دانلود رایگان مقاله آزادسازی بازار ارتباطات مخابرات و عملکرد خدمات

ABSTRACT

Using data from a high-income, emerging market economy in the Middle East, this study examines changes in service performance outcomes of an incumbent monopoly during different periods in the phased liberalization of the country’s telecommunications market. The study draws on StructureConduct-Performance (SCP) theory and Social Exchange Theory (SET) to develop hypotheses about expected changes in four customer-based service performance outcomes—service quality perceptions, customer satisfaction, customer loyalty, and customer attitudes. These are tested using data collected in a longitudinal tracking study spanning different periods in the liberalization process. Results show that all four performance outcomes improved significantly during an early post-liberalization period when there was only one additional competitor in the market, but declined slightly during a later period when a second competitor entered the market. However, structural relationships among the outcomes themselves remained invariant across liberalization periods. Policy-making and theoretical implications of the results are outlined and discussed. Although the data come from a single industry in an emerging market economy, a particularly key implication is that while incumbent monopolies may initially harbor a preference for the comfort and ‘freedom’ that comes with being the only player in the market, under certain circumstances liberalization can actually benefit them through the impetus that it provides for their own service quality improvements.

7. Discussion

In summary, this study’s results show positive changes in the incumbent’s customer-based service performance outcomes during the early post-liberalization period, as scores on the key constructs edged upwards during this period. In the late postliberalization period all scores declined with the exception of loyalty and the tangibles component of service quality. Relationships among the constructs remained essentially the same in both pre- and post-liberalization market environments. The findings on customer perceptions in the early post-liberalization period are interesting because anecdotal evidence and results of an exploratory study conducted prior to the Wave 1 survey indicated widespread perceptions of poor quality service, dissatisfaction with STC, and generally negative attitudes toward the company. Thus, it is remarkable that these perceptions and attitudes changed so positively during the early post-liberalization period. Two explanations may account for this. One is that the efforts at service improvement and image-building that STC implemented in anticipation of increased competition actually had the desired effect on customers’ perceptions. At the time of impending liberalization, there was a flurry of activities and management.