognitive
standard to use in explaining or predicting satisfaction. Some researchers
argued for the superiority of desires over expectations, while others
argued for the simultaneous use of both comparison standards. Therefore
to address these problems, Khalifa and Liu (2000) developed the
disconfirmation model that includes expectation ,desire disconfirmation,
and perceived performance simultaneously as determinants of
satisfaction, differentiating between satisfaction at adoption and post-
adoption satisfaction.

As said above, more recently, Chin and Lee (2000) and Khalifa and Liu
(2000) developed models that include both expectations and desires in
explaining overall satisfaction with information systems and with online
services, respectively. They both adopted direct measures of overall
satisfaction using reflective items (i.e “Overall I am satisfied with…”),
arguing that expectations and desires might have direct and independent
effects over satisfaction. While Chin and Lee (2002) provided the
argument, it was Khalifa and Liu (2002) who empirically verified it-
through their examination of satisfaction with online services in the
adoption stage.

Their results showed that desires and expectations are both important
factors that need to be considered simultaneously in explaining
satisfaction.

Their research presents important theoretical and practical contributions.

On the theoretical side, they provided a better conceptualisation of the
formation of satisfaction by examining its evolution and the variability of
its determinants. On the practical side, their empirical results provide a
better understanding of the respective roles and relative importance of
the determinants of satisfaction.

When not well defined, expectations play a minimal role as a comparison

standard, and desires therefore become more salient determinants of
satisfaction since their formation is less dependent on past
experience/knowledge. Hence they argued that the expectation

24
disconfirmation theory developed in the marketing literature should be
further defined by adding desire disconfirmation to more fully
explain/predict satisfaction and is going to be called as disconfirmation
theory.

Expectatio
n
Disconfirm
ation

Overall
Desire
Satisfactio
Disconfirmati
n
on

Perceived
Performan
ce
Figure 3.4.1 The Disconfirmation Model

3.5 The disconfirmation Model

Both desires and expectations are employed as the comparison standards

in the disconfirmation process. They serve as benchmarks for assessment
of actual perceived performance. The empirical results have important
implications for practitioners. As perceived performance, expectation
disconfirmation, and desire disconfirmation are all significant
determinants of satisfaction, practitioners should pay attention not only to
customers’ expectations and product or service performance, but also to
customers’ desires. Therefore, to improve overall satisfaction, it is
25
important to elicit and strive to satisfy customer desires in addition to
their expectations.

It is therefore essential to create a good match between the value

proposition and customers’ desires and expectations. Due to previous
studies, this research believes that perceived performance has both a
direct effect on satisfaction (Tse and Wilton,1988; Spreng et al., 1996;
Patterson et al., 1997) and mediated effects through expectation
disconfirmation and desire disconfirmation (Oliver and Desarbo, 1988; Suh
et al., 1994). Satisfaction is more probable with higher perceived
performance. Alternatively, perceived performance also affects
satisfaction through determining the outcome of expectation/desire
disconfirmation. Higher performance is more likely to meet or exceed
desires/expectations, leading to more positive disconfirmation and hence
higher satisfaction.

Consistent with Khalifa and Liu (2002), Chin and Lee (2002) and Suh et al.
(1994), it also hypothesizes that desire disconfirmation will affect
satisfaction significantly and positively. When the formation of concrete
expectations is restricted, e.g by lack of experience or knowledge, desires
may emerge to be the salient benchmarks for judging satisfaction.

Spreng et al. (1993) consider that consumer expectations play two

important roles in the determination of satisfaction.

First, expectations strongly influence consumers’ choices of brand or type

of product or service. Second, expectations serve as reference points with
which subsequent perceptions of performance are compared. In some
cases, when consumers find it difficult to judge a product or service
performance due to its complexity, expectations play a major role in the
judgement process (Anderson and Sullivan, 1993). Olshavsky and Miller
(1976) explained that for some complex products with a considerable
ambiguity, consumers’ perceptions of performance may tend to assimilate
towards expectations.

The importance of expectations in evaluations of service quality has been

documented in the service literature (Sweeney et al., 1992; Brown and
Swartz, 1989). Consumer expectations, which some prefer to call
“standards” (Iacobucci et al., 1994), serve as the benchmark against
which quality of a service is evaluated. Clow and Vorhies (1993) consider
the long-term success of service firms to be dependent on the skilful
management of service expectations.

26
As telecommunications evolve from systems providers to service
providers, the perceived performance can be evaluated through the
“service quality” of the mobile service.

It is important to know that measurements of service quality and

customer satisfaction have received considerable attention in the last two
decades (Cronin and Taylor, 1992; Parasuraman et al., 1985, 1991; Rust
et al., 1994). Indeed, Peterson and Wilson (1992) report that over 15,000
articles on customer satisfaction have been written in the past 20 years.
This interest of improving customer satisfaction is not without reason, with
the realization that high service quality results in higher customer
satisafaction, retention and increased market share (Buzzell and Gale,
1987; Danaher and Rust, 1996; Rust et al., 1994).

27
4.0 CHAPTER FOUR

4.1 RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

This chapter will present a detailed idea about how the research will be
conducted. This includes research approach, research design, data
collection, sample selection method and data analysis methods. At the
end of this methodology part validity and reliability issues will be
discussed to follow the quality standards of the research.

4.1.1 RESEARCH PURPOSE

The research purpose is a broad statement of what the research hopes to

achieve. According to the purpose, research could be broadly divided into
exploratory, descriptive and explanatory (Saunders, Lewis & Thornhill
2003).

4.1.2 Exploratory research

Exploratory research are concerned with identifying the real nature of

research problems and, perhaps, of formulating relevant hypothesis for
later tests. (Chisnall, 2005).

Exploratory research gives valuable insight, results in a firm grasp of the

essential character and purpose of specific research surveys, and
encourages the development of creative, alternative research design.

According to (Malhotra & Birks, 2007) exploratory research is

characterised by a flexible and evolving approach to understand
marketing phenomena that are inherently difficult to measure. Its main
objective is to provide insight into an understanding of marketing
phenomena and its used in instances where the subject of the study
cannot be measured in a quantitative manner or the process of
measurement cannot realistically represent particular qualities.

Oppenheim 1992, recommends that these early exploratory interviews

should be tape-recorded and listened to later by the research team, so
that all involved in the programme are able to derive full value from the
views expressed by respondent, including noting any personal hygiene or
honesty.

4.1.3 Descriptive research

Descriptive research designs are usually structured and specifically

designed to measure the characteristics described in a research question.

28
Hypothesis, derived from the theory, usually serve to guide the process
and provide a list of what needs to be measured (Hair, Babin, Money &
Samuel 2003).

The objective of descriptive research is to portray an accurate profile of

persons, events of situations. It is necessary to have a clear picture of the
phenomena on which researcher wish to collect data prior to the collection
of the data (Saunders, Lewis & Thornhill 2003).

Studies that establish causal relationships between variables may be

termed exploratory studies. The emphasis here is on studying a situation
or a problem in order to explain the relationship between variables
(Saunders, Lewis & Thornhill 2003). Exploratory studies are designed to
test whether one event causes another (Hair, Babin, Money & Samuel
2003).The purpose of the research is descriptive. The data has been
collected through questionnaire.

Descriptive research, in contrast to exploratory research, stem from

substantial prior knowledge of marketing variables. Questions should be
designed to secure specific kinds of information, related, perhaps to
product performance, market share, competitive strategies, distribution
etc for this type of research to be productive (Chisnall, 2005).

4.1.4 Research approach

The knowledge claims, the strategies and the method all contribute to a
research approach that tends to be more quantitative, qualitative or
mixed (Creswell 2003)

The quantitative approach will be used in this research.

Quantitative approach is one in which the investigator primarily uses post

positivist claims for developing knowledge (that is cause and effect
thinking, reduction to specific variables and hypotheses and questions,
use of instrument and observation, and the test of theories), employs
strategies of inquiry such as experiments that yield statistical data
(Creswell 2003).

In quantitative research, data is quantified and statistical methods are

used in the data analysis. It aims to give results that are representative to
the whole population. (Malhotra & Birks 2000, 155-156) Typical difference
between the methods is how different stages of research are separated.
The quantitative method makes a clear distinction between the different
stages of data collection, preparation and analysis, whereas the

29
qualitative method does not. (Uusitalo 1991, 80) Instead of being
exclusive, qualitative and quantitative methods should be seen as
complementary to one and another (Hirsjärvi et al 2005).

According to (Denzin and Lincoln 1994) qualitative research is multi

method in focus, involving an interpretive, naturalistic approach to its
subject matter. In other words, qualitative researchers study things in
their natural settings, attempting to make sense of, or interpret,
phenomena in terms of the meanings people bring to them.

According to (Yin,1994) qualitative methods are often related to case

studies, where the aim is to receive thorough information and thereby
obtain a deeper understanding of the research purpose.

Qualitative research can, for example, be used to precede quantitative

research in identifying the appropriate variables that can then be
measured. Conversely, a quantitative research may be conducted to
discover meaningful differences between groups, which can then be
analyzed in qualitative manner to gain understanding of the reasons for
differences between the groups. It is also possible to use the methods
simultaneously. (Hirsjärvi et al 2005; Malhotra & Birks 2000)

Since the purpose is to determine customer satisfaction through service

quality, quantitative research is found to be more appropriate for this
study.

4.1.5 Data Collection Method

The study is based on both secondary and primary data in order to find
sufficient and describing data. As a result of wanting the information
gathered to be focused on specific research question a survey
questionnaire will be administered.

Data collection is a fundamental step in research. In data collection,

sampled data are collected through various means that provide a basis for
analyzing the market behaviour of a general population from which the
data are sampled.

When a report is written the research can be based on primary or

secondary data or both of them. Secondary data is information taken from
other researchers. Secondary data are data that have already been
collected for purposes other than the problem at hand. (Malhotra & Birks,
2007)

30
Many times secondary data can be easier or more practical to use
because of the availability of already existing information. (Lundahl and
Skarvad, 1992). The collection and analysis of secondary data help to
define the marketing research problem and develop an approach. It can
also be an essential component of a successful research design by
locating and analysing relevant secondary data before collecting primary
data. (Malhotra & Birks, 2007)

Primary data are data originated by a researcher for the specific purpose
of addressing the problem at hand. (Malhotra & Birks, 2007) Primary data
is, data collected for the first time and for a specific purpose. There are
two main methods by which primary data can be collected-observation
and communication. Observation method is used to get both past and
current information. For example, instead of asking respondents about
their current behaviour, we may observe it and record observations.
(Richard D. Crisp)

4.2 Sampling Method

Data were collected using self-administered questionnaires from the MTNs

mobile phone users in the city of Lagos. A convenience sampling (Non
probability) method was used to select respondents for the study. 100
questionnaires were administered in total. The rating scale varied form
“Very Satisfied” to “No Opinion”.

The questionnaires were administered on the streets of Lagos at Ikeja

area of residence, and the choice of this method of data collection was of
high priority because the residents of Lagos State are mostly very busy
people, who leave their homes for work or trade very early in the morning
(5.00am) and return late (some people return as late as between 22.00-
23.00pm). There will probably be little or no available time to attend to
the questionnaires if dropped at their homes and failure of power supply
(electricity) is very common at nights.

4.2.1 SELECTING THE SAMPLING METHOD

Selection of the sampling method to use in a study depends on a number

of related theoretical and practical issues. Traditional sampling method
can be divided into two categories: probability and non-probability
sampling (Samuel et. al., 2003)

Probability sampling is most commonly associated with survey-based

research where researcher needs to make inferences from the sample
about a population to answer the research questions or to meet research

31
objectives (Saunders et. al., 2003). In probability sampling, sampling
elements are selected randomly and the probability of being selected is
determined ahead of time by the researcher. If done properly, probability
sampling ensures that the sample is representative (Hair et. al., 2003)

Non-probability sampling provides a range of alternative techniques based

on the researcher subjective judgment (Saunders et.al., 2003). In non-
probability sampling the selection of elements for the sample is not
necessary made with the aim of being statistically representative of the
population. Rather the researcher uses the subjective methods such as
personal experience, convenience, expert judgment and so on to select
the elements in the sample. As a result the probability of any element of
the population being chosen is not known (Samuel et. al. 2003)

According to Samuel et. al., 2003 most non-probability sampling methods

are:

4.2.1.1 Convenience Sampling

Convenience sampling involves select sample numbers who can provide

required information and who are more available to participate in the
study. Convenience samples enable the researcher to complete a large
number of interviews and quickly. (Hair et. al., 2003)

4.2.1.2 Judgment Sampling

Researcher’s judgment is used to select sample element and it involves

for a specific purpose. Group of people who have knowledge about
particular problem they can be selected as sample element. Sometimes it
referred as a purpose sample because it involves a specific purpose. (Hair
et. al 2003)

4.2.1.3 Quota Sampling

Objective of quota sampling is to have proportional representation of the

strata of the target population for the total sample and the certain
characteristics describe the dimensions of the population (Cooper &
Schindler 2003). In quota sampling the researcher defines the strata of
the target population, determines the total sample size and set a quota
for the sample elements from each stratum. The findings from the
sampling cannot be generalized because of the choice of elements is not
done using a probability sampling methods (Samouel et. al, 2003)

4.3 RESEARCH INSTRUMENT

32
Questionnaire is the instrument used in this study to collect data. The
questionnaire employed the typical form of fixed-response alternative
questions that required the respondent to select from a predetermined set
of answers to every question. According to Malhotra and Birks (2003, pp.
224), this survey approach is the most common method of primary data
collection in marketing research and the advantages are simple
administration and data consistency.

The survey questionnaires were administered on the streets (mode of

data collection): the questionnaires were filled out mostly by the people
themselves. Malhotra and Birks (2003) showed in their evaluation of
comparative survey techniques that street interviews have high flexibility
of data collection, high degree of diversity of questions due to interaction
and high response rate, moderate sample control, moderate quantity of
data, moderate to high great potential to probe respondents, moderate to
high great potential to build rapport, moderate to high speed and cost of
data collection. These qualities were responsible for the choice of this
survey technique for this study.

The questionnaires employed the Likert non-comparative scaling

technique. It is a widely used rating scale which requires the respondents
to indicate a degree of agreement or disagreement with each of a series
of statements or questions (Albaum, 1997). This rating scale is easy to
construct and administer and respondents readily understand how to use
the scale (Malhotra and Birks, 2003).

The Likert scale used in this study is odd numbered (as proposed by
Spagna, 1984); balanced (the number of favorable and unfavorable
categories is equal). This view is proposed by Watson (1992), who
reported the balanced state helps to obtain an objective data; has non-
forced choices “no opinion” to improve the accuracy of the data (as
proposed by Hasnich, 1992); and 5-scaled categories which conforms to
the traditional guidelines reported by Aaker (1997). He proposed that the
categories scale should be between 5 and 9.

The questions seeks respondents feelings about overall customer

satisfactions, satisfaction for dimensions service quality, importance of
dimensions of service quality, and switching intension of customers. In all,
the questionnaire had four parts consisting of fifty-five (55) items; five (5)
related to respondents’ identification data, four (4) for overall customer
satisfaction with service delivery, thirty-seven (37) related to customer

33
satisfaction with dimensions of SERVQUAL and eight (8) related to
importance of SERVQUAL dimensions and one (1) related to switching
intention of customers.

4.4 SELECTION OF RESPONDENTS

The location is based firstly on my experience of the area and secondly on

the Wikipedia article (2006) on the history of Lagos State. Ikeja is the
capital choice of residence for state parastatals, corporate bodies, top
state officers, civil officers, businessmen and averagely rich people. It is
the choice of residence for civil officers, business people, etc.

A total number of 100 people were interviewed for this study. This number
is in accordance with the views of Dillman (2000) and Hill et al. (2003),
who reported that a sample size of 100 and above is sufficient to present
good concise research findings and also, provide good representation of
the population or organization or any subject investigated. Selection is by
convenience sampling (Non-probability sampling); interception of mobile
users (questionnaires were handled out to every passerby and interested
people waited to fill the forms) on streets in the central area of the chosen
location on their way to work, lunch, school and shopping centers, etc.
The points of data collection were changed within the chosen central
location to minimize bias. 100 respondents were administered the
questionnaires.

4.5 DATA ANALYSIS

After collecting all the data the process of analysis begins. To summarize
and rearrange the data several interrelated procedure are performed
during the data analysis stage (Zikmund, 2000).

For quantitative data analysis, statistical tools of Microsoft excel and SPSS
are used for data input and analysis. The statistics results were presented
by tabular form with detail description.

4.6 VALIDITY AND RELIABITY

In order to reducing the possibility of getting the answer wrong, attention

need to be paid to particular on research design: reliability and validity
(Saunders et.al., 2003).

4.7 VALIDITY

Validity is concerned with whether the findings are really about what they
appear to be about (Saunders et.al., 2003). Validity defined as the extent

34
to which data collection method or methods accurately measure what
they were intended to measure (Saunders et.al., 2003). Cooper &
Schindler (2003) believe that validity refers to the extent to which a test
measures what we actually wish to measure. There are two major forms:
external and internal validity. The external validity of research findings
refers to the data’s ability to be generalized across persons, settings, and
times. Internal validity is the ability of a research instrument to measure
what is purposed to measure. (Cooper & Schindler, 2003).

4.4.2 RELIABILITY

According to Saunders et al (2003), reliability refers to the degree to

which data collection method or methods will yield consistent findings,
similar observations would be made or conclusions reached by other
researchers or there is transparency in how sense was made from the raw
data. Cooper & Schindler (2003) have defined reliability as many things to
many people, but in most contexts the notion of consistency emerges.
Reliability is a necessary contributor to validity but is not a sufficient
condition for validity. Numbers of different steps were taken to ensure the
reliability of the study: the theories that have been selected for the study
was clearly described and research question was formulated based on the
previous theory. Data will be collected based on the frame of reference
that was drawn from the discussed theories. The objective is to make sure
that if another investigator will follow the same procedures and used the
same questionnaires objects, the same conclusions would be made.

35
 CHAPTER FIVE

5.0 DATA ANALYSIS

This chapter consists of two parts: Data presentation and Discussion. Data
presentation covers data on respondents’ characteristics, customer
satisfaction measurement and satisfaction with service quality
dimensions, relative importance of service quality dimensions and
switching intention. The discussion is an analysis of hypotheses, results
and findings to answer the research questions.

Since the characteristics of the respondents influence the results, here’s

the presentation of descriptive data of respondents.

Frequen Valid Cumulative

cy Percent Percent Percent

Valid Male 53 53.0 53.0 53.0

Femal 47 47.0 47.0 100.0

e

Total 100 100.0 100.0

Table 5.1.1Respondent’s Gender

The respondents’ gender as displayed in Table 5.1.1 indicates that the

males (53%) were slightly more than the females (45%). This further
implies that there was a good representation of both genders in the
sample.

36
 Frequen Valid Cumulative
cy Percent Percent Percent

Valid Civil servant 15 15.0 15.0 15.0

Students 45 45.0 45.0 60.0

Businessman/wo 19 19.0 19.0 79.0

man

other 21 21.0 21.0 100.0

Total 100 100.0 100.0

Table 5.1.2 Respondents’ Occupation

Table 5.1.2 depicts respondents’ Occupation. Most of the respondents

were students representing 45% followed by others representing 21%
while 19% and 15% were business persons and civil servants respectively.

Frequen Valid Cumulative

cy Percent Percent Percent

Valid Below 20 12 12.0 12.0 12.0

20-29 44 44.0 44.0 56.0

30-39 30 30.0 30.0 86.0

40-49 9 9.0 9.0 95.0

50 and 5 5.0 5.0 100.0

above

Total 100 100.0 100.0

37
 Table 5.1.3 Age of respondents

Table 5.1.3 indicates the respondents’ age. It is obvious that most of them
were in the young adult age and economically active group, between the
ages of 20 and 39 consisting of 74% (44% and 30%), while the rest
constitute 12% made up of respondents below 20, between 40 and 49,
and 50 years plus.

Frequen Valid Cumulative

cy Percent Percent Percent

Valid Below 4 4.0 4.0 4.0

N100

N100-200 16 16.0 16.0 20.0

N 100- 32 32.0 32.0 52.0

300

Above 48 48.0 48.0 100.0

N300

Total 100 100.0 100.0

Table 5.1.4 Income Level of respondents

Table 5.1.4 displays the respondents’ income levels. It indicates that

generally, a relative larger number of the respondents 48% were in the
high income groups of which 48% earned above N300 per month and 32%
were non-income earners, probably because they come from the student
group. About one-third constituting 16% of the respondents were earning
below N200 and N100 per month.

38
 Frequen
cy Percent

Valid WASSCE 2 2.0

Post-Secondary 7 7.0

Diploma/HNDIplom 16 16.0
a

Bachelor's degree 39 39.0

Post-graduate 32 32.0
Diploma/Masters

phD 4 4.0

Total 100 100

Total 100 100.0

Table 5.1.5 Respondents’ Education

Figure 5.1.5 depicts respondents’ level of education. They indicate the

education levels were normally distributed. All the respondents were
educated, with two-thirds constituting 55% of the respondents having
Higher National Diploma (HND,(16%) and Bachelor’s degree (39%). The
rest representing (45%) were in the extremes, consisting of those with at
least education up to Post-Secondary level (9%) and those with post-
graduate and doctoral education (36%). The statistics further indicate that
most of the respondents (91%) had higher education while a relatively
small number (9%) had at least high school education.

39
 5.2 Measuring Customer Satisfaction with Service Quality

In measuring customer satisfaction with service quality, desire and

expectation disconfirmations, and overall satisfaction were used.
Categorically, customer satisfaction was measured irrespective of mobile
network.

5.2.1 Disconfirmation models

Disconfirmation models are models that state that customer satisfaction

occurs when there is confirmation or disconfirmation as result of a
customer comparing his/her service performance or perceived service
quality with his/her expectations or desire or some cognitive standards
(Parasuraman, et al., 1998, Gronroos 2000, 2001).

Within the Disconfirmation school, it has been empirically established that

expectation disconfirmation should be used in addition to and not instead
of desire disconfirmation in explaining or analysing customer satisfaction
(Khalifa and Liu, 2002). So satisfaction will be measured using both desire
and expectation disconfirmation scales. The indicators for these variables
are shown in Table 5.2.1

D DESIRE DISCONFIRMATION
D
How well did the services you received from your network compare
with the ideal/desired services?

E EXPECTATION DISCONFIRMATION
D
To what extent have your mobile network services met your
expectations?

Table 5.2.1 Variables for Desire and Expectation Disconfirmation

5.2.2 Overall Satisfaction

Customer satisfaction can be measured using overall satisfaction

measures. Overall satisfaction refers to the overall evaluation of the
services quality delivered by an organisation. The indicators of this
measure is one question that ask customers to rate their overall
satisfaction of the service received. This will be measured using a single

40
question (Table 3.4.2.2) to which respondents will be asked to rate their
satisfaction on a five-point likert-scale: Very Dissatisfied, Neutral, Satisfied
and Very satisfied.

OC OVERALL CUSTOMER SATISFACTION

S
Overall, tell how satisfied you are with the service delivery of your
network.

Table 5.2.2 Indicator for Measuring Overall Satisfaction

5.2.3 Indicator and Measurement of Switching Intention of

Customers

Customer switching intention is important to consider in analysing

customer satisfaction as it is one of the outcome of customer satisfaction.
In this study switching intention will be measured by using a single
question (Table 3.4.3) to which respondents will be asked to rate their
switching intention on a five-point liker-scale: Definitely yes, a bit yes,
Neutral, a bit No and Definitely No.

SI SWITCHING INTENTION

Do you have any intention of switching to use a better network’s

services?

Table 5.2.4 Indicator for Measuring Switching Intention

5.3 Results of disconfirmation measures and overall customer

satisfaction measure

Customers were asked to rate their satisfaction with service quality using
desire disconfirmation (DD), expectation Disconfirmation (ED) measures
and overall Customer satisfaction (OCS) measures. The ED measure had a
five-point likert scale: “much worse than expected”, “worse than
expected”, “equal to expectation”, better than expected and “much worse
than expected”. The scale for DD measure was also five-point likert scale:
“very dissatisfied”, “dissatisfied”, “neutral”, “satisfied”, and “very
satisfied” where: 1 representing the lowest and 5 representing the
highest.

41
5.4 Description using overall satisfaction measure, customer
satisfaction with service quality delivered by MTNs in Nigeria
irrespective of which mobile telecom network customers
subscribe to.

The following (Table 5.4.1) shows a descriptive statistics of three

measures: ED, DD and OCS.

Minimu Maximu Std.

N m m Mean Deviation

Sample Audience 100 1 5 2.33 .842

expectation of
mobile network
services (ED)

Respondents 100 1 5 2.69 1.022

desired services
(DD)

Networks service 100 1 5 3.03 1.185

delivery (OCS)

42
Table 5.4.1Descriptive Statistics of Satisfaction Measures

Table 5.4.1 indicates that the mean rating of customer satisfaction using
DD measure is 2.69 with standard deviation of 1.022 while ED measure,
the mean is 2.33 with standard deviation of .842. Using OCS, the mean
rating of customers was 3.03 with standard deviation of 1.185, being the
highest.

H1: Service quality positively influences customer satisfaction in MTNs

mobile telecom Network
Minimu Maximu Std.
N m m Mean Deviation

Customer 100 1 5 2.69 1.022

Satisfaction

Networks service 100 1 5 3.03 1.185

Quality

Valid N (listwise) 100

Table 5.4.2 Descriptive Statistics of Service quality and customer

satisfaction

43
Table 5.4.2 above also indicates that service quality influence customer
satisfaction in MTNs mobile telecom Network, indicating that when
telecom companies provide good service quality customer satisfaction can
be enhanced. Service quality positively influenced customer satisfaction.
In other words, higher service quality can lead to higher customer
satisfaction.

Hypothesis (H2): Service quality relates positively to mobile loyalty.

H3: Service quality positively influences perceived value in MTNs mobile

network

Hypothesis (H4): Switching costs relate positively to mobile loyalty.

Standardiz
ed
Unstandardized Coefficient
Coefficients s

Model B Std. Error Beta t Sig.

1 (Constant) 1.549 .328 4.715 .000

Switching Cost(H4) .195 .071 .247 2.758 .007

Networks service .104 .074 .126 1.406 .163

Quality (H3)

Respondents .397 .081 .440 4.920 .000

(value) (H2)

Table 5.4.3 Linear Regression with Loyalty as Dependent Variable

44
The results in the table 5.2.3 above showed that Value and switching
costs related significantly and positively to loyalty, thereby supporting H2
and H4. Furthermore, value related to mobile loyalty more than service
quality and switching costs did. However, Service Quality was insignificant
and failed to support H3.Service and values tend to be strong when
consumers view products as mainly functional tools (Ahtola, 1985; Batra
and Ahtola, 1990; Voss, Spangenberg and Grohmann, 2003). In contrast,
consumers who enjoy using products as hedonic toys tend to be less
concerned with cognitive factors such as service quality and value.

5.5 Customer Satisfaction with Service Quality Dimensions

A detailed descriptive statistics of the results of customer rating of their

satisfaction with four service quality dimensions can be found in Appendix
C

5.5.1 Importance of SERVQUAL Dimensions

Customers were asked to rate the importance of service quality

dimensions on a five-point likert scale: “Not at all important”, “Not
important”, “Neither important nor unimportant”, “Important”, and “Very
important” where: 1 representing the slowest and 5 representing
the highest.

45
A summary of descriptive statistics is presented in Table 5.5.1.

46
Dimensions Minimu Maximu Std.
N m m Mean Deviation

Tangibles 100 1 5 3.35 1.132

Assurance 100 1 5 3.24 1.129

Responsiveness 100 1 5 3.47 4.167

Empathy 100 1 5 3.30 1.243

Reliability 100 1 5 3.45 1.077

Economy 100 1 5 3.38 1.204

Technical 100 1 5 3.45 1.114

Image 100 1 5 3.19 1.203

Valid 100

Table 5.5.1 Summary Descriptive Statistics of Important

SERVQUAL Dimensions

As to which dimensions are perceived by customers as more important

than others, Table 5.5.2shows ranking of service quality of service quality
dimensions in order of customers’ priority.

47
 DIMENSIONS RANKINGS

(IN
ASCENDING
ORDER)

Reliable 1

Technical Quality 2

Responsiveness 3

Assurance 4

Economy 5

Image 6

Empathy 7

Tangibles 8

Table 5.5.2 prioritised Dimensions of SERQUAL in MTNs in Nigeria

Table 5.3.4 indicates that the most important service quality dimension to
the customers is Reliability, followed by Technical quality,
Responsiveness, Assurance, Economy, Image and Empathy being least
important. “Tangibles” dimension, as earlier indicated in Table 5.3.3 is
unimportant to the customers.

5.6 Switching intentions within and between mobile networks

Customers were asked to rate their intention to switch to a better mobile

network operator on a five-point likert scale: “definitely yes”, “a bit yes”,
“neutral”, “a bit no” and “definitely yes”. These were coded 1 to 4
respectively. However, customers are not willing to switch from a specific
mobile telecom network to another. A summary of results is presented in
a cross tabulation and descriptive statistics for switching intentions in
table 5.6.1

48
Count

Mobile Networks of Sample

Audience

Globaco
Zain MTN m Etisalat Total

Respondents definitely 2 3 3 2 10
switching yes
intentions
a bit yes 4 15 1 2 22

neutral 7 16 6 2 31

a bit no 2 10 5 2 19

definitely 3 14 1 0 18
no

Total 18 58 16 8 100

Table 5.6.2 Cross tabulation of Switching among Mobile Networks

in Nigeria

In Table 5.4.1 shows results of customer rating among the four Mobile
Networks in this study. For ZAIN, 33.3% are willing to switch to another
network while 38.9% and 27.8% are neutral and not willing to switch
respectively. For MTN, 31.0% of the customers are willing to switch while
27.6% and 41.4% are neutral and not willing to switch respectively. For
Globacom, 25% are willing to switch while 37.5% and 37.5% are neutral
and not willing to switch respectively. For Etisalat, 50% are willing to
switch, while 25% and 25% are neutral and not willing to switch
respectively.

In all 32% of customers are willing to switch to another network while 31%
and 37% are neutral and not willing to switch respectively in the Mobile
Telecom market.

49
 Chi-Square Tests
Asymp. Sig.
Value df (2-sided)
Pearson Chi-Square 13.518a 12 .333
Likelihood Ratio 15.317 12 .225
Linear-by-Linear .985 1 .321
Association
N of Valid Cases 100
5.6.2b 14 cells (70.0%) have expected count
less than 5. The minimum expected count is .80.

5.6.2c Symmetric Measures

Approx.
Value Sig.
Nominal by Phi .368 .333
Nominal Cramer's V .212 .333
N of Valid Cases 100

Table 5.6.2c indicate that a Chi square of .333 was obtained, however the
14 cells (70.0%) have expected count less than 5.Therefore, it can be
concluded that there is no significant relationship between Switching
intentions and mobile network sample audience.

5.7 Research Questions

5.7.1 Which dimensions of service quality are important to

customers of MTNs in Nigeria?

In prioritising the SERVQUAL dimensions, the mean ranking of the

dimensions (Table 5.5.2) indicated that Reliability is the most important
dimension, followed by Technical quality, Responsiveness, Assurance,
Economy, Image , while Empathy was the least important dimension.

In relation to other research work, three of most important SERVQUAL

dimensions: technical quality, empathy and reliability were found among
the strongly rated SERVQUAL dimensions in Iran Mobile Telecom Market

50
(IMTM) in the work of Satari S. (2007), but technical quality and reliability
were found to be more important than the others in Iran Aseman Airline
(IAA) by Borzorgi M.M (2007). However, “tangibles” which Borzorgi (2007)
found to be more important in IAA was not important at all in MTNs in
Nigeria and received lower rating in Iran’s Mobile Telecom Market. Again,
while assurance responsiveness dimensions that were found less
important in Nigeria’s MTNs received similar ratings in IAA and IMTN
respectively. The trends in these comparative findings are consistent with
the conclusion of Chowdhary N. and Prakash M., (2007, p. 506) that “no
simple generalization of relative importance of determinants of service
quality is possible that importance of determinants of quality for
customers would vary across different service types”.

5.7.2 What is the switching intention among customers of MTNs

in Nigeria?

Switching intention (SI) statistics (Table 5.4.1) reveal that 6% of Zain

customers are willing to switch to another network, followed by 18% of
MTNs customers who are willing to switch, and 4% and another 4% of
Globacom and Etisalat who are willing to switch. Thus, a considerable
number of Zain customers are not willing to switch. This is supported by
the fact a smaller proportion of the respondents of Zain are not willing to
switch.

Conversely, the rating of switching intention for MTNs, Globacom and

Etisalat shows that 16%, 6%, and 2% respectively are not willing to
switch. These findings are supported by the fact that generally their
outcomes are neutral and not willing to switch (5%, 24%, 6%, 2%, 31%,
37% respectively) as have been analysed.

Therefore, it can be said that switching intentions is not equal among the
mobile telecom networks in Nigeria.

51
 CHAPTER SIX

6.0 SUMMARY, CONCLUSION AND IMPLICATIONS

This concluding chapter summarises the purpose and objectives of the

study, the major findings and conclusions, discusses the implications for
marketing, and makes recommendation for further research.

6.1 Summary of Findings and Conclusions

In this study the purpose was to measure customer satisfaction with

service quality delivered by Nigeria’s Mobile Telecom Networks
irrespective of mobile telecom network using expectation disconfirmation
measures and overall satisfaction measures. The study examined
customer satisfaction with service quality dimensions, prioritised
SERVQUAL dimensions and switching intentions among customers of
MTNs in Nigeria.

Out of the 100 sample population, 100 responded to the questionnaire

administered. Based on the objectives of data analysis and discussion of
results and findings, the following are the summary of major findings and
conclusions of this study:

Irrespective of mobile telecom network in Nigeria, the measures pointed

that customer satisfaction is low and not equal to or better than desired or
expectation, so the customers are not satisfied with service quality
delivered by MTNs in Nigeria.

Overall customer satisfaction is significantly different among Mobile

Telecom Networks in Nigeria.

According to customer priority, Reliability is the most important

dimension, followed by Technical quality, Responsibility, Assurance,
Economy, Image, while Empathy is the least important dimension.
“Tangibles” is significantly unimportant to the customers.

Switching cost of customers is different among the mobile telecom

networks in Nigeria, but the customers of MTNs are significantly more
willing to switch than those Zain, Globacom and Etisalat.

6.2 Implications of the Findings

6.2.1 To Industry Regulators and Policy Makers

It has been found in this study that generally customer satisfaction with
service quality is low or less than expected and desired in the Nigeria

52
MTNs. This imply that policy makers and industry regulators such as
Nigerian Communications Commission Authority in Nigeria, need to be
awakened to this empirical fact and take pragmatic steps to ensure that
mobile telecom network operators in Nigeria improve their efficiency and
effectiveness in the provision of telecommunication services that meet
and exceed customer need, desire and expectation.

This can be done by sensitising and encouraging the various mobile

network companies to focus more attention and resources on more
important service quality dimensions for which customers are not satisfied
and to focus little attention on unimportant and less important
dimensions.

In this regard, first of all, efforts and resources should be focused on

improving Reliability, Technical quality, empathy and economy of the
service quality delivered. Within these SERVQUAL dimensions, more
management efforts and intensive strategy must be geared towards
improving upon important dimensions.

Moreover, the service quality should be improved by making the services

more economical so that customers can afford and have better value for
their money or sacrifices made for using the mobile network services. By
pursuing this, the service quality and therefore customer satisfaction
would be improved in the “economy” dimension.

Also in “responsiveness” service quality, management should develop

strategies to improve upon the “ability to tell customers exactly when
services will be performed”, “ability to prompt customer services” and to
attend to customers’’ need/problems”, “employees willingness to help
customers in emergency situations” and “easy contact and
approachability of employees”.

Furthermore, some attention and effort should be given to sustain the

assurance dimension especially employees’ use of required skills and
knowledge in answering customers questions.

Finally, in Nigeria’s MTNs, the regulators should encourage marketers

through marketing seminars and workshops to seek meeting and
exceeding not only the expectations of customers but also customer
desired set of service quality and experiences. Thus, satisfaction may be
more significantly affected by the degree to which their expectations,
rather than their desires, are met (Khalifa, Liu, 2003). Conversely, the
effect of expectation disconfirmation on satisfaction may be considerably
weakened when confidence in expectations is low or minimal. In other

53
words, confidence in expectations may moderate the relationships
between expectation/desire disconfirmation and satisfaction.

6.2.2 To the Mobile Network Company

Specifically, the findings of this study imply that the management of MTNs
must seriously take knowledge of their customer dissatisfaction with their
service quality and work harder to develop effective strategies to improve
the situation, work towards exceeding the expectation and desired service
quality of their customers and consider its customer switching intention
since the study indicates that switching intention is significantly different
among the MTNs in Nigeria and especially that, the customers of the
company are willing to switch to use better network services from other
competitor mobile telecom in Nigeria.

6.3 Final Conclusion

The final conclusion of this study is that generally customers are not
satisfied with service quality delivered by mobile telecom networks in
Nigeria or that their satisfaction is considerably low.

6.4 Recommendations for Further Research

This study mainly assessed and analysed customer satisfaction with

service quality in Nigeria’s MTNs. It is recommended that future research
should:

Examine customer satisfaction with specific service areas delivered across

mobile telecom networks such as the delivery of MMS, SMS, Internet
Services, customised services, customer services, e.t.c.

Examine customer satisfaction with fixed lines or prepaid telecom

services.

Develop and verify a model of customer satisfaction for Nigeria’s telecom

Industry or verify disconfirmation theories in other different industry
settings.

6.5 Limitations of the study

The study was a questionnaire-based survey and used a quantitative

approach. Its therefore, recommended that different models and
methodology should be used for a similar study and compare the results.

In addition, another major limitation of the study is that a relatively

smaller sample of the target population was used and limited to literates.

54
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APPENDICE A

QUESTIONNAIRE

Dear mobile network subscriber, this questionnaire is designed to collect

information about how you feel about the service delivery of your mobile
network in Nigeria. (MTN), at least for the last 12 months. Your responses will be
treated confidential and used for only academic purpose. I am a student of
London Metropolitan University, London.

SECTION A

69
 CUSTOMER SATISFACTION WITH SERVICE DELIVERY

1. Which mobile network(s) do you use? Tick all the networks you use.

( ) Zain ( ) MTN ( ) Globacom ( ) Etisalat

2. Which mobile telecom network services do you use most often?

( ) MTN ( ) Zain ( ) Globacom ( ) Etisalat

Use the responses from 1-5 to answer, where: 1 representing the

lowest and 5 representing the highest

3. To what extent has your mobile network services met your expectations?

Very satisfied Satisfied Dissatisfied Very dissatisfied No opinion

1 2 3 4 5

4. How well was the service you received from your network compared to the
desired services?

Very Satisfied Satisfied Dissatisfied Very dissatisfied No

opinion

1 2 3 4
5

5. Do you have the intention of switching to a better network?

( ) Definitely yes ( ) a bit yes ( ) Neutral ( ) a bit No

( ) Definitely No

SECTION B

CUSTOMER SATISFACTION WITH SERVICE QUALITY DIMENSIONS

In your opinion, how does the service quality of your mobile network meet
your expectations in terms of the following dimensions? Use the responses
from 1-5 to answer, where:

1- Much worse than expected 2- Worse than expected 3-

Equal to expectation

4-Better than expected 5- Much better than expected

DIMENSIONS Circle only one option in 1-5

How tangible is the use of your mobile telecom

network’s services in terms of

70
TA Your network’s ability to give you access to 1 2 3 4 5
1 information, SIM card (chip), reload cards

TA Provision of visually attractive, offices, equipment and 1 2 3 4 5

2 materials like starter packs and reloads cards

TA Network’s ability to providing variety of entertainment 1 2 3 4 5

3 facilities, e.t.c

TA Appearance and uniforms of employees of your 1 2 3 4 5

4 network .

How reliable is the use of your mobile telecom

network’s services in terms of

RL How timely is the delivery of SMS, MMS, Voice 1 2 3 4 5

1 message and other services of your network

RL How truthful (keeping to promises) is your mobile 1 2 3 4 5

2 network to you?

RL How dependable and consistent is your network in 1 2 3 4 5

3 network in solving customers’ complaints?

RL How able is your network to perform services right 1 2 3 4 5

4 the first time?

RL How able is your network to insist on error-free 1 2 3 4 5

5 records

How responsive is the use of your mobile

telecom network’s services in terms of:

RS How is your network able to tell customers exactly 1 2 3 4 5

1 when services will be performed?

RS How able is your network to give prompt customer 1 2 3 4 5

2 services and attend to customers’ needs/problems?

RS How are employees’ willing to help customers in 1 2 3 4 5

3 emergency situations?

RS How are the employees approachable and easy to 1 2 3 4 5

4 contact?

RS Employees’ ability to communicate clearly with you 1 2 3 4 5

5

How epithetical is the use of your mobile

telecom network’s services in terms of

71
EM Having convenient periods & terms for activation, 1 2 3 4 5
1 recharge, and accounts suspension, free call times

EM Having operating hours convenient to all customers 1 2 3 4 5

2

EM Having sound loyalty programme to recognise you as 1 2 3 4 5

3 a frequent customer

EM Having the customers’ best interest at heart 1 2 3 4 5

4

EM Giving individual customer attention by employees 1 2 3 4 5

5

EM Efforts to understand specific customer needs 1 2 3 4 5

6

EM Apologising for inconvenience caused to customers 1 2 3 4 5

7

How assurance is the use of your mobile

telecom network’s services in terms of

AS Ability to provide variety of value added services- 1 2 3 4 5

1 Music, access to internet, SMS, MMS, e.t.c

AS Sincerity and patience in resolving customers’ 1 2 3 4 5

2 complaints/problems

AS The behaviour of employees in instilling confidence in 1 2 3 4 5

3 customers

AS Employees’ use of required skills and knowledge to 1 2 3 4 5

4 answer customers’ questions.

How economical is the use of your mobile

telecom network’s services in terms of

EC Reloading card and their denominations? 1 2 3 4 5

1

EC The call charge per minute/second? 1 2 3 4 5

2

How technical is the use of your mobile telecom

network’s services in terms of

TQ Successful in completion of calls, SMS, MMS, line 1 2 3 4 5

1 activation, credit reloading, etc.

TQ Employees have technological knowledge and skills in 1 2 3 4 5

2 solving customer problems

72
TQ Network clarity and speed for call and other services 1 2 3 4 5
3

TQ Network innovativeness- ability to use current 1 2 3 4 5

4 technology to improve services

TQ Providing adequate network coverage 1 2 3 4 5

5

How imagery is the use of your mobile telecom

network’s services in terms of

IM How successful is your mobile network company? 1 2 3 4 5

1

IM What is the reputation of your mobile network 1 2 3 4 5

2 company?

IM What is the brand image of your mobile network? 1 2 3 4 5

3

IM How socially responsible is your mobile network? 1 2 3 4 5

4

IMPORTANCE OF DIMENSIONS OF SERVICE QUALITY

In receiving or using services of your network, how important is

each of the following dimensions to you? Use scale 1-5 to answer,
where: 1- Not at important 2- Not important 3- Neither
important nor Unimportant 4- Important 5- Very Important

DIMENSIONS Circle only one

option:1-5

(The appealing nature of physical environment, reload 1 2 3 4 5

cards etc)

(Assurance of sincerity, efficiency and variety of 1 2 3 4 5

services)

(Attending to customer needs and complaints promptly 1 2 3 4 5

any time)

(Showing of respect, care and understanding to 1 2 3 4 5

customers’ needs)

(Competence to give timely, reliable services and 1 2 3 4 5

truthful to promises

(Giving customer value for services received 1 2 3 4 5

73
 (Having good network clarity & coverage for call 1 2 3 4 5
completion/services)

( having a good reputation of company and brand 1 2 3 4 5

name)

6. Overall, please tell how satisfied or dissatisfied you are with the service
delivery of your network by circling one of these that best describes your
feelings and perceptions.

Very Dissatisfied Dissatisfied Neither Satisfied

Very Satisfied

Please tick ( ) the appropriate box for your answers.

SECTION C

7. Gender ( ) male ( ) female

8. Age:

( ) below 20 ( ) 20-29 ( ) 30-39 ( ) 40-49 ( ) 50 and above

9. Occupation

( ) civil servant ( ) student ( ) businessman/woman ( )

other

10.Income:

( ) Below N 100 ( ) N 100-200 ( ) N 100-300 ( ) above N 300

11.Educational Level:

( ) WASSCE ( ) Post-Secondary ( ) Diploma/HNDiploma ( )

Bachelor’s degree

( ) Post-graduate Diploma/ Masters ( ) PhD

Thank you for taking time to complete this questionnaire!

APPENDIX B

74
FREQUENCIES OF RATING FOR DISCONFIRMATION MEASURES AND
OVERALL SATISFACTION MEASURES IRRESPECTIVE OF MOBILE
TELECOM NETWORK

Desire Disconfirmation

Frequen Valid Cumulative

cy Percent Percent Percent

Valid Much than 5 5.0 5.0 5.0

desired

Worse than 52 52.0 52.0 57.0

desired

Equal to 17 17.0 17.0 74.0

desire

Better than 21 21.0 21.0 95.0

desired

Much better 5 5.0 5.0 100.0

than desired

Total 100 100.0 100.0

75
 Expectation Disconfirmation

Frequen Valid Cumulative

cy Percent Percent Percent

Valid Much worse 6 6.0 6.0 6.0

than
expected

Worse than 70 70.0 70.0 76.0

expected

Equal to 12 12.0 12.0 88.0

expectation

Better than 9 9.0 9.0 97.0

expected

Much better 3 3.0 3.0 100.0

than
expected

Total 100 100.0 100.0

Overall Customer Satisfaction

Frequen Valid Cumulative

cy Percent Percent Percent

Valid Very 13 13.0 13.0 13.0

dissatisfied

Dissatisfied 21 21.0 21.0 34.0

Neither 24 24.0 24.0 58.0

Stisfied 34 34.0 34.0 92.0

Very 8 8.0 8.0 100.0

Satisfied

Total 100 100.0 100.0

76
APPENDIX C

77
 DESCRIPTIVE STATISTICS OF SATIFACTION RATING FOR
EACH DIMENSION OF SERVICE QUALITY

Minimu Maximu Std.

N m m Mean Deviation

TA1 100 1 5 2.89 .909

TA2 100 1 5 3.03 .958

TA3 100 1 5 3.02 1.044

TA4 100 1 5 3.28 1.092

RL1 100 1 5 3.05 1.029

RL2 100 1 5 3.02 .985

RL3 100 1 5 2.97 .948

RL4 100 1 5 2.91 .996

RL5 100 1 5 3.01 .980

RS1 100 1 5 3.00 1.005

RS2 100 1 5 2.96 1.072

RS3 100 1 5 2.75 1.048

RS4 100 1 6 2.85 1.149

RS5 100 1 5 2.99 1.020

EM1 99 1 5 3.14 1.050

EM2 100 1 5 2.89 .973

EM3 100 1 5 2.96 .974

EM4 100 1 5 2.81 1.080

EM5 100 1 5 2.98 1.025

EM6 100 1 5 2.83 1.138

EM7 100 1 5 2.88 1.174

78
 APPENDIX D

REGRESSION ANALYSIS INVOLVING SWITCHING VALUE LOAYLTY

AND OVERALL CUSTOMER SATISFACTION

Model Summary

Std. Error
Mode R Adjusted R of the
l R Square Square Estimate

1 .528a .279 .256 .840

a. Predictors: (Constant), Having Respondents

best interest at heart, Respondents switching
intentions, Networks service delivery

ANOVAb

Sum of Mean
Model Squares df Square F Sig.

1 Regressio 26.156 3 8.719 12.366 .000a

n

Residual 67.684 96 .705

Total 93.840 99

a. Predictors: (Constant), Having Respondents best interest at

heart, Respondents switching intentions, Networks service
delivery

b. Dependent Variable: Sound loyalty programmes to recognise

frequent Respondents

79
 Coefficientsa

Standardiz
ed
Unstandardized Coefficient
Coefficients s

Model B Std. Error Beta t Sig.

1 (Constant) 1.549 .328 4.715 .000

Respondents .195 .071 .247 2.758 .007

switching
intentions (H4)

Networks service .104 .074 .126 1.406 .163

delivery (H3)

Having .397 .081 .440 4.920 .000

Respondents best
interest at
heart(H2)

Table Linear Regression with Loyalty as Dependent Variable

80
81