Enhancement of condominium management based on the effect of quality attributes on satisfaction improvement Yao-Chen Kuo a,1 , Jui-Sheng Chou b,⇑ a Graduate Institute of Project Management, Kainan University, 1, Kainan Road, Luzhu Shiang, Taoyuan 338, Taiwan b Department of Construction Engineering, National Taiwan University of Science and Technology (Taiwan Tech), 43, Sec. 4, Keelung Road, Taipei 106, Taiwan article info Keywords: Condominium management Service quality Resident satisfaction IPA Multivariate analysis Corporate strategy abstract Condominium management (CM) businesses rely on continuous improvements to service quality (SQ) to increase consumer satisfaction (CS) and thereby improve operations. Lacking knowledge of SQ and CS results in poor efficiency. To develop cost-effective strategies for improvements, the relationship between SQ and CS must be investigated. This work proposes novel procedures to explore the relationship between identified SQ attributes and CS in the CM business. First, we conduct exploratory factor analysis to cluster intrinsically similar attributes into three constructs and identify significant attributes for subsequent assessment. Furthermore, resident satisfaction scores (RSSs) are computed to assess the relative importance rate (RIR) of investigated attributes by applying an adapted multivariate method to regress the RSSs on the performance of SQ attributes. To facilitate the decision-making process, the service-quality model evolved from the integration of an improved Kano’s approach and importance–performance analysis (IPA) is utilized to develop a prioritized strategy for satisfaction improvements in the CM business. Ó 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. 1. Introduction The numerous high-rise residential buildings and multi-house communities in urban and metropolitan areas have strained con- dominium management (CM) services. Contracting professionals in the building maintenance, management, and services delivery business is the most efficient and effective solution for managerial decisions related to residential community issues such as commu- nity safety, community interactions and co-owned community as- sets. The CM business thereby gains excellent prospects for future generations with numerous business opportunities in highly devel- oped cities. The capital requirements for market entry are low for CM busi- nesses, as most services do not require highly specialized skills or advanced equipment to achieve an acceptable level of service qual- ity; this has resulted in a highly competitive CM industry. This competitiveness and lack of a reliable system for measuring service quality have forced CM companies to pursue low-price strategies to increase market share. Although some interviewed chief executive officers of CM com- panies address a significant need to improve service quality (SQ) to gain competitiveness, attempting to enhance SQ without knowl- edge of SQ and consumer satisfaction (CS) measurements is ineffi- cient or frequently employed strategies that are then quickly abandoned. The current greatest challenge facing CM services in terms of improving service quality is a lack of information regard- ing SQ measurements, leading to insufficient comprehension of which services need to be set as first priority so as to increase res- ident satisfaction. Service quality is a significant antecedent of CS, and strongly influences profitability, productivity, market share, return on investment, and cost reduction (Anderson & Fornell, 2000; Fornell, Johnson, Anderson, Cha, & Bryant, 1996; Lin, 2007; Oliver, 1997; Olsen, 2002; Park, Robertson, & Wu, 2006; Wen, Lan, & Cheng, 2005). That is, improved SQ can increase, CS reduce the number of customer complaints and enhance customer loyalty. Continu- ously improving SQ is very important, especially for attributes affecting CS in strengthening the loyalty to CM businesses, as well as enhancing operations competency. Prior to SQ improvements, decision-makers must determine the empirical relationships between SQ and CS, and their measure- ments. Empirical research demonstrated that CS is a function of both expectations related to certain service attributes and the assessment of attribute performance (Deng & Pei, 2009; Hawes & 0957-4174/$ - see front matter Ó 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.eswa.2011.11.043 ⇑ Corresponding author. Tel.: +886 2 2737 6321; fax: +886 2 2737 6606. E-mail addresses: yckuo@mail.knu.edu.tw (Y.-C. Kuo), jschou@mail.ntust.edu.tw (J.-S. Chou). 1 Tel.: +886 3 341 2500x6174. Expert Systems with Applications 39 (2012) 5418–5425 Contents lists available at SciVerse ScienceDirect Expert Systems with Applications journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/eswa