Measuring Service Convenience for Korean Retail Stores: Scale Development and Empirical Testing

Purpose - This study aims to develop and empirically test a multi-dimensional service convenience scale with the dimensions and measurement items of service convenience perceived by Korean consumers in retail contexts. Research design, data, and methodology - The study adopts the framework suggested by Berry et al. (2002) and conceptualizes service convenience as a second-order reflective construct comprising 31 items. Three department store chains (Hyundai, Lotte, and Shinsegae) and three discount store chains (E-mart, Homeplus, and Lotte Mart) were involved 510 valid responses were used for the empirical testing. Results - The measurement model is acceptable for internal consistency, convergent validity, and discriminant validity. Further, the structural model results show that service convenience is positively related to satisfaction. Results of the rival model comparison indicate that the proposed second-order factor model provides a better fit to the data than both the five-factor and the one-factor model. Conclusions - The multi-dimensional, second-order conceptualization of service convenience is robustly supported. This study provides psychometrically valid scales to measure service convenience in retail contexts as conceptualized by Berry et al. (2002).