Measuring Retail Service Quality: Validation of the Instrument in the Indian Context

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to validate an internationally developed scale called the Retail Service Quality Scale9 in the Indian context. Four models as posited by Dabholkar et al9 were tested using confirmatory factor analysis, reliability and validity tests. Earlier work on the subject has been confined to specific store formats such as apparel stores, whereas, this study is capable of generalization across different retail services as it covers a wider variety of store formats. The findings of the study show that the Retail Services Quality Scale is not validated in the Indian Context. Out of the four models tested, only one returned admissible results and the other three either did not admit good fits or failed the convergent and discriminant validity tests. Retailers in India wishing to use the scale for diagnostic purposes may not get accurate results from use of this scale.