Investigating the Effects of Rural ICT Centers’ Services Quality on Customers’ Satisfaction  (Case Study: Rural ICT Centers of Gillan)

Doostar, Mohammad; Valipour, Mohammad Ali; Esmaeilpour, Reza; Mahmoudi, Mojtaba

doi:10.22059/jitm.2014.50867

Investigating the Effects of Rural ICT Centers’ Services Quality on Customers’ Satisfaction (Case Study: Rural ICT Centers of Gillan)

Document Type : Research Paper

Authors

Mohammad Doostar ¹

mohammad Ali Valipour ¹

Reza Esmaeilpour ¹

Mojtaba Mahmoudi ²

¹ Assistant Prof. University of Gillan, Iran

² MSc. Student. Industrial Management, University of Gillan, Iran

10.22059/jitm.2014.50867

Abstract

Information & communication technology(ICT) is regarded as a means to rural sustainable development in order to reduce poverty, bridge the digital divide and prevent the migration of people from rural areas to cities. To achieve these goals and to deliver governmental services and other essential services needed by rural communities, ten thousand rural ICT centers with an investment of $ 280 million has been put to use by the government. The purpose of this study is to assess the dimensions of services’ quality of rural ICT centers in guilan using Parasuraman SERVQUAL model and its Impact on satisfaction. Using a descriptive correlational research method, 384 customers of these centers were selected randomly. SERVQUAL standard questionnaire was used to measure service quality dimensions and satisfaction questionnaires were used to measure customers satisfaction. To analyze the data, structural equation modeling was used. The results suggest that services’ quality dimentions were ranked in this order: reliability, empathy, guarantee, accountability,and tangibility. and satisfaction dimentions were rankd as satisfaction with personnel and total satisfaction with services. AMOS Software was used for data analysis and presenting of the results.

Keywords

ICT

rural ICT centers

Services Quality

Satisfaction

Subjects