Comparing the Public and Private Service Quality：Experiences from Cellular Phone Service, Postal Service, and Gas Station

• Main Authors: Hao-Yen Chan, 詹皓尹
• Other Authors: Chia-Nan Yeh
• Format: Others
• Language: zh-TW
• Published: 2004
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/97429754452341670709

碩士 === 中華大學 === 經營管理研究所 === 92 === For a long time, there was a considerable interest in comparing output efficiency between public and private sectors. In fact, the public’s attitude toward government service always exists a stereotype of inefficiency. However, is it true？ Polls from the U.S. showed customer satisfaction toward public sector was around 58 percent (Fitzgerald and Durant,1980; Goodsell, 1994; Miller and Miller, 1991). In Taiwan, polls from the Committee of Research and Development also demonstrated that citizen satisfaction toward public sector was about 70 percent. As to comparing service quality between public and private sectors, the results are inconclusive; some studies showed that the private sector is more efficient (Spann, 1977; Borcherding et. al.,1982; Baldwin and Farley, 1990), others found that the performance of public sector is no worse than their counterpart (Millward, 1982; Poister and Henry, 1994). In Taiwan, however, there is no similar research related to the service comparison between the public and private sectors. In this study, we try to evaluate the service performance between the public and private sectors on three services: cellular phone service, postal service, and gas station. The sample of this study came from students of six universities in Hsinchu City by systematic sampling. Using SPSS software, we analyzed data with statistical testing and cross tabulation. The results of the study found: first, for the overall satisfaction, consumers prefer public than private sector on cellular phone service and gas station; whereas consumers prefer private than public sector on postal service. Second, public sector excels on quality dimension (cellular phone service and gas station) while private sector beats public sector on dimensions of service attitude and additional services (cellular phone service and postal service). Third, there is no difference on price dimension on all three services. In a nutshell, the preferences of three services are quite similar; consumer’s first priority is quality, then price.