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Introduction
Quality is an elusive concept; there are dozens of definitions in the literature. As far back as 1999, Scott Paton, then-editor-in-chief and publisher of Quality Digest, asked his readers to provide him with their ideas on this perplexing subject. The feedback was impressive: more than 80 responses were received, ranging from “the sublime to the ridiculous”, as he observed (Paton, 2000). Earlier, in 1985, Garvin remarked that the definition of quality remained a source of confusion and that “Even different groups within the same company may disagree on what makes a quality product” (Garvin, 1985, p. 3). And as if the concept of quality per se were not vague enough, the notion of perceived quality (PQ) seems only to exacerbate the problem.
Morgan spoke of a “quality perception gap” between manufacturers and consumers (Morgan, 1985, as cited in Steenkamp, 1989, p. 58). PQ can vaguely be described as a user-based, as opposed to a manufacturing-based, conceptualization of quality. It connotes an approach whereby the evaluative standard for making judgments about quality are consumer needs, as opposed to manufacturing specifications. The term PQ became ubiquitous in the 1970s, although there are earlier references.
The issue with the concept of PQ is that, despite an apparent lack of agreement on the definition of the term, some researchers act on the implicit assumption that such an agreement does actually exist. Hence, they do not bother to provide an operational definition of PQ in their papers. For example, Pogson in his doctorate thesis chided the authors of one 2015 paper for their failure to provide the definition of PQ as they had promised in the Abstract section (Pogson, 2019, p. 41).
Indeed, lack of consensus as to the meaning of PQ leads to misunderstanding and confusion. Disappointment with the application of the term caused one of the service marketing gurus, Christian Grönroos, to write a paper titled “The perceived service quality concept – a mistake?”, to which we shall return. Hitherto, the problem has not received adequate attention in the academic literature.
For the purposes of our study, product means a physical product (good), a service or some combination thereof, also known as a bundle (fuller market package).
Perceived quality: beyond the objective and the subjective
In “Zen...