Evaluating Health Care Service Quality: The Moderating Role of Knowledge

Abstract

This study focuses on the role of knowledge as a mediator variable in the relationship between expectations and customer perceived service. A distinction is made between latent and manifest expectations based on the assumption that consumers with a stronger knowledge-base have more pronounced and therefore more manifest expectations than consumers with a weaker knowledge-base. The results of an empirical study reveal that the stronger the knowledge-base of a consumer, the higher the level of perceived service quality