Abstract

Customers and providers from different cultures may display different behavioural norms and expectations towards service encounters, with the expectations of service customers and providers likely to exhibit increasing dissonance as cultural distance between interaction partners widens. Most authors have ignored the international dimension of the service quality encounter that arises from increasing cross-border competition in the service sector. Internationalization of the service sector has prompted a paradigmatic shift where the definition, measurement and improvement of service quality have become an issue of primary importance. The study investigates similarities and differences in customer-perceived service quality between indigenous 'Local' (Linhua and Suguo) and European-owned and managed (Carrefour and Metro) 'International' supermarkets. Based on extensive data collection in China in 2002 of four sample groups - namely, management of European supermarkets (European citizens), management of Chinese supermarkets (Chinese citizens), Chinese customers of European supermarkets, and Chinese customers of Chinese supermarkets - this pioneering study seeks to raise fundamental questions about the extent to which cross-cultural expectations and perceptions abound between provider and customer in the service sector.