Service satisfaction in E_Electricity service in Odisha (a state of India) by structural equation modeling

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to develop a new model, namely service quality measurement for E_Electricity utility service in Odisha a state of India for the measurement of service quality.

Design/methodology/approach

Service quality regulation is an important and timely issue in many industries. The question of governance of power sector is an important question before researchers, policy makers and administrators for the obvious reason of its being an important input for socio-economic development of a nation. Power sector involves complex activities like generation, transmission, distribution and final delivery of service to end-users, i.e. consumers. Initially, private sector was the main player in the power sector when the electricity came to be used in India during the pre-independence period. The trajectory of power industry, from its inception to the present, has been complex rather than being simplistic for the reason that the pendulum of industry's ownership and regulation swings between privatization and nationalization. The consumers are main sufferer in this type of situation, and the satisfaction level decreases day by day. So government has changed it's strategies by implementing e-governance to electricity sector for achieving maximum consumer satisfaction. The first step to e-governance is change management within the government, enhancing citizens' access to information and improving government-to-citizen (G2C) interactions. This work seeks to propose a theoretical scale to measure e-government service quality and validate the measured instrument for electricity utility service by structural equation modeling.

Findings

The results indicate that basically the E_electricity service has a positive and direct influence on dimensions (web site design, fulfillment, privatisation and information).

Research limitations/implications

Only Odisha state is considered for measuring online service quality in electricity utility service.

Originality/value

As the electricity utility industry is doing monopoly business in India and all states basically in Odisha due to that the customer dissatisfaction is the most important obstacle. So the policy makers must concentrate on the dimensions and the sub-dimension before regulating new policies.

Citation

Satapathy, S., Mahapatra, S.S., Patel, S.K., Biswas, A. and Mishra, P.D. (2014), "Service satisfaction in E_Electricity service in Odisha (a state of India) by structural equation modeling", Benchmarking: An International Journal, Vol. 21 No. 4, pp. 634-650. https://doi.org/10.1108/BIJ-07-2012-0049