The influence of service quality on satisfaction: does gender really matter?

This study examined the influence of service quality on satisfaction and investigated whether satisfaction varies between male and female in response to the perceived service quality in the Malaysian tourism context. Design/methodology: The population of the study was tourists travelling to Malaysia. A sample was drawn using a multi-stage sampling method and 301 completed questionnaires were analysed with the structural equation modelling. Findings: The findings showed that service quality was positively associated to satisfaction and the relationship was found to be moderated by gender. Additionally, the findings also showed that service quality perceived by women was found to influence the satisfaction level greater than that of men in the tourism context. Research limitations/implications: Other demographic variables such as age, culture, education level, and income must also be considered in future study and when developing marketing strategies. Practical implications: Gender differences are significant moderator between service quality and satisfaction in tourism context. Tourism service providers who target on women's market are recommended to allocate more resources and attention on important aspects namely, reliability, considerability and empathy, and tangibility aspects in order to increase the satisfaction level among female tourists. Originality/value: The findings validated what previous studies found by examining the moderator role of gender in the relationship between service quality and satisfaction in the Malaysian context