دانلود رایگان مقاله کیفیت خدمات فروشندگان مواد غذایی و نوشیدنی فرودگاه رویکرد فازی

abstract

Nowadays the profitability of airports is largely based on non-aeronautical or commercial activities, and particularly on retail and food and beverage services. Further, researchers concur that shopping, eating and drinking in airports have to be considered an important part of tourists' experience and activities that can significantly enhance or damage the tourist destination image. Despite this, there is still little research that analyses how service quality (SQ) is perceived by passengers consuming food and beverages (F&B) in airport areas. This study aims to deepen the scientific debate on this topic. Specifically, this study applies fuzzy numbers with a sample of 551 passengers flying from Olbia-Costa Smeralda Airport (Sardinia Region, Italy) with the aim of determining how they perceive the SQ delivered by F&B retailers and whether age plays a determinant role in segmentation. Findings reveal which F&B features outperform others; furthermore, they show that age is a moderating factor in consumer satisfaction, with older passengers being less satisfied than their counterparts. This study adds knowledge to the literature devoted to SQ, applying a fuzzy number approach to the under-investigated research area related to F&B consumption in airport areas. Further, it provides information useful to airport managers on the features of F&B services that are most important in shaping consumer satisfaction, based also on their age. Limitations of the study are also discussed and suggestions for future research are given.

6. Conclusions

Although airports' profitability nowadays largely relies on nonaeronautical or commercial activities, research aimed at analysing perceived service quality (SQ) and the satisfaction of passengers consuming foods and beverages (F&B) in airport areas is still lacking. This study aimed to deepen the scientific debate around this topic. The findings are relevant for both researchers and practitioners and mainly contribute to the third of the research questions that need to be studied according to Graham (2008), namely, “to analyse the SQ provided by the F&B retailers in airports”. From a theoretical point of view, this paper suggests that fuzzy numbers can be considered an appropriate methodology to measure SQ, reducing the uncertainty associated with linguistic information. Specifically, it proposes a fuzzy logic approach to compute a satisfaction index (SQI) for certain segments of passengers purchasing F&B at Olbia Airport using 13 attributes. To the best of authors' knowledge, this is the first time that fuzzy logic has been proposed to analyse SQ in this service sector context: F&B retailers in airports. Furthermore, it highlights that age is a moderating factor in consumers' satisfaction in this specific service setting, as in others; specifically, our findings show that older passengers are less satisfied than their counterparts, suggesting that they can be considered more critical and demanding when seeking, consuming and evaluating F&B retailers in airports. Assuming that passengers form an overall opinion of F&B retailers at the airport by weighing up the different dimensions that make up the overall SQ on an individual basis, the SQI constructed by the model in this study reflects the pattern quite well.