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SERVCON: development and validation of a multidimensional service convenience scale

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Abstract

As customers have demanded greater convenience in service exchanges, researchers have responded by incorporating the convenience construct into their conceptual models and empirical studies, but a comprehensive, formally validated measure of convenience remains lacking. This study conceptualizes service convenience as a second-order, five-dimensional construct that reflects consumers’ perceived time and effort in purchasing or using a service. Service convenience dimensions are salient at different stages of the purchase decision process. Given this conceptualization, the study presents the development and validation of the SERVCON scale, a comprehensive instrument for measuring service convenience. The five dimensions are independent within a nomological network that illustrates distinct antecedent and consequent effects, and the results reinforce the multidimensional representation, offering insight into the distinctive relationships between each service convenience dimension and its antecedents, such as competitive intensity, and consequences, such as repurchase behavior. The findings help researchers and managers understand a fully conceptualized convenience construct and facilitate the measurement of convenience in future empirical studies.

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Acknowledgements

The authors thank the Marketing Science Institute for supporting this research.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Carroll School of Management, Boston College, Chestnut Hill, MA, USA

    Kathleen Seiders

  2. Business Management, North Carolina State University, CB 7229, Raleigh, NC, 27695-7229, USA

    Glenn B. Voss

  3. McCombs School of Business, University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX, USA

    Andrea L. Godfrey

  4. E-Commerce and Electronic Business, Babson College, Babson Park, MA, USA

    Dhruv Grewal

Authors
  1. Kathleen Seiders
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  2. Glenn B. Voss
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  3. Andrea L. Godfrey
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  4. Dhruv Grewal
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Correspondence to Glenn B. Voss.

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Seiders, K., Voss, G.B., Godfrey, A.L. et al. SERVCON: development and validation of a multidimensional service convenience scale. J. of the Acad. Mark. Sci. 35, 144–156 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11747-006-0001-5

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11747-006-0001-5

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