An empirical analysis of the service quality gap in business education: Evidence from higher education in Pakistan
ABSTRACT This survey investigated the relationship and gap between students' expectations and perceptions of perceived service quality of education, emphasizing the least effective service quality dimension. The study was based on primary data, which turned out to be most significant. Data were collected from 349 of 405 students through a questionnaire (86.1% response rate) The research specified that there existed a gap (7.6% overall gap) between the expectations and perceptions of the students that was an indicator of improvement in quality of education being delivered by applying paired t tests. Perceived reliability was the most important service quality dimension found in the current study .001) and tangibility, the fifth dimension of service quality, appears to be insignificant 0.778) and was never found negative by any of the past researchers, indicating a null effect of physical structure of the classroom on quality of education. The work attempted to develop an understanding of the comparative assessments of two mindsets of the receivers. The results provide valuable feedback that could be used for identifying and improving weak service quality dimensions among institutes in Pakistan. No such study was carried out before at this level in Pakistan.