Applying the DEMATEL approach to identify the focus of library service quality. A case study of a Taiwanese academic library
| Published date | 04 April 2016 |
| Date | 04 April 2016 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/EL-08-2014-0134 |
| Pages | 315-331 |
| Author | Yen-Ting Chen |
| Subject Matter | Information & knowledge management,Information & communications technology,Internet |
Applying the DEMATEL
approach to identify the focus of
library service quality
A case study of a Taiwanese academic
library
Yen-Ting Chen
Department of Distribution Management,
National Chin-Yi University of Technology, Taichung City, Taiwan
Abstract
Purpose – This paper aims to apply the decision-making trial and evaluation laboratory (DEMATEL)
to validate the service factors of an academic library.
Design/methodology/approach – First, the service criteria were extracted from the SERVQUAL
model and then their values were examined in the user’s mind. Second, the DEMATEL was applied to
estimate the importance of the criteria and identify the causal factors. Next, an empirical study was
conducted to demonstrate and validate the proposed approach. Finally, this paper offers some practical
suggestions for academic libraries based on the analysis.
Findings – According to the analysis’ results, “Empathy” is the causal factor in the cause–effect
diagram; i.e. the library should pay more attentions to “Empathy” rather than “Reliability”,
“Responsiveness” and “Assurance” factors.
Originality/value – DEMATEL is a useful tool to identify the prominence and relationship of service
factors; the evaluation is easy to apply and has not been used before in the discussion of library service.
This paper provides an alternative for libraries to sort out the priorities of service improvement. The
correspondence improvement can be addressed based on the causal analysis to make notable
enhancement in service quality.
Keywords Academic libraries, SERVQUAL model, DEMATEL, Service quality
Paper type Research paper
Introduction
Service quality faces three major challenges: improving service quality, increasing
assessment and reliability, while competition constantly increases and try to acquire
and retain customers (Tseng, 2009). Delivering better service quality and developing a
service quality model based on customer expectations are important issues for service
organizations. Historically, the quality of library services in an academic library was
described in terms of its collection and measured by the size of the library’s holdings and
by various counts of its use. The traditional orientation, focusing on the collection, is no
longer appropriate for satisfying users in the present era. Thus, identifying a new model
The author is indebted to the anonymous reviewers for insightful comments on this paper. Special
thanks go to Associate Professor Tsung-Yu Chou on an early draft. This research was supported
by a grant from the National Science Council of Taiwan (NSC 100-2410-H-67-008-).
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available on Emerald Insight at:
www.emeraldinsight.com/0264-0473.htm
Applying the
DEMATEL
approach
315
Received 16 August 2014
Revised 7 December 2014
Accepted 8 February 2015
TheElectronic Library
Vol.34 No. 2, 2016
pp.315-331
©Emerald Group Publishing Limited
0264-0473
DOI 10.1108/EL-08-2014-0134
to measure library service quality and designing a systemic method to enhance quality
are necessary for academic libraries.
The purpose of an academic library is to support teaching, research and promote
services to enhance the school’s research and development abilities. Each academic
library needs to provide correct, plentiful and effective service. With the increasingly
drastic competition between information services and diversied society requirements,
libraries must emphasize service quality to attract more users and enhance utilization.
However, a library’s utilization is affected by user experiences and perceptions, such as
their assessment of the surroundings, facilities, size of collections, staff attitudes and
related reading activities. With the development of Internet applications, the perception
of libraries by users is being negatively affected. For instance, greater demand for
digital services provides users with faster and more varied data retrieval and sharing,
but users do not realize these digital services are being provided by the library. Except
for traditional services provided by libraries, enrichment of electronic services is being
perceived by users as a more important task.
Reader satisfaction is a surrogate indicator of better service quality, as it will keep
users loyal and willing to revisit (Kotler, 1997). The higher the number of users who are
willing to revisit is, the greater the opportunity for public resources to be utilized. Thus,
many scholars offer methods to measure or evaluate service quality and achieve reader
satisfaction. Parasuraman et al. (1988) developed a multi-factor scale (SERVQUAL) for
measuring service quality and reduced the ten categories of service quality to ve
dimensions: tangibles, reliability, responsiveness, assurance and empathy. SERVQUAL
is a useful diagnostic tool to measure service quality, dened as the difference between
customer perceptions and expectations of service. Later, Nitecki (1996) and Cook and
Thompson (2000) utilized the conceptual model of service quality – proposed by the
Parasuraman, Zeithaml and Berry model – to measure and enhance library service
quality. Further, Nitecki and Hernon (2000) examined a new approach to measuring
library service quality based on SERVQUAL. Previous research shows that most
scholars used SERVQUAL to build a measurement model for library managers to
measure or evaluate service quality. However, these studies’ results only address the
current service situation; they do not advise managers on how to improve or solve the
service failures and enhance service quality by using concrete techniques or combine or
merge organizational resources for setting up a strategy with the results. Hence, this
study tries to harmonize user needs with library resources to improve library service
quality.
Most evaluation models cannot solve the above issue and do not have an evaluation
guideline for service quality enhancement. Service quality is evaluated based on
different criteria; thus, the multiple criteria decision-making (MCDM) approach is
suitable for evaluating service quality expectation. Among MCDM techniques, the
decision-making trial and evaluation laboratory (DEMATEL) method has been
successfully used to illustrate the interrelations among criteria (Lin and Tzeng, 2009;
Shieh et al., 2010). DEMATEL can help decision makers identify the central criteria to
reveal the effectiveness of criteria and avoid overtting for evaluation (Tzeng et al.,
2007). The main goal of this paper is to explore the interdependence of library service
quality. Accordingly, the research applies the DEMATEL method for academic libraries
to identify the focus of service quality enhancement.
EL
34,2
316
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