Abstract:
Repurchase intention, service quality and electronic word of mouth (eWOM) became
important issues to understand and search in the last decades. In restaurants business,
previous researchers found that service quality was a main reason for business
success and the creation of repurchase intentions while repurchase intention was
found to be able to predict real repurchase behaviors and retain customers. Scholars
also found that there is a relationship between service quality and repurchase
initiation.
The ability of word of mouth (WOM) and social eWOM to affect the relationships
between different variables was found in previous studies where they can strengthen
or weaken the different relationships. Thus, the purpose of this quantitative study is
to find the effect of perception of service which is one of the two components of
service quality and its dimensions on repurchase intention of restaurant customers in
West Bank, and to examine the moderating effect of social eWOM on the
relationship between the perception of service and repurchase intention, so that
restaurants there can benefit from the study’s results in favor of their business.
The study uses an adapted questionnaire containing scale items for measuring
perception of service, social eWOM and repurchase intention. It was distributed
online to restaurants’ customers in West Bank. Perception of service was measured
using SERVQUAL attributes. The key variables of the questionnaire; perception of
service, social eWOM and repurchase intention, were identified through literature.
The data collected from 197 distributed questionnaires, where the participants were
composed of (25% male and 75% female). The questionnaire is composed of two
sections, the first is the demographic information section, and the second includes the
scale items of perception of service, social eWOM and repurchase intention.
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The reliability of the scale parts was tested and resulted in good and excellent
internal consistency values. The data was analyzed using SPSS 19.0. Factor analysis
demonstrated that Assurance and Reliability are the dimensions of perception of
service. Multiple regression was used to study the effect of perception of service and
its dimensions on repurchase intention. Hierarchical regression was also used to test
the moderating effect of social eWOM on the relationship between perception of
service and repurchase intention. The findings showed that the perception of service
has a positive effect on customer repurchase intention. In addition, the results
partially confirmed that social eWOM moderates the relationship between the
perception of service and repurchase intention. The small size of the sample is a
major limitation of this study
