A study on perceived service quality at university sports centers via Structural Equation Modeling(SEM)

The purpose of this study is to determine the service quality of the sports centers at the universities chosen with regard to the advantages of sports facilities with the structural equation modeling according to the perceptions of the academic and the administrative staff, to find out the effects of personal qualities on the percieved service quality, and to reveal the causal relation between the dimensions of the perceived service quality.The population of the study consists of 37578 academic and administrative staff at nine state universities in Turkey chosen with respect to the advantages of their sports facilities in 2009. The questionnaire was published between June 1st and July 30th, and within this period 1520 people took the questionnaire on the Internet. Sampling error was calculated as 0,0246.In the study, as data gathering tools ?Perceived Service Quality Scale? which was developed from SERVQUAL service quality scale have been used.According to the perceptions of the academic and administrative staff, the independent variables which take place in the scale have been turned into more comprehensible structures with the exploratory factor analysis. With the help of structural equation model (SEM), service quality model has been analysed and the results of the hypotheses related to the theoretical model have been researched.The approach of confirmatory factor analysis dealt within the framework of the structural equation modeling has been used first to evaluate the validity and the reliability of the scale. Subsequently, five factors (physical characteristics factor, reliability factor, enthusiasm factor, adequacy factor, sensitivity factor) which are assumed to play a great role in determining the service quality have been studied in terms of their effectiveness in revealing the service quality and their internal relationship.According to the results of the study, the prior purpose of the participants in using sports facilities is to ?lead a healthy life? and it has been determined that they use these facilities once or twice a week. It has been also determined that physical characteristics factor,one of the factors which affect the perceived service quality, is perceived as the most important service quality factor. It has been found out that the users of sports facilities give more importance to the physical environment and equipment of the place rather than the physical appearance of the staff working there. Sensitivity and the reliability which are the other two dimensions of Servqual have been found to be statistically significant; however, they have been found to be relatively insignificant compared to enthusiasm and adequacy. Furthermore, it has been determined that the physical characteristics factor which affects the perceived service quality has been stated to possess less importance compared to the other service factors, which reveals the fact that the present sports facilities have proper physical qualities and efficiency. The evaluation of the data has also revealed that the highest causal relation among the service factors which take place in the scale model is between the ?adequacy? factor and the ?enthusiasm? factor. Because of this, it has been determined that the ?enthusiasm? and ?adequacy? service dimensions have the utmost importance.