Abstract:

This research addresses a key issue of concern to the international users of customer satisfaction measurement (CSM) information. One of the benefits of CSM is that it offers a yardstick forjudging the performance of the company in becoming customer- driven. Increasingly, multinational firms are using CSM results obtained from different countries to make allocative decisions between national or regional business units and to incentivize management. However, good decisions can be made only to the extent that the multicountry CSM information provides a TRUE "apples-to-apples" comparison. The results of this study conducted in nine countries in Europe, North America, and the Pacific Rim reveal substantial differences in the response bias toward a 5-point, perceived quality scale after controlling for perceived performance and (to some extent) expectational differences. Suggestions are made for correcting the response bias in multicountry CSM data to increase the validity of international comparisons and to facilitate the "roll-up" international results.