Service Quality and Consumer Patronage of Food Vendors in Private Universities: A Study of Bells University of Technology Ota, Ogun State, Nigeria

Service Quality and Consumer Patronage of Food Vendors in Private Universities: A Study of Bells University of Technology Ota, Ogun State, Nigeria

Adedayo Mathias Opele PhD¹, Olufemi Aina Ajose, PhD²., Udegbe Scholastica Ebarefimia, PhD³.

^1,2,3Department of Marketing, Faculty of Management Sciences, Lagos State University Ojo, Nigeria.

DOI: https://dx.doi.org/10.47772/IJRISS.2025.9020189

Received: 03 February 2025; Accepted: 07 February 2025; Published: 10 March 2025

ABSTRACT

This study investigated the influenced of service quality and consumer patronage among food vendors in Bells University Ota, Ogun State Nigeria. The specific objectives of the study were to examine the influence of assurance, empathy and tangibles on consumer patronage of students among food vendors. The study adopted a descriptive survey research design. The study adopted convenience sampling technique to sample the opinion of 384 out of 3052 Undergraduate students of Bells University of Technology, Ota. Primary source of data was used while the instrument of data collection was questionnaire. The validity and reliability of the research instrument were checked and established. Multiple regression statistical technique was used to test the formulated hypotheses at 5% level of significance. The finding showed that assurance, empathy and tangibles had positive significant influences on consumer patronage. The study therefore concluded that service quality influenced student patronage of food vendors in Bells University of Technology, Ota and recommended employees at restaurants should therefore, have the competence to inspire trust and confidence in students; food vendors should exhibit prompt attention and extra care to the students and always treat them like kings so as to retain them; food vendors should always ensure that the environment where the food are processed or prepared and the appearance of the workers be attractive.

Key words: service quality, assurance, empathy, tangibles and customer patronage

INTRODUCTION

Service quality is described as a comparison between customer expectations with the service they perceived to have received. It is essential because it is expected of food vendors to support the physical product with service in order to enhance product differentiation. Despite the quality offered by vendors, students still complain about how the food vendors treat them and the ambience of the environment. These complaints led to students shun to some of the vendors which led to low patronage.

The importance of customer patronage to the survival of any business enterprise cannot be overstated. The survival, growth, and level of profitability of every business are heavily dependent on the volume of customers that patronize it and their willingness to pay the right price for the goods or services being rendered to them (Bhattacharya & Dey, 2019). Duman & Yagci (2020) describes customer patronage as the devotion and endorsement that consumers show to a specific company or brand by repeatedly selecting to buy its goods or services. It suggests a continuous, mutually beneficial relationship between the client and the company rather than just one-time transactions. In any industry, increasing client loyalty is crucial to long-term success and sustainability.

Quality products or services, customer service, feedback and improvement, problem resolution, and communication are major factors that contribute to customer satisfaction and patronage (Soriano, 2021). The complex nature of service quality has generated concern and divergent views among the companies, service providers, traders, and academics about the best way to conceptualize and measure quality. The operationalization and delivery of high-quality services to customers are very pertinent to maintain high level of competitiveness and to ensure organizational success.

Turgary (2019) defined service quality as an evaluation with a predominant cognitive aspect that emerges because of the comparison of the service (perceived service) quality that a consumer receives with the services quality shaped according to the expectations of consumer before the purchase. Providing high-quality products or services is fundamental to attracting and retaining customers. When customers feel that they are receiving value for their money, they are more likely to become repeat buyers. According to Akbaba (2018) the role of service quality in the success of businesses cannot be denied. It is vital for managers to have a good understanding on what exactly the customers want. Identifying the specific expectations of customers, the dimensions of the service quality, and their relative importance for customers for each specific segment of industry would help managers in the challenge of improving the service quality. Therefore, organizations concentrated on customers’ expectations and attempts to satisfy them by delivering superior quality of service that is essential to retain satisfied and loyal customers (Lim, 2016). Dahlia and Hanwin (2014) claims that attitudinal loyalty is the very important factor to make customer patronized and that dimension must have given much importance from others.

Nowadays, with the markets getting more competitive and the working environment undergoing constant change, organizations have realized that they no longer face an expanding economic system with ever-growing markets; as a result, each customer has gained a new level of importance for increasing profitability and maintaining the position of the organization (Lim 2016).

Food is important because it is a stimulant for human survival, growth, and energy to navigate our daily lives. Trafialek, Drosinos, & Kolanowski, (2022), maintained that food businesses can be seen in every part of Nigeria. Regrettably, the rate at which food vendor businesses shut down operations has increased (Olise, Okoli & Ekeke, 2015).  Knutson, Beck & Elsworth (2016) revealed that the food industry has a high failure rate of over sixty percent within the first three years of opening. The reason for this is that some food vendors were unable to retain and attract more customers which have led to low sales and loss of profitability. The type of food offered varies according to the buyers’ socioeconomic status and their environment. Apparently, vendors not only play a major role in providing food for the populace but also serve as a source of livelihood for the vendors. Importantly, foods contribute significantly to the diets of many people in the developing world (Suneetha et.al., 2019).

Undoubtedly, a good food vendor must be conversant with what consumers need and desired when dining out. The knowledge and politeness of food vendors and their ability to motivate trust and confidence showed to be important in the selection of a food vendor in most of the studies that investigated it (Baek, Ham, Yang, 2017). Furthermore, Provision of extra care and attention to individual customers by the food vendors can influence their patronage.  Interestingly tangibles itself may produce feelings of excitement pleasure and relaxation. Consequently, different aspects of atmospherics cues can be used by customers as tangible indicators to assess the quality of services provided.

Building and maintaining customer patronage is an ongoing process that requires a deep understanding of customer needs, continuous improvement, and a commitment to delivering value beyond the initial transaction. Businesses that successfully cultivate customer patronage often benefit from increased customer retention, positive word-of-mouth marketing, and a more stable revenue stream (Opele, Ogundeinde & Onifade, 2021).

Several authors have investigated the relationship between service quality and customer patronage using other service quality indicators such as problem resolutions, loyalty programs, personalization etc. (Bhattacharya & Dey, 2019; Sweeney, Johnson, & Armstrong, 2020; Soriano, 2021; Trafialek, Drosinos, & Kolanowski, 2022;). All these studies are unfamiliar to a typical Nigerian context and cultural setting. More so, no specific accord has been established on the extent to which customer patronage is driven by assurance, empathy and tangibles of food vendors in Nigeria.

Despite the efforts of food vendors in ensuring that their customers are given the best in terms of providing quality and taste foods to their numerous customers, the lack of patronage persists among small and medium food vendors across Nigeria. In view of this, this study seeks to investigate the influence of service assurance, service empathy, and service tangibles on consumer patronage among food vendors in Bells University of Technology, Ota, Ogun state Nigeria.

Objectives of the study

The main objective of this study is to investigate the influence of service quality on consumer patronage of food vendors among students of Bells University of Technology, Ota, Ogun state Nigeria. The specific objectives of this study are to:

1. examine the influence of service assurance on consumer patronage among food vendors in Bells University of Technology, Ota, Ogun state Nigeria.
2. Identify the influence of service empathy on consumer patronage among food vendors in Bells University of Technology, Ota, Ogun State Nigeria.
3. Determine the influence of service tangibles on consumer patronage among food vendors in Bells University of Technology, Ota, Ogun State Nigeria.

Research Questions

1. To what extent does assurance influence consumer patronage among food vendors at Bells University of Technology, Ota, Ogun State, Nigeria?
2. In what way does empathy influence consumer patronage among food vendors at Bells University of Technology, Ota, Ogun State, Nigeria?
3. How does tangibles influence consumer patronage among food vendors in Bells University of Technology Ota, Ogun State, Nigeria?

Hypotheses

The following null hypotheses were formulated to guide this study.

1. Assurance has no significant influence on consumer patronage among food vendors in Bells University of Technology, Ota, Ogun State Nigeria.
2. Empathy has no significant influence on consumer patronage among street food vendors in Bells University of Technology, Ota, Ogun State Nigeria.
3. Tangibles have no significant influence on consumer patronage among food vendors in Bells University of Technology, Ota, Ogun State Nigeria.

LITERATURE REVIEW

Service Quality

The concept ‘service quality’ is not an independent term; this means, its formation depends upon several factors related to service and service firms. According to Abdullah (2019), quality is a theory that can be described as evasive and ambiguous. It is critical to distinguish between goods and services because they have distinct characteristics. The former is more tangible, such as an object, whereas the latter is intangible, such as actual performance (Abdullah & Rahman, 2015). One of the most important and unique characteristics of services is that they are a process rather than a thing. As a result, service businesses lack a product but possess interactive processes. Since services are invisible, it is difficult for suppliers to unfold and consumers to measure them (Ali et al. 2021). Because the delivery of services in the hospitality industry invariably includes human beings, it should focus on people management, particularly collaborations between the client and personnel, referred to as service encounters. The success or failure of the hospitality industry is determined by the cumulative impact of service encounters in which customers actively participate (Abdullah, 2018).

In service quality issue most of the things belong to the customer satisfaction which means if service quality or performance does not service the customer very well people will think and decide about the quality which does not treat them well (Anwar & Balcioglu, 2016). The services and marketing literature has asserted that the service quality is primarily formed by frontline employees of service providers and the respective consequences during service encounters which typically involves personal interactions between the employee and the customer including customer perceptions of service quality (Panda, 2016). Opele, Afolabi and Adetayo (2020) defined service quality as the differences between consumer expectations and perceptions of service. The authors regarded service quality as one of the critical elements of competitiveness in organizations. Gronroos (2009), in his study, described service quality as a comparison between customer expectations with the service they perceived to have received. Ahmed, Nawaz, Usman, Shaukat, Ahmad and Igbal (2020), corroborated this by defining service quality as “the relationship between what consumers’ desire from a service and what they perceive that they received. Bitner, (2014) also described service quality as the customer’s general impression of the relative inadequacy of the association and its administrations. (Taylor & Baker, 2014) characterized service quality as a type of mentality speaking to a long run general assessment of administration. Kanishka, (2016) additionally characterizes service quality as a measure of the degree to which the administration conveyed meets the clients’ desires. Similarly, Parasuraman, Berry and Zeithaml (1993), revealed that service quality is an attitude or judgment relating to the overall excellence or superiority of the service. In another dimension, Parasuraman, Berry and Zeithaml (1988), expressed service quality as the differences between consumer expectations and perceptions of service.

The aim of providing quality services is to satisfy customers hence retain them.  Food vendors are charged with this responsibility of satisfying customers in order to retain them by applying the dimension of service quality. The most widely used method of measuring service quality is the SERVQUAL instrument. This instrument was developed on the basis of the differences between the perceptions and expectations of customers regarding the dimensions of service quality. Munusamy, Chelliah and Mun (2018), corroborated this statement in service quality delivery and its impacts on customers satisfaction in banking section in Malaysia by adopting servqual instrument. Also Van der Wal, Pampallis and Bond, (2019) in a study of telecommunication in South Africa. Leissen and Vance, (2017) in cross-national assessment of service quality in the telecommunication industry: evidence from the USA and Germany, also used servqual instrument. In another dimension, the study of Johnson and Sirikit (2012) on “service quality in the Thai telecommunication industry. A tool for achieving a sustainable competitive advantage’’ which also adopted servqual instrument. Consequently, AnanthaRaji and Abdulganikanesabin (2016), in a study carried out on service quality and customer satisfaction in the telecommunication service provider in Malaysia also considered servqual instrument. Moreover, Kheng, Mahamad, Ramayah and Mosahab (2017), on the impact of service quality and customer loyalty: A study of banks in Penang, Malaysia adopted servqual dimension of service quality. This study, will therefore, adopt SERVQUAL dimensions of service quality namely; tangibles, reliability, assurance, responsiveness and empathy in evaluating service quality and customer retention in Nigerian banking industry.

Dimensions of Service Quality

Parasuraman, Berry and Zeithaml (1998). Itemized the dimensions of service quality as assurance, empathy, responsiveness, reliability and tangibles.

Customers are conscious of excellent service delivery by food vendors in Nigeria. Customers wished to be assured of safety of food bought and even safety the environment, they don’t want wait so longat the restaurant before they are attended to and they always want their complaints to be handled accordingly. This can only be achieved when the service quality of food vendors exceeds the customers’ expectation.

Assurance

Taylor, and Baker. (2014) described assurance as the knowledge and politeness of service providers and their ability to motivate trust and confidence. Assurance includes credibility, security, competence and courtesy of the food vendors to the customers (Opele et al., 2020). Employees at restaurants should therefore, have the competence to inspire trust and confidence in customers in anticipating to perform above the customers expectation for the purpose of attracting new customers and retaining the existing ones, hence encourage high customer patronage.

Empathy

Taylor, and Baker. (2014) stated that empathy is a concern and personal awareness that a service provider gives to customers. Opele et al., (2021) also conceptualized empathy as the provision of extra care and attention to individual customers. Miahouakana-Matondo (2013), sees empathy as the individualized attention and care offered by a service provider to its consumers. Food vendors should exhibit prompt attention and extra care to customers and always treat them like kings so as to retain them. Food vendors should always place customers over and above everything else during their interaction with customers since empathy necessitates extra care and attention.

Tangibles

Tangibles can be described as the physical evidence within an organization’s environment. They include equipment, machinery and employee’s appearance. Tangible dimension of service quality is the physical infrastructure that can be seeing and felt within an organization which enhance successful provision of services in other to meet consumer’s need (Muhammad, (2017)). Tangibles are physical facilities, equipment, and the individual appearance of service providers. The tangibles include parking space, provisions of seats and tables, the environment where the food are processed or prepared, the appearance of the workers and the general ambience of the restaurant. All these must be attractive to enhance customer’s patronage.

Consumer Patronage

Experience shows that defining and measuring patronage is a difficult task. Attitude and actual usage patronages have been used as measures of customer patronages (Ogwo & Igwe 2012). Consumers vary in their commitment to attitude; the degree of commitment relates to their level of involvement with the attitude object. This commitment ranges from inertia to a strong emotional passion. Commitment might be based on customers’ intentions as want, expectation, plans for the future (Ogwo & Igwe 2012) and even emotional attachment to a product. We concentrated more in this study on customer’s intention to use a product in the future and recommend such to friends.

Consumers vary in their commitment to attitude; the degree of commitment relates to their level of involvement with the attitude object. This commitment ranges from inertia to a strong emotional passion. Commitment might be based on customers’ intentions as want, expectation, plans (Ogwo & Igwe, 2012) and even emotional attachment to a product.

The customer is as old as business. The sole purpose of every business is to “Create Customer” (Drucker, 1973 as cited in Ogwo & Igwe,2012). In addition, Drucker (1973 as cited in Ogwo & Igwe, 2012) opined that the only economic and social justification existence of any business existence is to create customer satisfaction. The importance of the customer and customer patronage is so germane. It includes financial and non-financial dimensions. Various studies have been carried out on what influences or impacts on level of customer patronage. They include- firm’s capability, product or services attributes, economic situation, political forces, social and psychological factors, situational, competition, marketing mix programs (Schiffman & Kanuk 2009 as cited in Ogwo & Igwe, 2012; Kotler and Keller 2006). Dick and Basu (1994) precisely suggested that favorable attitude and repeat purchase were pre-requisites to defining patronage. Intention to use is defined as a specific desire to continue relationship with a service provider (Czepiel & Culmore, 1987 as cited in Ogwo & Igwe, 2012).

East and Robert (1997) suggest that patronage intention can be identified from the switching behaviour of customers, and satisfied customers always remain patronised by the company they deal with.  Sivadas et al. (2000) concludes that customer satisfaction itself can be identified as the most important sign of patronage intention. Bolton and Drew (1991) find that the behavioral intention is the key to patronize and it can be developed by increasing more satisfied customers by adding value to the services delivered. Dahlia and Hanwin (2014) claims that attitudinal loyalty is the very important factor to make customer patronized and that dimension must have given much importance from others. All the literature focuses on behaviour as well as other factors that develop patronage in the minds of customers.

THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK

Discrepancy Theory

This study is anchored on Discrepancy theory by Elsevier (1999). This theory states that customer’s satisfaction assessment is based on the outcome of customer’s perception of the difference between service quality and customer expectation. According to this theory, customer patronage is a function of service quality. That positive service quality will lead to high customer patronage while negative service quality will lead to low customer patronage.

This study also adapted Sabir et al., (2014) and Ashraf et al. (2014) models of customer patronage. These models were designed majorly to measure the determining factors of customer patronage in a typical restaurant that serves local meals. This study adapted these models because they provide a real-time framework for measuring the determinants of customer patronage in local food restaurants. Also, these models provide opportunity for replicating them in a developing economy like Nigeria.

Conceptual Model for the Study

Source: Researchers’ Schematics (2024)

METHODOLOGY

The study adopted a descriptive survey research design. Convenience sampling technique was adopted to sample the opinion of 384 respondents out a total population of 3052 undergraduate students at Bells University of Technology, Ota. Primary source of data was used while the instrument of data collection was the questionnaire. The questionnaire items were developed from the literature and the measurement scale adapted from Opele, et. Al., (2021) and modified to suit the context of this research work. The questionnaire items for each construct were pilot tested and revalidated due to alterations made to the measurement instrument. The average reliability alpha coefficient value of 0.724 proved the internal consistency of the instrument which made it reliable for the main survey. In addition, the face validity of the instrument was done by my supervisors who ensured the soundness of the research instrument. The study used a convenience sampling technique in reaching the respondents. A multiple regression analysis statistical tool was used to test the hypotheses formulated at 5% level of significance for the study which was facilitated using SPSS software package.

Response Rate

The copies of questionnaire that were administered to students or customers was 384 and 312 questionnaire was properly filled and returned which was used for this study analysis. This represented an overall successful response rate of 81.0%; as Bryman and Bell (2011) posited that a response rate of ≥50% is acceptable to analyse the results of the study. For this study, a response rate of 81% was considered very good; hence the researcher proceeded for data analysis.

Reliability and Validity of the Instrument

The research instrument was subjected to expert opinion validity and reliability as recommended by Raza and Nawaz (2011). In order to make sure that the research instrument was reliable and valid, the instrument was subjected to face, content & construct validity as well as reliability test. Face and content validity were done by consulting literature and supervisors’ contributions.

For construct validity, the questionnaires were divided into many sections such that each of the section assessed information for specific objectives in the study.  Construct validity was measured statistically using Principal Component Analysis (PCA). The main measures used to test the validity of an instrument in exploratory factor analysis include the Kaiser-Meyer-Oklin’s (KMO) measure of sampling adequacy and Bartlett’s test of Sphericity. The study was employed the KMO sampling adequacy and Bartlett’s Sphericity test to determine whether the statements that comprise the research instruments of each variable actually measured what were intended. If the result of the KMO is greater than 0.5, it means that the questions actually measure the variables in the study. The result of the Bartlett test of Sphericity at 0.000 which is less than 5% indicates that there is highly significant relationship among variables in measuring the variables under study. In this study, the KMO test was greater than 5% and Bartlett test of Sphericity result was less than 5% indicating that statements that comprised the research instruments of each variable actually measured what were intended. The construct validity of the research instrument was further established through confirmatory factor analysis.  Average Variance Extracted (AVE) greater than 0.5 were used as an additional evidence of construct validity of all variables in the research instrument. The result of the KMO and Bartlett test of Sphericity are shown in Table 1.

Table 1: Pilot and Validity Results: Confirmatory Factor Analysis

Source: Field Survey (2024)

Reliability of Instrument

Reliability is the degree of internal consistency of the research instrument. He also posited that reliability is the capacity of the survey instrument to produce consistent results. A high degree of consistency and similarity of results indicates a high degree of reliability. This suggests that where the instrument is consistently used to gather data, the outcome or result of the process should be consistently the same. The study sampled the opinion of 57 students for the reliability test. The result of the Cronbach Alpha for each of the variable is presented in Table 2.

Table 2: Reliability Result: Reliability: Internal Consistency Reliability Result

Source: Field Survey (2024)

The Cronbach’s Alpha coefficient for all the study variables were above 0.70, which suggests that the instrument used for evaluation was highly reliable. Hence, the researcher affirmed that the research instrument used was reliable.

Diagnostic Tests

Data on all constructs were first tested for the major assumptions. This section investigated characteristics of the dependent and independent variables that influence the application of traditional ordinary least squares estimator. These pre-estimation diagnostics include normality, linearity, and multicollinearity tests.

Normality

To check for normality, the study adopted the skewness and kurtosis statistic as recommended by Cunningham (2008). The results presented in Table 3 show that all the variables had a skewness coefficients range between -1.278 and -0., and its kurtosis coefficients between -0.365 and 0.738. Based on these values, it was concluded that the data on new product design, distribution channels and price strategy, market share and competitive advantage were normally distributed since it lies within the range as recommended by Cunningham (2008).

Table 3: Tests of Normality

Source: Field Survey Results (2024)

Multicollinearity

The variance inflation factor (VIF) and tolerance values were used to test for multicollinearity in this study. A tolerance value less than 0.1 indicates serious collinearity problem. The tolerance value allowable should not be less than 0.1 while the VIF value should not be above 10 (Pallant, 2004). A VIF value of above 10 indicates presence of multi-collinearity (Hair et al., 2010). The results of the tests of multicollinearity are presented in Table 4

Table 4: Multicollinearity Test of Independent Variables

Source: Field Survey Results, 2024

Table 4 reveals that the VIF for the variables ranges from 3.215 to 1.821 indicating absence of multicollinearity between the variables. The tolerance values were above 0.1 and ranged between 0.183 to 0.128, confirming absence of multicollinearity.

Table 5: Summary Results of service quality measure (assurance, on Market Dynamism

1. Dependent Variable: Customer Patronage
2. Predictors: (Constant), Assurance,

Source: Researcher’s Field Survey, 2024

Table 5, presented the multiple regression results for the interaction effect of service quality components measures (assurance, empathy and tangibles) on customer patronage among Bells University of Technology undergraduate students in Ota, Ogun State. The results revealed that assurance (β = 0.418, t-stat = 4.967, p <0.05), empathy (β = 0.849, t-stat = 3.873, p <0.05), and tangibles (β = 0.952, t-stat = 8.473, p <0.05), have a positive and significant interaction effect on customer patronage among students in Bells University of Technology, Sango Ota, Ogun State.

DISCUSSION OF FINDINGS

The results implied that interaction between assurance, empathy and tangibles had significant predictive effect on customer/student patronage in Bells University of Technology, Ota, Ogun State, Nigeria. However, tangibles is the most important factor that influence customer patronage. (β = 0.952, t-stat = 8.473, p <0.05The results further revealed that assurance, empathy and tangibles explained 58.1% of the variation in customer/student patronage (Adj. R² = 0.581). However, the model did not explain 41.9% of the variation in customer/student patronage, implying that there are other factors associated with customer/student patronage in Bells University of Technology, Ota, Ogun State. Also, the results of Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) for regression coefficients used to test the overall significance of regression model has the value of 139.129 with (3, 308) degrees of freedom and p-value of 0.001 (p<0.05) which was less than 0.05 (F_(3,308) = 139.129, p<0.05). This implies that the overall model was significant in predicting customer/student patronage in Bells University of Technology, Ota, Ogun State. That is, customer/student patronage is affected by assurance, empathy and tangibles and the F-value standing at 139.129. Thus, the model is well fitted and significantly explained how service quality measures such as assurance, empathy and tangibles affected customer/student patronage. Therefore, null hypothesis one, two and three (H₀₁ – H₀₃) which states that there is no significant interaction influence of assurance, empathy and tangibles on customer patronage among students in Bells University of Technology, Ota, Ogun State is hereby rejected.

CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION

The findings of the study revealed that student patronage is affected by assurance, empathy and tangibles. It is therefore concluded that assurance, empathy and tangibles have significant effect on customer/student patronage of food vendors in Bells University of Technology, Ota.

The study recommended that;

1. Employees at restaurants should therefore, have the competence to inspire trust and confidence in customers in anticipating to perform above the customers expectation for the purpose of attracting new customers and retaining the existing ones, hence encourage high customer patronage.
2. Food vendors should exhibit prompt attention and extra care to customers and always treat them like kings so as to retain them.
3. Food vendors should always ensure that the environment where the food is processed or prepared, the appearance of the workers and the general ambience of the restaurant be neat and attractive to enhance customer’s patronage.

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