The effect of corporate reputation and service quality on the intention to buy Bank of Valletta services

Abstract

Intangibility, heterogeneity, perishability and inseparability are the characteristics that define what a service product is. Provided with these characteristics, service providers have a greater challenge to make their service tangible and ensure that the experience customers get out of a service exchange is satisfying and memorable. Various studies tried to explore those variables that influence the customers' intention to buy. This study attempts to determine if service quality and corporate reputation are the two factors that influence the intention to buy a service brand extension. In the context of a service, it is more difficult to define the service quality. Parasuraman et al (1989) believes that there are five (1) dimensions that are measurable From Parasuraman view, the measurement of expectations and performance of a service make it possible to determine the perceived service quality. This gap theory has been criticised by Cronin & Taylor ( 1992) as they believe that performance determines the perception of service quality. Corporate reputation is considered to be the product of various economic and non-economic attributes. The brand name is an intangible attribute that has an important role for a service organization. Given the lack of tangibility, the brand name is used for all the service products that the company offers and is applied to differentiate between one service provider and another. Marketing literature and research suggest that both service quality and corporate reputation influence the intention to buy. This 1ese<.ud1 confirmed that both hypotheses exist but other variables not included in the study also influence the intention to buy.