Quest Journals Journal of Research in Humanities and Social Science Volume 8 ~ Issue 12 (2020)pp: 67-77 ISSN(Online):2321-9467 www.questjournals.org *Corresponding Author: Dr. Biswajit Prasad Chhatoi 67 | Page Research Paper Service quality across cultural dimensions influencing customers’ preference. Dr. Pallabi Mishra, Dr. Biswajit Prasad Chhatoi Assistant Professor Department of Business Administration Utkal University, Bhubaneswar Assistant Professor Department of Economics and Management Khallikote University Corresponding author: Dr. Biswajit Prasad Chhatoi Abstract Purpose Culture has been a vital factor in challenging the marketing strategy. Service quality is perhaps the most powerful competitive trend currently shaping marketing and business strategy. The influence of culture on assessment of service quality thus becomes an imperative issue. The current study aims to evaluate the challenges faced by marketers to differentiate service quality across cultural dimensions. Design/methodology/approach The research involves the collection of data from 200 respondents which includes customers of private and nationalized banks. The cultural dimensions taken are traditional and contemporary customers basing on age group. A structured questionnaire using 7-point Likert scale was designed for the survey. SERVQUAL method was used for generating data regarding the service quality provided by the banks. Findings The findings indicate that culture has an effect on the performance of banks based on service quality. There was a significant difference found between the traditional and contemporary customers on the dimensions of Reliability and Empathy of service quality. But the difference in culture did not have a significant effect on the overall service quality provided by both the private and nationalized banks. Research limitations This research has been only confined to the city of Cuttack. A further study can be taken up considering other cultural dimensions. Originality/value This study has incorporated SERVQUAl approach into the analysis of the preference of service quality based on culture. It provides insights into the relationship between service quality, customers’ services preferences and experiences in private and nationalized banks. Keywords: culture, service quality, SERVQUAL, customer preference Received 10 December, 2020; Accepted 25 December, 2020 © The author(s) 2020. Published with open access at www.questjournals.org I. INTRODUCTION In the contemporary world of comprehensive competition, rendering of proper service quality is a way for success. Service quality is the most potent competitive trend presently shaping business and marketing strategy as concurred by experts. Service quality has been connected with better sustainability since the 1980s. It is found that service quality provides an important competitive advantage to different sectors like education, banking, hotels and others. It further helps in affirmative word-of-mouth spread, increased customer loyalty and competitive service differentiation. The priority issue on the top today involves studying the influence of service quality on profit generation and other financial results of the organization. Service sector in India contributes 54.3% towards the GDP growth in 2019 and provides employment up to 28.1% of employed population. It includes banks, airlines, tourism, health, education, hotel and other industries (prsindia.org). The banking system in India consists of 18 public sector banks, 22 private sector banks, 1,542 urban cooperative banks, 46 foreign banks, 53 rural regional banks, and 94,384 rural cooperative banks. Public-sector banks control 58.8 percent of the banking service market, thereby leaving much smaller shares for its private competitors (www.ibef.org, 2019). India’s banking and financial sector is escalating rapidly as it has the potentiality to