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The construct of perceived value has been identified as one of the most important measures for gaining competitive edge (Parasuraman, 1997), and has been argued to be the most important indicator of repurchase intentions (Parasuraman & Grewal, 2000). Thus, the measurement of perceived value may have far reaching implications for the recreation and tourism fields. The purpose of the current study was to develop a multidimensional scale for the measurement of perceived value of a service. A 25-item instrument was developed to measure the construct and its dimensions. Five dimensions were identified, and were found to have content validity by a panel of experts. The instrument was further found to be reliable, and have convergent, and discriminant validity.
KEYWORDS: Perceived value, quality, price, SERV-PERVAL, confirmatory factor analysis
Introduction
Recent research has revealed that few leisure providers integrate marketing techniques into programming efforts and that "leisure service agencies have long attempted to serve diverse and, at times, non-responsive populations" (Johnson Tew, Havitz & McCarville, 1999, p. 18). A marketing perspective would suggest leisure and tourism providers analyze the needs and desires of their participants, in order to develop the most appropriate delivery methods. In doing so, leisure/tourism programmers may benefit by attracting more responsive and possibly more loyal participants. Further, many leisure and tourism providers would benefit by obtaining a more consistent participant base as it has been shown that it is six times less expensive to plan marketing strategies for retaining consumers, than it is to attract new consumers (Rosenberg & Czepial, 1984).
In the field of marketing, the construct of perceived value has been identified as one of the most important measures for gaining competitive edge (Parasuraman, 1997), and has been argued to be the most important indicator of repurchase intentions (Parasuraman & Grewal, 2000). Yet, in regards to leisure and tourism services, repurchase intentions and consumer loyalty are often predicted solely by measures of consumer satisfaction, and/ or service quality (Petrick, 1999). Woodruff (1997) states, "if consumer satisfaction measurement is not backed up with in-depth learning about customer value and related problems that underlie their evaluations, it may not provide enough of the customer's voice to guide managers where to respond" (p. 139). Further, just because a consumer is "satisfied" with a...