THE MODERATING EFFECT OF EWOM ON THE PERCEPTION OF SERVICE QUALITY AND REPURCHASE INTENSION RELATIONSHIP: THE CASE OF THE WEST BANK RESTAURANTS

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. iii 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