Comparing perceptions of service quality in Brazil and UK

This paper investigates whether the SERVPERF model developed by Cronin and Taylor (1992) can be applied in the same industry (retail banks) in two different countries Brazil and UK. We find differences between the countries in the perception of the service provided by retail banks. We also find differences between the countries in the relationship between the service provided and (i) the overall perception of service quality, (ii) customer satisfaction and (iii) future purchase intentions. Factor analysis of the data identified different dimensional structures for Brazilian and British samples. The Brazilian sample presents almost the same structure of Parasuraman et alii (1988) SERVQUAL. The UK sample presented a different three-factor dimensional structure which shows that the dimensional structure does not travel well into other cultures. Also, as this study stands, the differences found between the two samples cannot yet be attributed to cultural differences between UK and Brazil. These differences may be related to the service provided by the banks