Abstract
D. Com.
The purpose with this study is: to extend the service profit chain as developed by Heskett and operationalised into the SERVQUAL instrument by Parasuraman to include also broader macro, industry and organisational performance measurement aspects; and
to then validate the employee to customer and customer to financial performance aspects of this model within the retail industry in South Africa. To achieve this purpose a broader conceptual model relating macro trends, industry aspects, employee climate, customer value and financial performance was developed based on literature reviews. Questionnaires assessing employeeexperienced climate and customer-experienced value were designed. These questionnaires were completed by all the employees and more than 2000 customers respectively of a single retailer operating in Southern Africa. The data captured in this manner was analysed to identify the underlying structures of the two
questionnaires. These underlying structures were used to identify the relationships between (a) employee-experienced climate and customer-experienced value, and (b) customerexperienced value and financial performance of the organisation. Results indicated that: some of the components of employee-experienced climate is positively related to customer-experienced value in terms of both product and relationship quality;
and there is no significant relationship between customer-experienced value and the
financial performance of the organisation. The study concludes with recommendations covering extra- and intra-organisational aspects, as well as some specific issues relating to the research process for research of this nature.