THE IMPACT OF INTERCULTURAL COMMUNICATION COMPETENCE ON SERVICE QUALITY AND CUSTOMER SATISFACTION

Öz

The article aims to better understand the impact of intercultural communication competence on personal interaction and customer satisfaction in grocery retail industry. The study explored three major constructs namely intercultural communication competence, personal interaction which is one of the important variables for service quality and customer satisfaction of major grocery retail outlets (e.g. supermarkets and hypermarkets) in Klang Valley area, Malaysia. The customer based approach methodology was adopted and the data was collected using structured questionnaire survey. The measurement of the constructs and their interrelationships were examined based on structural equation modelling approach. Based on the proposed framework, a number of propositions were developed to facilitate empirical research on intercultural communication competences of staff comprises of inter-role congruence and interaction comfort as perceived by customers of the selected grocery retail outlets. This contributes to the development of a theory based path model, which links the intercultural competence to service quality and customer satisfaction. Although numerous researchers have studied the extensive topic of service quality and customer satisfaction, none of those studies explored the critical role of intercultural communication competence and integrated the construct in their service quality and customer satisfaction model. Since intercultural notions are becoming acknowledged as crucial to success particularly in multicultural society, an inclusive dimension of the key determinants of the factor should improve our understanding of this phenomenon and provide an impetus for future research

Anahtar Kelimeler

• Intercultural communication competence, customer satisfaction, retailing and service quality

KÜLTÜRLERARASI İLETİŞİM KABİLİYETİNİN HİZMET KALİTESİNE VE MÜŞTERİ MEMNUNİYETİNE ETKİSİ

Öz

Bu makalede, supermarket perakendeciliği sektöründe kültürlerarası iletişim yetkinliğinin kişisel etkileşim ve müşteri tatmini üzerindeki etkisinin daha iyi anlaşılması hedeflenmektedir. Çalışma üç temel kuramı incelemektedir; kültürlerarası iletişim yetkinliği ve Malezya’nın Klang bölgesindeki önde gelen supermarket perakendecilerinde hizmet kalitesi ve müşteri tatmini adına önemli değişkenlerden biri olan kişisel etkileşim. Bu çalışmada müşteri temelli yaklaşım metodolojisi kullanılmış ve veri, yapılandırılmış anket yöntemi kullanılarak toplanmıştır. Kuramların ve kuramlar arası ilişkilerin ölçümü yapısal eşitlik modeli ile gerçekleştirilmiştir. Önerilen model kapsamında, çalışanların kültürlerarası iletişim yetkinlikleri üzerinde ampirik araştırma yapmayı kolaylaştıracak bir takım öneriler geliştirilmiştir; roller arası uyumluluk ve seçilmiş supermarket perakendecilerinin müşterileri tarafından algılandığı biçimiyle etkileşim rahatlığı gibi. Bu, hizmet kalitesi ve müşteri tatminini kültürlerarası yetkinliğe bağlayan teori modelli bir path modeli oluşturmaya katkı sağlamaktadır. Hizmet kalitesi ve müşteri tatmini konusunu çalışan çok sayıda araştırmacı olmasına karşın, bu araştırmacılardan hiçbiri kültürlerarası iletişim yetkinliğinin kritik rolünü incelememiş ve bu kuramı, hizmet kalitesi ve müşteri tatmini modeline entegre etmemiştir. Kültürlerarası kavramların özellikle çok kültürlü toplumlarda başarı için kritik önem arz eden unsurlar olarak kabul edilmeye başlanmasıyla birlikte, bu faktörün temel belirleyicilerinden olan kapsayıcı bir boyut olguyu kavrayışımıza katkı ve gelecek çalışmalara bir ivme kazandırmalıdır.

Anahtar Kelimeler

• Kültürler arası iletişim kabiliyeti, müşteri memnuniyeti, perakendecilik ve hizmet kalitesi

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