Expectations, Performance Evaluation, and Consumers’ Perceptions of Quality

The author examines conceptual and operational issues associated with the “perceptions-minus-expectations” (P-E) perceived service quality model. The examination indicates that the P-E framework is of questionable validity because of a number of conceptual and definitional problems involving the (1) conceptual definition of expectations, (2) theoretical justification of the expectations component of the P-E framework, and (3) measurement validity of the expectation (E) and revised expectation (E*) measures specified in the published service quality literature. Consequently, alternative perceived quality models that address the problems of the traditional framework are developed and empirically tested.