Finding the Sweet Spot: A Two Industry Study Using the Zone of Tolerance to Identify Determinant Service Quality Attributes

This paper makes a detailed comparison of two major financial services in Singapore: life insurance and stockbrokerage. Relationships of perceptions and expectations of service quality, mean service adequacy (MSA) and mean service superiority (MSS) with service satisfaction and loyalty are examined. Results indicate that the reliability aspect of service quality is strongly related to satisfaction and loyalty in the stockbrokerage industry, while the assurance aspect of service quality enjoyed a similar status in the life insurance industry. Results also confirm that while MSA and MSS both drive satisfaction and loyalty, perceptions of actual service have the strongest correlations with those behavioural outcomes. The findings of this paper present some interesting managerial implications.