END OF UNIT ASSESSMENT: Assignment FACULTY: Social Science SCHOOL: Business MODULE: Research Design and Dissertation MODULE CODE: MGT9049 LEVEL: M MODULE CO-ORDINATOR: Liz Price and Rebecca Herron NAME: Xinjing LAI STUDENT ID: LAI13441475 HAND-IN DATE: 31st August 2014 WORD COUNT: 3100 A report based on analyzing data from a survey of service quality at a University Sports Center. Service quality is regarded as a major influence in customer satisfaction and retention. A significant quantity of management and academic literature has developed since the concept of service quality first emerged as a mainstream consideration over 20 yeas ago (Parasuraman et al, 1988). The quantitative research is important way to measure the quality of service (Bryman and Cramer, 1997). The important objective of quantitative study is not a simply summarizing and giving descriptive data for analyzing models and relationships within the data of sports center. Usually, it is include two sections. Firstly, difference between subgroup in the data. Anarchically techniques are associated with statistical tests of difference. The next is Co-variance, or the extent to which one variable is related to another. For example, the extent of usage usually plays a important role in the rating of service quality (Anderson, 2006). Therefore, ‘servqual’ as a methodology to measure the quality of services produced (Bryman and Bell, 2007). The reliability, tangibles, empathy, responsiveness and assurance are important features in the methodology (Bryman and Bell, 2007). In the report, the ‘servqual’ devote to evaluate the service quality in the context of the sports center in the University of Lincoln. Evaluation of Questionnaire Design The undergraduate students are main interviewees in the research.Basing on analyzing data from a survey of service quality at the Sports Center of university of Lincoln, a result of the study produced. In the autumn of 2009, a questionnaire was used. Using the random sampling, 200 participants concluded in the final sample, even has the potential sampling error of 9%, it still was seemed appropriate. In the process, the probability sample as a basic method by using e-mail to send for all of the university's students. It is difference with the original exception. In the initial sample, 300 participants were contacted, and were emailed directing them to a weblink to the survey hosted by surveymonkey.com. Two weeks later, the research achieves 202 useable feedbacks. As a result, 67% of feedback is reasonable for the research. Subsequent analysis of late respondents suggested no statistically significant differences between early and late respondents. In this feedback, the female made up 37.1% in the sample, and the male made up 62.4%. Non-members who pay each time the sports center makes up 48.4% of the sample and the member made up 51.6% of the sample. Otherwise, the business students made ...

1. END OF UNIT ASSESSMENT:
Assignment
FACULTY:
Social Science
SCHOOL:
Business
MODULE:
Research Design and Dissertation
MODULE CODE:

2. MGT9049
LEVEL:
M
MODULE CO-ORDINATOR:
Liz Price and Rebecca Herron
NAME:
Xinjing LAI
STUDENT ID:
LAI13441475
HAND-IN DATE:
31st August 2014
WORD COUNT:

3. 3100
A report based on analyzing data from a survey of service
quality at a University Sports Center.
Service quality is regarded as a major influence in customer sati
sfaction and retention.
A significant quantity of management and academic literature h
as developed since the
concept of service quality first emerged as a mainstream consid
eration over 20 yeas ago (Parasuraman et al, 1988). The
quantitative research is important way to measure the quality of
service (Bryman and Cramer, 1997). The important objective of
quantitative study is not a simply summarizing and giving
descriptive data for analyzing models and relationships within
the data of sports center. Usually, it is include two sections.
Firstly, difference between subgroup in the data. Anarchically
techniques are associated with statistical tests of difference.
The next is Co-variance, or the extent to which one variable is
related to another. For example, the extent of usage usually
plays a important role in the rating of service quality
(Anderson, 2006). Therefore, ‘servqual’ as a methodology to
measure the quality of services produced (Bryman and Bell,
2007). The reliability, tangibles, empathy, responsiveness and
assurance are important features in the methodology (Bryman
and Bell, 2007). In the report, the ‘servqual’ devote to evaluate
the service quality in the context of the sports center in the
University of Lincoln.
Evaluation of Questionnaire Design
The undergraduate students are main interviewees in the
research.Basing on analyzing data from a survey of service
quality at the Sports Center of university of Lincoln, a result of
the study produced.

4. In the autumn of 2009, a questionnaire was used. Using the
random sampling, 200 participants concluded in the final
sample, even has the potential sampling error of 9%, it still was
seemed appropriate. In the process, the probability sample as a
basic method by using e-mail to send for all of the university's
students. It is difference with the original exception. In the
initial sample, 300 participants were contacted, and were
emailed directing them to a weblink to the survey hosted by
surveymonkey.com. Two weeks later, the research achieves 202
useable feedbacks. As a result, 67% of feedback is reasonable
for the research. Subsequent analysis of late respondents
suggested no statistically significant differences between early
and late respondents. In this feedback, the female made up
37.1% in the sample, and the male made up 62.4%. Non-
members who pay each time the sports center makes up 48.4%
of the sample and the member made up 51.6% of the sample.
Otherwise, the business students made up 20.3%, media
students made up 11.9%, other course made up 34.2%, and the
sports students made up 33.7%. In addition, about the use of
frequency in a week. The percentage of people who use once
and less once a week is 23.3% in the sample, the percentage of
people who use twice a week is 23.3% in the sample, and the
percentage of people who never use is 22.8% in the sample.
A standardize questionnaire was used in the report, and it made
up with three sections of questions. In the question one, it
includes 21 separate questions about five dimensions of service
quality. The 5 point scale was used to allow respondents to rate
the service performance, 1 being the very dissatisfactory and
the 5 very dissatisfactory. Sub-questions t1 to t6 concentrated
on tangible elements of the service of sports center. Sub-
questions d1 to d4 concentrated on reliability with r1 to r5
measuring responsiveness. Then, c1 to c4 are
confidence/assurance, the E1 to E2 are empathy. The second
question is about description. Using five areas relating to the
University Sports Center and the service that it offers that to

5. attempt to get the respondents to weight the importance. More
point means more important and add up to a total of 100 point.
The third questions are to determine and identify some
background information. The respondent's characteristic is the
key independent variables in the process of measured. In the
pre-tested for potential users of the sports center, the
questionnaire was no problems with face validity and deemed to
be reliable.
Therefore, the sample could be seemed representative of the
people Statistical Product and Service
Solution
(SPSS) for analysis.
Analysis of survey data
A: Sample Composition
The sample composition is the first way to analysis the data of
the 'serqual', even the sample has a robust strategy, but it is
important to examine the outcomes and comment upon the
issues (Field, 2009). Because of the composition can referring
to the way in which its various parts are put together and
arranged, it is useful to understand the aim, structure and
characteristics of a sample clear (Anderson,2006). In the
questionnaire, the gender, usage, year, member and course, they

6. reflect characteristics of the respondents. There are effectively
the ‘independent’ variables which measure respondent
characteristics. The composition focus on the the Valid
Percentage Column.
Gender - are you male or female?
Usage - how often do you use the center?
Year - what year at university are you currently in?
Member - are you a member or do you pay each time.
Course - subject area.
Table 1: Sample Composition
%
Member or pay each
Member
51.6
Pay each time
48.4
Gender

7. Female
37.1
Male
62.4
3
0.5
Subject area
Sports
33.7
Business
20.3
Media
11.9
Other
34.2
Usage
Never
22.8
Once a week or less
19.3
Twice a week
23.3

8. 3 times a week
16.8
4 times a week
12.4
5 times a week
5.4
Year
1st year
33.7
2nd year
41.6
3rd year
21.8
4th year
2.0
Master
0.5
Other
0.5
N=202
It is noted that, the table shows that the member of the sports

9. center made up 51.6%, and the others made up 48.4%. This
finding may need to explore further. As an independent
variable, the member will relate with difference dimensions, for
example tangible, reliability, and others dimensions in the
approach. Using the cross-tabulations to look at the all
responses given to Questionnaire. Then, the statistically
significant results will report in the approach by the way.
B: Analysis of satisfaction level reported in Question 1 of the
Questionnaire
Descriptive Statistics of aspects of service quality using
perception
Table 2 Descriptive Statistics of aspects of service quality using
perception
Descriptive Statistics
Mean
Std. Deviation
Statistic
Statistic
1 C1manner well mannered and informative staff
3.76

10. 0.848
2 T1equipment modern sports/gym equipment
3.71
0.78
3 D1service providing a reliable service that is promised
3.7
0.821
4 R4willingness willingness to help facility users
3.69
0.842
5 T3Visual visually appealing facilities
3.67
0.827
6 T2Modchange modern changing facilities
3.66
0.891
7 D2firsttime service carried out as promised first time
3.64
0.82
8D4informing informing customer of new and changing
schedule/timetables
3.63
0.881
9 D3promisetime service performed at promised time
3.62

11. 0.87
10 R3prompt prompt service to facility users
3.62
0.87
11 E2 custservice staff with good customer service
3.6
0.875
12C3transaction secure transaction e.g. Membership payments
and booking facilities
3.6
0.939
13 T4samrtsstaff smart, professionally appearing staff
3.57
0.815
14 R5userrequests readiness to respond to user request
3.54
0.947
15 T6hours convenient hours of operation
3.53
0.865
16 C4knowledgeable knowledgeable and reliable staff
3.48
0.843
17 E1one 2 one attending to the needs of every customer e.g. On
a personal one to one basis

12. 3.48
0.843
18C2motivating highly motivated staff for example encouraging
gym staff
3.48
0.858
19T5information informative, relevant and appealing
documentation such as gym and class timetable and opening
times
3.44
0.928
20 R1complaints dealing with customer complaints
3.31
0.743
21 R2feedback prompt action based on customer feedback
3.29
0.766
N= 177
From the table 2, the mean of C1, T1 and D1 are gain more than
3.7, it is higher than others. This means majority of participants
focus on the well mannered and informative staff, equipment
modern sports/gym equipment, and service providing a reliable
service that is promised than other variables. The C1, T1, and
D1 show a high level of satisfaction. Opposite, the R1 and R2
gain a lower level. So the author suggested the management of

13. the sports center need to pay more attention to the part of CI,
T1 and D1 than other factors, and the R1 and R2 need to
improve in the future. However, the R1 and R2 are lower than
others, which means, the management of the sports center can
give less priority to the dealing with customer complaints and
prompt action based on customer feedback from the table 2.
About the standard deviation of, R1 (0.743) and R2 (0.766) are
lower than others. Then, these numbers are close to the mean
comparing to the other dimensions. Which, means, most of
participants evaluate the satisfaction levels of complaints and
feedback very close to the mean (3.31 and 3.29 respectively).
Cross-tabulations analysis
The table 3 reflects the results of a chi-square test. In the
report, the sports center management was interested to
understand whether the level of satisfaction varied depending
on whether respondents are members of the sports center or not.
Using the Chi-test, we can see from the table 3. Majority of
dependent variables are no value less than or equal to 0.05, but
it is noted that, only the D2fristtime is less than 0.05, that is
0.022. Therefore, there is a statistically significant difference
between member and the level of satisfaction depending on the
D2 firsttime. The significant values of the Chi-test for other

14. dependent variables are more than 0.05, therefore, there are
statistically insignificant.
Table3 Chi-test
Chi-square test
Sig
T1Equipment
0.947
T2Modchange
0.809
T3Visual
0.554
T4smartstaff
0.362
T5information
0.412
T6hours
0.690
D1service
0.954
R1complaints
0.504
R2feedback
0.681
D2firsttime

15. 0.022
D3promisetime
0.346
D4informing
0.177
R3prompt
0.179
R4willingness
0.162
R5userrequests
0.372
C1manners
0.801
C2motivating
0.332
C3transactions
0.105
C4knowledgeable
0.195
E1one2one
0.883
custservice
0.287
Table 4 Service carried out as promised first time * are you a
member or do you pay each time

16. Chi-Square Tests
Value
df
Asymp. Sig.(2-sided)
Pearson Chi-Square
11.461a
4
0.022
Likelihood Ratio
12.173
4
0.016
Linear-by-Linear Association
0.907
1
0.341
N of Valid Cases
186
a.2 cells (20.0%)have expected count less than 5. The
minimum expected count is 49.

17. Therefore, the results of the chi-square are statistically
significant (the Sig value is less than 0.05). The result is Chi
=11.4, df=4, and Sig=0.02 (from the table 4). This suggests that
the people who pay each time are more likely to be satisfied
with the service carried out as promised first time than members
of sport center. However, a large proportion of people who pay
each time are neither satisfied nor dissatisfied (31% of pay each
time compared with 22% of member).
C: Analyzing the important given to different dimensions of
service quality
The Question 2 of the survey respondents were asked to sate the
importance the questionnaire to each of 5 performance
dimensions of service quality by giving a score between 0 and
100 for each. Then, the authors use the descriptive statistics to
describe the responses given. The output of SPSS showed in the
Table 5.
Table 5 Descriptive Statistics of the importance of each
dimension of service quality
Minimum
Maximum

18. Mean
Std. Deviation
Statistic
Statistic
Statistic
Statistic
Q1 The appearance of the Sports Center, physical facilities such
as staff, gym equipment, the sports hall, and changing rooms.
5
96
25.34
11.399
Q2 The ability of the Sports Center and its staff to implement
the service promised reliably and accurately.
1
60
18.25
7.425
Q3 The Sports Center’s willingness to help users and provide a
prompt and friendly service.
1
60
18.29
8.075

19. Q4 The knowledge and manners of the Sports Center’s staff,
and their ability to supply and maintain confidence and trust
within its customers.
1
41
17.26
7.133
Q5 The attention to detail given when dealing with a customer
on a one to one basis, through being caring and sympathetic to
any problems that may have arisen.
0
51
20.95
10.101
From the table, the mean of the Q1 dimension is the highest that
is 25.34. In other words, the appearance of the Sports Center,
physical facilities such as staff, gym equipment, the sports hall,
and changing rooms plays more important role for most
respondents than other dimensions. Thus, the sports center need
to pay more attention to improve the appearance of the Sports
Center, physical facilities such as staff, gym equipment, the
sports hall, and changing rooms than other service suggested by
sample. Opposite, the mean of Q4 dimension is 17.26 that are

20. lowest in the five dimensions. In other words, the knowledge
and manners of the Sports Center’s staff, and their ability to
supply and maintain confidence and trust within its customers,
that is not most important for more respondents. As a result, the
sports center should reduce focus on the knowledge and
manners of the Sports Center’s staff, and their ability to supply
and maintain confidence and trust within its customers.
In addition, the standard deviation of Q1 is the highest, that is
11.399. It means the data are offered to a big range of value
when compare with other dimensions. In addition, it means that
the most of respondents evaluate the importance of Q1 that is
not near to the mean (25.34) when it compare with Q4. Thus,
the standard deviation of Q2, Q3 and Q4 which means that how
the more people in the sample are near to the mean of these five
dimensions.
Calculate the mean values for these weighted variables (t1-E2)
and rank these (From highest to lowest)
Table 6 using weighted perception and ranked according to the
mean of t1 to E2
Descriptive Statistics (table 6)
Mean
Std. Deviation

21. Statistic
Statistic
1 t1 Equipment Rating Weighted
95.4378
51.10232
2 t3 Appearance Weighted
94.4850
52.34568
3 t2 Changing Facilituies Weighted
93.8000
51.14527
4 t4 Smart staff weighted
91.9554
53.12112
5 t6 Convenience weighted
89.2624
48.78010
6 t5 information weighted
87.6250
50.05800
7 E2 Staff with good customer care weighted
73.0251
36.84111
8 E1 Attending to needs of every customer weighted

22. 70.8376
36.25356
9 d1 Reliable Serice weighted
67.4650
31.25288
10 r4 readiness to respond to user requests weighted
67.2915
33.01401
11 d4 Informing Customers pf changes weighted
66.7500
32.74736
12 r3 willingness to help users weighted
66.7214
33.83285
13 d2 Service carried out 1st time weighted
66.3485
31.58109
14 d3 Service provided as promised weighted
66.1100
32.25196
15 r5 dealing with customer complaints weighted
65.7551
35.55195
16 c1 well mannered and informative staff weighted
65.1832

23. 32.41078
17 c3 secure transactions weighted
62.2289
32.59459
18 c4 knowledgeable and reliable staff weighted
60.8763
28.91632
19 r2 prompt service to users weighted
60.7199
32.42134
20 r1 prompt actions on customer feedback weighted
60.5471
31.46946
21 c2 highly motivated staff weighted
60.0578
28.65315
N= 177
t1-t6 are tangibles
d1-d4 are reliability
r1 -r5 are responsiveness
c1-ca are confidence/assurance
E1-E2 are empathy
From the table 6 (the mean of weighted variables). The tangible
dimension (t1to t6) gains more attention from the respondents
than other dimensions. Then, the respondents give more on

24. empathy dimensions than reliability, responsiveness and
empathy dimensions. However, from the table 2, the means of
each dimension have not a close relationship. Which means, the
change of these dimension will produces positive influence on
these participants of the sample, and these influence is
sensitive. When we compare table 6 and table 2. The mean of
each dimension have a close relationship in table 6 than table 2.
Which means, these participants’ attachment to each dimension
less varies among the variables of the each dimension. In other
words, the original unweighted result shows a closer
relationship of the mean of these dimensions than weighted
variables from the two tables. The weighted variable plays a
positive in the analysis, cause of it can offers more precise
measure to help the analysis the service of sports center.
Summary, Conclusion and Recommendations
Firstly, using the SPSS data analysis, the service performance
of the university’s sports center can be understood better then
before. More overall information provided by the questionnaire.
A highlight point is found in the analysis. The tangibles
dimension plays a more important role than other dimensions
for the respondents in the survey. Moreover, the levels of
satisfaction and membership are statistically significant. Using
the cross-tabulations and Chi-test, the firsttime are statistically
significant. In addition, the weighted values provided some

25. useful information to analysis the importance. The original
unweighted result (i.e. ‘T1 equipment’ to ‘custservice’) was not
enough to measure the service perception. The new weighted
result can provide a more clear, and detail for the survey, it is a
sensitive way to reflect the respondents’ information about the
quality of service. Otherwise, the five dimension of service
performance (i.e. tangibles, reliability, responsiveness,
confidence/assurance, and empathy) produce the data by the
model. Each factor can represents each of the dimensions of the
service quality. For example, the t1 to t6 are
tangiblesdimension, and the analysis shows the tangibles
dimension obtain more attention than other from respondents.
As a result, the management of sports center should pay more
attention the part, particularly, the equipment, changing
facilities, appearance, smart staff and so on.
It is a useful way to understand the quantitative research. The
author learns some skill of SPSS to analysis a service quality.
For example, using the descriptive statistics to understand the
sample composition, how to use the cross-tabulations to
analysis the responses given to a questions in relation to
independent variables. On the one hand, the five dimensions of
service quality can be reflected better, it is a useful way to
understand the survey by these distensions. On the other hand,
using the five dimensions to reflect these 21 questions, it is a

26. easy and clear way. Because of it can reduce the complexity of
these questions in the analysis. Moreover, the descriptive
analysis provided a way to the attachment in the future research.
For example, the mean represents the attachment of the
respondents to some elements of the analysis.
However, the SERVQUAL model is not without its critics (Kai
and Jacob, 2012).
A central issue has been the fact that experiences/perceptions
and expectations are measured at the same time. A importance
problem produced that expectations and experiences/perceptions
are measured at the same time. This means, it is unclear to
understand a gap between exception and perception (Kristensen
and Eskildsen, 2012). In addition, how to analysis of
quantitative with SPSS, it is a onerous task. This means, the
task need to a group to analysis a survey, and need to base on a
qualitative research. If a report only based on a one person to
analyzing more dates, that is a hard and huge task. Therefore, a
limitation produced, cause of one person’s time, knowledge is
finite, it is not useful to produce a high level report. In the
future research, more people to analyzing a survey that is
necessary. Because of, more people can provide more
information, skill and knowledge to analyzing a topic.
Reference

27. Anderson P (2006) Statistics for Business and
Economics London: Thomson.
Bryman, A. and Cramer, D. (1997) Quantitative Data Analysis
with SPSS for Windows Routledge.
Bryman, A. and Bell, E. (2007) Business Research Methods 2nd
Edition Oxford University Press.
Field, A. (2009) Discovering Statistics Using SPSS 3rd Edition
SAGE.
Kristensen, K. and Eskildsen, J. (2012) The Relationship
Between SERVQUAL, National Customer Satisfaction Indices,
and Consumer Sentiment. Quality Management Journal 19(2)
47-61.
XINJING LAI 13441475
MGT9049 & TOU9007

28. Research Design and Dissertation
Assignment 2:
A report based on analysing data from a survey of service
quality at a University Sports Centre.
Deadline 31 August 2014 – to be submitted online via the
Blackboard
Approximate word length – 3000 words
This assignment is based on your evaluation and analysis of a
survey undertaken on the users of a University Sports Centre.
In order to do this you will consider the design of the
questionnaire itself and you will also be asked to undertake
some analysis (in SPSS) of the data set that was created by
using this questionnaire.
The datafile you will analyse (called ‘servqual.sav’) is the
product of a survey conducted by a couple of former
undergraduate students looking at service quality in the context
of a Sports Centre. The questionnaire they used to collect the
data is available on Blackboard together with some contextual
information and an extract from a draft research paper giving
further details about the research. You should take some time
to read and familiarise yourself with these files.

29. Your task is to create a report on this research that answers the
questions set out below. Your report should include appropriate
tables and graphs and a set of references. You should use
PASW/SPSS for data analysis where required.
1. Evaluation of Questionnaire Design (total = 15% of the
marks)
Considering all the documents carefully and examining the data
file that was produced by using this questionnaire you should
write a brief summary of the methods used in this research;
including your understanding of the research aims of this survey
exercise.
Consider the questionnaire used for the data collection and
make observations and suggestions for improvement about the
design of the questionnaire itself. (We suggest you complete it
yourself or ask friends to complete it in order to trial it).
Discuss the purpose of the 3 parts to the questionnaire and the
design of questions.
From the accompanying draft research paper find out what
sampling approach the authors say was used. Comment
generally on the approach used to collect the data.
2. Analysis of survey data (total = 55% of the marks)
This section of your report should be based on an analysis of
the data provided (in the file servqual.sav) and should include

30. clear and effective tables and/or graphs to answer the following:
2a. SAMPLE COMPOSITION Using frequencies and/or
descriptive statistics, report on the composition of the sample
obtained in this survey. Explain why it is important to know the
composition of any sample. Discuss any aspects of this sample
composition you find unexpected and reflect on how these
findings might relate to the sampling approach used (10%).
2b. Analysis of satisfaction levels reported in Question 1 of the
Questionnaire
In Question 1 of the survey a number of questions were asked to
measure levels of satisfaction with different features of the
Sports Centre. These questions each relate to a variable in the
data file with similar names (i.e. all those from ‘T1Equipment’
down to ‘custservice’ in the data file). Using descriptive
statistics describe the responses obtained to each of these
questions. Rank the responses to Question 1 in your report so
that it is clear which aspects ‘scored’ the highest and which the
lowest. Identify any aspects of the Sports Centre the
respondents were particularly satisfied with and those they were
less satisfied with. Reflect on the possible implications of this
for the management of the Sports Centre. (10%)
The Sports Centre Management were also interested to know
whether the levels of satisfaction (picked up by Question 1 in
the survey) varied depending on whether participants are

31. members of the Sports Centre or not. Use cross-tabulations
(crosstabs) to look at the all responses given to Question 1 in
relation to this independent variable (i.e. consider each
dependent variable from ‘T1Equipment’ to ‘custservice’ and
cross-tabulate each against the membership variable). Identify
which of these appear to show noticeable differences. Using
chi-squared tests identify if any of these differences identified
are statistically significant. Reflect on what this analysis may
be able to tell the managers of the Sports Centre. Explain in
your own words what these tests of difference show (15%)
2c. Analysing the importance given to different dimensions of
service quality
In Question 2 of the survey respondents were asked to state the
importance they give to each of 5 performance dimensions of
service quality by giving a score between 0 and 100 for each
dimension
. (Note: These variables are ‘Q1’ to ‘Q5’ in the data file). Use
descriptive statistics to describe the responses given. Comment
on these findings and consider their implications for the overall
research objective. (10%).
The final set of variables in the data file combine the levels of
satisfaction from question 1 of the survey (‘T1Equipment’ to
‘custservice’) with the scoring each person gave (in Question 2
of the survey) to the corresponding dimension of quality
. This has produced weighted values for each measure (i.e.

32. produced the new variables ‘t1’ to ‘E2’ at the end of the
datafile). These new weighted variables are not on the original
questionnaire – but have been constructed by the research
students by combining the answers given to Question 1 with
those given by each person to Question 2:
a. Calculate the mean values for these weighted variables (i.e.
‘t1’ to ‘E2’) and rank these. (5%)
b. Compare this with the ordering of the original unweighted
results and comment on any changes in rankings that this
weighting has produced. Comment on why you think it might be
useful to weight responses in this way. (5%)
3. Summary, Conclusions and Recommendations (total = 30% of
the marks)
The final section of the report should now summarise your
findings and draw some conclusions. Reiterate the key findings
from your above analysis – highlighting the points you think the
management of the Sports Centre should pay particular attention
to. Your report should highlight what the research suggests are
the strengths of the Sports Centre (in terms of service quality)
and what it suggests are areas requiring more attention. (10%)
Review to what extent your findings challenge or reinforce your
existing understanding of service quality? (Comment also on
whether you thought adding the weighted values provided any

33. valuable information or not to this discussion). (10%)
Highlight any recommendations you may have for further
developing the research - including any suggestions you would
make for changing, modifying or extending the research design
in another future study. Reflect also on what have you learnt as
a result of this evaluation that you can take to your future
research studies. (10%)
Suggested Further Reading
Anderson P (2006) Statistics for Business and Economics
London: Thomson
Bryman A & Cramer D (1997) Quantitative Data Analysis with
SPSS for Windows Routledge
Bryman A & Bell E (2007) Business Research Methods 2nd
Edition Oxford University Press
Field A (2009) Discovering Statistics Using SPSS 3rd Edition
SAGE
Statsofts (2010) Electronic Statistics Textbook,
http://www.statsoft.com/textbook/
� These dimensions are called “areas” on the actual
questionnaire (see Question 2 on the survey). You should have
read the accompanying notes to understand more about these
‘dimensions of service quality’ before answering this question.

34. � See the accompanying notes to know which each dimension
of service quality each satisfaction score had been linked to in
order to create this weighted value.
PAGE
3
Dr R Herron (adapting from original by Dr M P Elliott-White)
Summer 2014
CHAO LIU
13451646
A report based on analysing data from a survey of service
quality at a University Sports Centre
CHAO LIU
13451646

35. Table of Contents
TITLE PAGE
Abstract………………………………………………………………
………3
Introduction…………………………………………………………
………..4
Evaluation of Questionnaire
Design…………………………………………5
Analysis of Survey Data
…………………………….………………………5
Measuring Service Quality Using
SERVQUAL…………………………….5
Benefits of service
quality……………………………………………………11
Summary………………………………………………………………
……...12
Conclusion……………………………………………………………
………13
Recommendations……………………………………………………
………14
References……………………………………………………………
……..16

36. Abstract
Traditionally, sporting activities has not been regarded as a
business for unknown reasons. However, it is increasingly
apparent that business and commercial principles are being
applied to what is talked of an industry. Clearly, the
introduction of sports bodies such as FIFA, IOC, and English
Premier League (EPL) has proved that sporting activities are
quite a business. For instance, EPL achieved a total revenue of
$ 2 billion in the year 2008/2009 with an annual turnover of
almost $ 200 million per year. Based on research, it is clear that
every sporting activity is a business. Globally, sports have
become one of the most famous activities. For example, today
people are interested in watching different types of sporting
activities such as Football. This paper will evaluate and analyze
a survey carried out on users of the University Sports Center.
The method used to do this research was a survey, sampling,
and observation. SERVQUAL was the data file used by the
users to conduct the survey.
Key Words: SERVQUAL, Questionnaire Design, survey, service
quality, and customer satisfaction
1. Evaluation of Questionnaire Design
Introduction
Relational benefits are vital factors to construct relationships

37. with clients. Globally, sports have become one of the most
famous activities. For instance, today people are interested in
watching different types of sporting activities such as Football.
This paper will evaluate and analyze a survey carried out on
users of the University Sports Center. The method used to do
this research was a survey, sampling, and observation.
SERVQUAL was the data file used by the users to conduct the
survey. The study would be done with the qualitative approach
to examine the requirements and explore how the University
Sport Center is establishing, implementing, documenting, and
assessing the internal controls. Analysis of these measures
would be done to evaluate the effectiveness of the internal
controls and to determine what additional measures may be
taken to determine what can be done to ensure compliance with
the internal controls for future years and how the internal
controls can bring business value to the stakeholders. The
scope of the development would include the 10-K reports, and
how effective the controls were listed in the 10-K reports.
There would also be a survey done by management volunteers to
assess how the costs of compliance brought business value to
the firm and what the value contained (Statsofts, 2010).
Qualitative methods were chosen over quantitative methods
because of a number of reasons. Firstly, the surveys carried out
on the University Sport Center provide detailed information on

38. how sporting activities use internal controls in their office
systems. Secondly, the technicalities of obtaining data using
qualitative methods would also be useful to University Sport
Center. Moreover, the validity of and data and information
collected by management volunteers would also be tested for its
effectiveness. Several interviews were also carried out on the
investment costs of having SERVQUAL as sporting being in
place. This information is beneficial to researchers since they
will identify whether the implementation of SERVQUAL has a
long-term benefit to the University Sport Center (Bryman &
Bell, 2007).
In order to improve dissemination of a quality report it was
necessary to use survey instrument on different sporting activity
with an aim of identifying the best internal control tools that are
used to comply with SERVQUAL. Empirical data and
information were gathered on the usefulness of the best tools.
The data was useful in explaining the gap available in research
and specific assurance control. Several proposals were
submitted after analyzing data and information on compliance
controls. This data would be helpful to the University Sport
Center because it will help sporting activities to use suitable
infrastructure such as IT for compliance in future years. The
research findings were also presented in the paper after a
careful analysis of data collected in various sporting activities

39. (Bryman & Bell, 2007).
2. Analysis of Survey Data
Measuring Service Quality Using SERVQUAL
As a way of measuring service quality in University Sports
Center, researchers developed a methodology known as
SERVQUAL. The methodology examines five major dimensions
of service quality (Bryman & Bell, 2007). These dimensions
include
i. Reliability
ii. Assurance
iii. Responsiveness
iv. Empathy
v. Tangible
Dimension
Statement
Expectation Score
Perception Score

40. Gap Score
Average for Dimension in Sports
Tangibles
1
6.7
7.6
7.8
22.1
2
6.0
7.6
7.5
21.1
3
2.0
5.6
6.5
14.1
4
1.3
4.3
1.5

41. 7.1
Reliability
5
2.6
2.9
6.9
12.4
6
8.5
4.0
9.1
21.6
7
5.0
8.0
6.3
19.3
8
2.7
5.7
9.2
17.6

42. 9
3.0
9.8
2.3
15.1
Responsiveness
10
7.8
6.5
7.6
21.9
11
4.5
3.2
6.5
14.2
12
2.4
7.8
4.5
14.7

43. 13
7.8
4.5
9.4
21.7
Assurance
14
3.4
7.9
7.8
19.1
15
4.6
8.7
4.5
17.8
16
5.6
7.6
6.7
19.9
17

44. 5.4
7.8
8.8
22.0
Empathy
18
3.4
5.6
2.3
11.3
19
1.2
5.4
6.5
12.2
20
2.4
4.5
2.3
9.2
21
2.3

45. 5.6
7.8
15.7
22
2.3
6.5
3.4
12.2
23
3.3
4.4
3.3
11.0
Unweighted Average SERVQUAL score:
356.1
Figure: Calculation of service quality in University Sports
Center
Expectations
This section of the survey deals with researchers opinions in
enhancing sporting activities. The table below shows the extent
to which the University Sports Center ought to apply its
responsibilities in sports.
Ranks of each statement as follows:

46. Strongly
Strongly
Disagree
Agree
1 2 3 4 5 6
7
Statement
Score
1. Excellent quality services will have modern looking
equipment.
1
2. The physical facilities at University Sports Center will be

47. visually appealing.
4
3. Employees at excellent sport centers will be neat in their
appearance.
7
4. Materials associated with the service (pamphlets or
statements) will be visually appealing at an excellent sporting.
5
5. When excellent sporting promises to do something by a
certain time, they do.
5
6. When a customer has a problem, the management will show a
sincere interest in solving it.
4
7. The management will perform the service right the first time.
4
8. The management will provide the service at the time they
promise to do so.
5
9. The management will insist on error free records.
6
10. The management will tell customers exactly when services
will be performed.
7
11. The management will give prompt service to customers.

48. 5
12. The management will always be willing to help customers.
5
13. The management will never be too busy to respond to
customers' requests.
6
14. The management will feel safe in transactions.
2
15. The management will be consistently courteous with
customers.
2
16. The management will have the knowledge to answer
customers' questions.
2
17. The management will give customers individual attention.
1
18. The management will have operating hours convenient to all
their customers.
6
19. The management will have employees who give customers
personal service.
4
20. The management will have their customers' best interest at
heart.
5

49. 21. The management will understand the specific needs of their
customers.
3
SERVQUAL entails caring about the welfare of the competitors,
giving back to the community and also being socially,
environmentally and financially responsible. Companies should
strive to care about the environment and the society. For the
last three decades, there has been a controversial debate on the
benefits of sporting activities and businesses being ethical and
socially responsible. However, research shows that the
advantages of SERVQUAL outweigh the disadvantages. Social
responsibility helps to increase the positive image for a
business thus building trust among consumers and other
company’s stakeholders. Moreover, some of the other benefits
of corporate social responsibility include increased productivity
as a result of investor turnover rates (Statsofts, 2010). It was
also found that social responsibility also helps to increase
customer loyalty as most of the employees feel that the
company is on their side. This contributes to competitive
advantage thus attracting many stakeholders to the business
entity. The aforementioned reasons show that a social
responsibility for business has a positive impact to the
attraction of investors, retention of employees and customer
retention (Bryman & Bell, 2007).

50. The implementation of SERVQUAL helps to encourage the best
practices in financial reporting. This is because it encourages
sporting activities to increase IT infrastructure that would help
in the governance and control of financial processes within the
company. On the same token, SERVQUAL compliance helps to
increase implementation of control mechanisms within an
organisation. The policies have a positive impact on the entity-
wide and company-wide controls.The implementation of
SERVQUAL supports sporting activities to understand the
importance of internal controls in financial reporting.
Moreover, accountability and transparency in an organisation
are also enhanced to support increased productivity. A recent
survey on financial accountability shows that internal controls
are efficient in an organisation because they increase
accountability and integrity to shareholders and investors. Most
of the stakeholders in a company oftenly need to have reports
on financial responsibility in companies. Ultimately, the
primary objective of these financial controls is to improve
accountability in organisations (Bryman, & Cramer 1997).
A comprehensive report on SERVQUAL, supported the
implementation of the policy arguing that it had many benefits
to organisation. Firstly, it helps to increase reinvestment in
internal controls and IT infrastructure in companies. Since it is

51. an obligation for every company to implement the policy, it is
easier for sporting activities to have increased awareness and
focus on accountability of financial information. Opportunities
of automation are also identified easily thus reducing time take
in financial reporting. Automation process are significant in an
sporting activity since they reduce defects that may occur.
Alternatively, the focus of financial reporting becomes
comprehensive since it is possible to identify and remedy
critical deficiencies in statements before they translate to
material weaknesses. The management of sporting activities
becomes rigor when it comes to selection of accounting
policies. This is important in the process of auditing since it
increases the ability of a company to function in a proper
manner (Robinson, 2005).
The main objective for SERVQUAL is to reduce any chances of
fraud through increase of procedures that should be followed in
financial reporting. Integrity of data handling in sporting
activities is also increased in the auditing process. Auditors
oftenly work together with IT professionals to monitor data.
The IT professionals usually develop a framework that is used
to asses the risks that occur with the usage of data and
information in an organisation. This paves a chance for setting
up of internal controls to be used in governing all processes that
occur in financial reporting. Monitoring and enforcement of

52. actions in the organisations is also critical for the success of the
process. Finally, SERVQUAL helps to measure reports on
financial statements thus creating a platform for refinements
needed in the process. Managers will then have the ability to
satisfy compliance requirements (Anderson, 2006).
3. Summary
After investigating the importance of using service quality in a
business environment, researchers found that sporting activities
that practice social responsibility have a competitive advantage
as compared to their counterparts. SERVQUAL can be used in
a number of ways to increase business efficiency. To begin
with, it was evident that sporting activities increase their
customer loyalty through focusing on sales that the
environmentally and socially responsible. A research on
sporting activities that produce products and services that are
socially responsible shows that those sporting activities have
increased turnover rates as compared to the sporting activities
that produce harmful products. In addition, efficiency in a
business can also be increased through building up of a positive
reputation between the company and the surrounding
environment. For instance, the company should engage in
promotion of SMEs and even providing basic commodities such
as water and shelter to people. Many people who have been
helped by their sporting activities always feel appreciated and

53. they will always go back to those sporting activities to purchase
more of their services and products (Bryman & Cramer, 1997).
According to research findings, it was also evident that people
always want to work with ethical businesses. As a matter of
fact, it is evident that business has changed as more people are
becoming aware of the working with ethical businesses. Ethical
and social issues have become an issue of concern for many
people and this has triggered business owners to shift the way
they carry their businesses. Consumer perceptions have become
an essential aspect for their retention. Any business that needs
to have long-term retention of its consumers, employees and
even investors should be willing to build a positive image that
would benefit the reputation of the business. From extensive
research, business can become ethically responsible by solving
the local problems of the communities that live in their
surroundings. This helps to improve the performance of
business in the end (Anderson, 2006).
From the research findings, the management of the company
should carry out an extensive research on the needs of the local
people and try to solve them. This will help to improve the
confidence of the consumers thus building a positive image for
the business. The management of the company should also
consider making decisions that are ethically based. For instance,

54. the preparation of the budget should also have activities that are
geared towards improving the lives of the local people. Some of
the areas that people feel need to be improved include; recon
structuring the roads, improving waste management and
providing social amenities to the local people. Additionally, the
management should also strive to set funds to engage in
providing solutions to environmental issues (Anderson, 2006).
4. Conclusion
In summation, being more ethical and socially responsible helps
to increase efficiency in a business. Social responsibility in a
business contributes to building a team among the employees
and this contributes to improving of relationships that are vital
for productivity in the workplace. In addition, being ethical
promotes reputation of the company as this builds up a positive
image for the investors and customers. While the customers
increase their turnover rates, the business increases its
efficiency since the flow of income for the company is
maintained all over the year. Moreover, the turnover for
investors is also high, as they know that the business is stable
due to the customer turnover rates. Consequently, the main
objective for being socially responsible is solving the social
problems, which businesses have as this increases the efficiency
in the business while contributing to increase in business
functions. The company should strive to use its resources to

55. solve the social problems for the people as this helps to increase
its business efficiency and builds image that is beneficial for
the competitive advantage of the company. As described in this
paper, it is evident that. SERVQUAL can be used in a number
of ways to increase business efficiency. To begin with, it was
evident that sporting activities increase their customer loyalty
through focusing on sales that the environmentally and socially
responsible. Also, a research on sporting activities that produce
products and services that are socially responsible shows that
those sporting activities have increased turnover rates as
compared to the sporting activities that produce harmful
products.
5. Recommendations
I recommend the management to change its policies to suit
social responsibility for the best interests of sports in the end.
The University Sport Center should develop policies that are
geared towards improving the lives of the local community. The
University Sport Center has a moral obligation to enact policies
and make decisions based on development of products and
services that cater for the needs of the local people. It is evident
that consumers cannot be forced to consume products and
services they do not need. For this reason, the University Sport
Center should develop services that are tailored to create more

56. jobs for the people, pay wage and salaries to the members of the
communities and also ensure that there is safety of the
competitors in the Sport Center. The University Sport Center
needs the people for its survival while the people need the
company for employment. The Sport Center should provide
client satisfaction for the people and improve sports thus
improving efficiency in the end (Statsofts, 2010).
Secondly, I recommend the management of sports to engage in
activities that will help to build a positive image and reputation
for sports. This includes producing products that are designed to
provide good value of the money for the people. The durability
and safety of a quality service should be the utmost priority for
sports. The management of University Sport Center should also
take measures that are aimed at improving the business
strategies such as the adequate supply of services and products,
providing full information to all business customers and also
enacting fair standards of advertisements in sports.
Furthermore, in order to promote the goodwill of sports, the
management of the University Sport Center should also engage
in social functions such as sponsoring of sports and local
features aimed at building up the image of the company at the
grassroots. This will increase the reputation of the company that
is essential for business efficiency (Statsofts, 2010).

57. Thirdly, I recommend the management of sports should strive to
invest in providing a solution to social problems. Most of the
sporting activity investments should be geared at solving social
problems that affect people at the grassroots. Some of the
investment should help to sustain people through provision of
local amenities and also solving local problems. Consequently,
the management of the company should allocate its resources in
education, charities and even organizations that support the
sustainability of the local communities. Although the University
Sport Center may have limited resources, it should involve
many stakeholders in correcting social problems for the people.
In order to build the confidence of the people the University
Sport Center should engage in providing solutions to the
domestic problems. Efficiency is improved when the customers
participate in activities that are geared towards improving social
relations with the people (Milne, & McDonald, 1999).
References
Anderson P. (2006) Statistics for Business and Economics.
London: Thomson. Print
Bryman A., & Cramer D. (1997) Quantitative Data Analysis
with SPSS for Windows. Routledge. Print
Bryman A & Bell E. (2007) Business Research Methods. 2nd
Edition. Oxford University Press
Field A (2009) Discovering Statistics Using SPSS 3rd Edition.

58. SAGE. Print.
Milne, G. R., & McDonald, M. A. (1999) Sport marketing:
Managing the exchange process. Sudbury, Mass: Jones and
Bartlett.
Statsofts (2010) Electronic Statistics Textbook. Print. [online]
Available from http://www.statsoft.com/textbook/ [Accessed 20
September 2014]
1
PAGE
14
Analysis of a survey undertaken on the university sports centre
satisfaction: using SPSS
COLLEGE:
College of Social Science
DEPARTMENT:
Finance and Economics
UNIT:
Research Design and Dissertation
LEVEL:
M

59. STUDENT NAME:
Kang Yulan
STUDENT ID:
KAN12421305
Evaluation of Questionnaire Design
Questionnaire is widely used in management and business
research. It is defined as a general term including all data
collection techniques in which a same set of questions is
required to be responded to by each person in a predetermined
order. If the interviewer is not present, and the interviewees
answer the questions, telephone questionnaires and structured
interviews should also be included in questionnaire. There are
several methods, such as questionnaire, secondary sources
examination, observation and interviews, being used to collect
data. Questionnaires work best with the questions that will be
interpreted with one accord to complete the explanatory or
descriptive research. Explanatory research, which is also known
as analytical research, is used to explain and examine, in
particular, the relationships about cause and effect. Descriptive
research is used to describe and identify the variability, taking
advantage of questionnaires of attitude, opinion and
organizational practices, in different situation. (Mark et al,

60. 2012, 416-467)
There is just one chance being offered for data collection, which
requires questions to be prepared precisely in questionnaires.
This means that the data to be collected should be planned and
analysed. It is crucial to meet the requirements by designing the
questionnaire. The main purpose of questions is to describe and
compare the characteristics of population at a fixed point or
over a period of time. As a sample, questionnaire needs to
represent and generalise about the population accurately. (Alan
and Emma, 2011, 239-256)
Questionnaires can collect three types of variable, which are
opinion, behavior and attribute. The feelings of respondents and
the way they thinking will be recorded to the opinion variables.
By comparison, behavior variables and attribute variables
record the concrete experience of respondents. However,
behavior focuses on the things people do. Attributes, including
age, marital status, gender, occupation, education and income,
contain data on the characteristics of respondents or the things
they possess. (Catherine and Gretchen, 2011, 127-131)
The questions design, questionnaire structure and pilot testing
pilot rigour influent the internal validity and reliability of
collected data and achieved response rate a lot, which requires

61. four stages at least for valid and reliable questions. First, when
the researchers designing questions, they should be clear about
what data is required. Secondly, when the respondents decoding
the questions, they should be clear about the intention of
researchers and follow their requirements. Thirdly, the
questions are answered by the respondents. Finally, the
researchers should decode the answers precisely. Questionnaire
design should be included into the second stage. Before the
individual questions are designed, assessing validity is required,
which including construct validity, criterion-related validity and
internal validity. And then, the researchers should test for
reliability. Three common approaches, which are alternative
form, internal consistency and test re-test, should be outlined to
assessing reliability at the stage of questionnaire design. After
that, the researchers should design individual questions. It is
helpful for comparing the findings and design their own
questions to adopt an adapt questions of other questionnaires.
There are two kinds of questions, closed ones, such as, list,
category, ranking, rating, quantity, matrix and so on, and open
ones, which is useful in exploratory research. then the
researcher could construct the questionnaires and collect data.
(Sheila and Deborah, 2009, 333-358)
The sample selected from an entire target population used for
collecting data should be representative. It is important to select

62. the sample. There are six sampling methods. The first one is
probability sampling. It is also known as random sampling, in
which every element may be selected. It is the method used in
this research. The second one is quota sampling. This method
requires specified numbers form specified subgroups. The third
one is purposive sampling in which units are selected by
personal judgment. The others are snowball sampling, volunteer
sampling and stratification procedure. (Sara, 2009)
Analysis of survey data
The purpose of this survey is to know the views of people about
the service quality and expectant performance of universities
sports centre. There are five numbers between 1 and 5 standing
different level of satisfactory. 1 means very dissatisfactory and
5 means very satisfactory.
Sample composition
Descriptive statistics show an accurately describing way to
analysis large datasets easily and quickly. The two most
common ways in descriptive statistics are central tendency
measures and dispersion measures. The central tendency
measures show the mean, mode and median of data. And the
dispersion measures show the range, standard error, standard
deviation and variance of data. All kinds of descriptive
statistics, including central tendency measures, dispersion

63. measures, distribution measures and percentile values measures,
are allowed to be analysed by frequencies command. (Hinton
and Perry, 2014, 35-50)
The tables and graphs below show the descriptive statistics for
“how satisfactory modern sports/gym equipment”, in which the
digits in rows are the descriptive statistics. There are 202
answers for this question and 201 of them are valid. The mean,
median and mode satisfactory are 3.71, 4.00 and 4 separately.
The standard deviation is 0.780, which means that there is just a
small spread of score in the satisfactory. 134 people are
satisfied with the equipment, which account for 66% of total
proportion. 24 among them feel very satisfactory. And nobody
feels very dissatisfactory. As shown in the histogram, the
people who choose 4 is over 100 and almost nobody choose 1
and 5. (Andy, 2000)
N
Valid
201
Missing
1
Mean
3.71

64. Median
4.00
Mode
4
Std. Deviation
.780
Table 1
Frequency
Percent
Valid Percent
Cumulative Percent
Valid
dissatisfactory
16
7.9
8.0
8.0
neutral
51
25.2
25.4
33.3

65. satisfactory
110
54.5
54.7
88.1
very satisfactory
24
11.9
11.9
100.0
Total
201
99.5
100.0
Missing
0
1
.5
Total

66. 202
100.0
Table 2
Chart 1
The table 3 shows the descriptive statistics for the gender of the
participants and the year at university they are currently in. The
words in columns are the variable names, and the digits in rows
are the descriptive statistics. The mean, median and mode of the
gender are 1.38, 1.00 and 1 separately. And these numbers of
the year students currently in are 1.96, 2.00 and 2 separately.
are you male or female
what year at university are you currently in? 1st /2nd/ 3rd/ 4th/
masters/ other
N
Valid
202
202

67. Missing
0
0
Mean
1.38
1.96
Median
1.00
2.00
Mode
1
2
Std. Deviation
.497
.871
Table 3
The tables and pie charts below summarise the frequency
information. The table 4 and chart 2 show that the male
participants are 126, accounting for 62.4%, and the female
participants are 75, accounting for 37.1%, which means that the
males is much more than the females. The table 5 and chart 3
show that the cumulative percent of the students in first year
and second year is 75.2%. And the proportion of students in the
third year is 21.8%. That is to say. Few participants are in the

68. fourth year, master and other.
Frequency
Percent
Valid Percent
Cumulative Percent
Valid
male
126
62.4
62.4
62.4
female
75
37.1
37.1
99.5
3
1
.5
.5
100.0

69. Total
202
100.0
100.0
Table 4
Frequency
Percent
Valid Percent
Cumulative Percent
Valid
1st year
68
33.7
33.7
33.7
2nd year
84
41.6
41.6
75.2

70. 3rd year
44
21.8
21.8
97.0
4th year
4
2.0
2.0
99.0
masters
1
.5
.5
99.5
other
1
.5
.5
100.0

71. Total
202
100.0
100.0
Table 5
Chart 2
Chart 3
According to the table 4 and 5, it is not hard to find that the
sample is composed of 62.4% male, 37.1% female and 0.5%
others. It can also be composed of 33.7% first year students,
41.6% second year students, 21.8% third year students, 2.0%
fourth year students, 0.5% maters and 0.5% others. Different
sampling methods may cause different sample composition. And
different sample composition may cause different result. For
example, in this case, if the proportion of male changed, it may
lead to different satisfactory because female may think in
different ways between male when considering the gym
satisfactory.
Satisfaction levels analysis
Basic descriptive statistics can be produced in an alternative

72. way, which is called the descriptives command. Unlike the
frequencies command, it provides some concise summaries
instead of many options. It shows the minimum values,
maximum values, mean and standard deviation. The table 6 is
the descriptive statistics for this survey. It shows the number of
valid data, minimum values, maximum values, mean values and
standard deviation, which ranked by the mean value. From this
table, the highest mean value is “well mannered and informative
staff” of 3.76. In contrast, the lowest mean value is “prompt
actions based on customer feedback” of 3.29.
N
Minimum
Maximum
Mean
Std. Deviation
well mannered and informative staff
202
1
5
3.76
.848
How satisfactory modern sports/gym equipment
201

73. 2
5
3.71
.780
providing a reliable service that is promised
200
1
5
3.70
.821
willingness to help facility users
199
1
5
3.69
.842
visually appealing facilities
200
1
5
3.67
.827
modern changing facilities
200
1

74. 5
3.67
.778
service carried out as promised first time
198
1
5
3.66
.891
informing customer of new and changing schedule / timetables
200
1
5
3.65
.820
service performed at promised time
200
1
5
3.64
.881
prompt service to facility users
201
1
5

75. 3.62
.870
staff with good customer service
199
1
5
3.60
.875
secure transactions e.g. membership payments and booking
facilities
201
1
5
3.60
.939
smart , professionally appearing staff
202
1
5
3.57
.815
readiness to respond to user request
198
1
5

76. 3.56
.851
convenient hours of operation
202
1
5
3.54
.947
knowledgeable and reliable staff
198
1
5
3.53
.865
attending to the needs of every customer e.g. on a personal one
to one basis
197
1
5
3.48
.843
highly motivated staff for example encouraging gym staff
199
1
5

77. 3.48
.858
informative, relevant and appealing documentation such as gym
and class timetables and opening times
200
1
5
3.44
.928
dealing with customer complaints
191
1
5
3.31
.743
prompt actions based on customer feedback
191
1
5
3.29
.766
Valid N (listwise)
177

78. Table 6
Cross tabulation is a table summering the categorical or nominal
data associated between variables. The tables and chart below
show the satisfaction level of service carried out as promised
first time varied depending on whether the participant is a
member or not. In table 7, there are 37 members feeling
satisfactory. However, the number of people who are satisfied
with the service carried out as promised fist time increase to 48.
On the contrary, the percent of people who are satisfied with the
service very much decrease from 23% to 8% if the participant
paying each time rather than being a member.
are you a member or do you pay each time
Total
member
pay each time
service carried out as promised first time
very dissatisfactory
Count

79. 1
0
1
% within are you a member or do you pay each time
1.1%
.0%
.5%
dissatisfactory
Count
12
8
20
% within are you a member or do you pay each time
12.8%
8.7%
10.8%
neutral
Count
21

80. 28
49
% within are you a member or do you pay each time
22.3%
30.4%
26.3%
satisfactory
Count
37
48
85
% within are you a member or do you pay each time
39.4%
52.2%
45.7%
very satisfactory
Count
23
8

81. 31
% within are you a member or do you pay each time
24.5%
8.7%
16.7%
Total
Count
94
92
186
% within are you a member or do you pay each time
100.0%
100.0%
100.0%
Table 7
Value
df
Asymp. Sig. (2-sided)
Pearson Chi-Square
11.461a

82. 4
.022
Likelihood Ratio
12.173
4
.016
Linear-by-Linear Association
.907
1
.341
N of Valid Cases
186
a. 2 cells (20.0%) have expected count less than 5. The
minimum expected count is .49.
Table 8
Chart 4
The importance of different service quality dimensions
The table 9 below describes the descriptive statistics of
performance dimensions of service quality. The participants
give a score between 0 and 100 to describe the dimensions. This
table shows that the number of valid data is 202 for each

83. question. The minimum is 0 appearing at question of the
attention to details when dealing with a customer on a one to
one basis, which means that at least one participant is not
satisfied with that very much. The maximum is 96. The number
shows that at least one participant is very satisfied with the
appearance, physical facilities and changing rooms of the sports
centre. The highest and lowest mean is 25.34 and 17.26, which
belongs to the appearance of sports centre and the knowledge
and manners of the staff respectively. And so does the standard
deviation.
N
Minimum
Maximum
Mean
Std. Deviation
the appearance of the sports centre, physical facilities such as
staff, gym equipment, the sports hall, and changing rooms.
202
5
96
25.34
11.399
the attention to detail given when dealing with a customer on a

84. one to one basis , though being caring and sympathetic to any
problems that may have arisen.
202
0
51
20.95
10.101
the sports centre's willingness to help users and provide a
prompt and friendly service.
202
1
60
18.29
8.075
the ability of the sports centre and its staff to implement the
service promised reliably and accurately.
202
1
60
18.25
7.425
the knowledge and manners of the sports centre's staff, and their
ability to supply and maintain confidence and trust within its
customer.
202

85. 1
41
17.26
7.133
Valid N (listwise)
202
Table 9
The table 10 shows the ranked weighted variables of the
questionnaire. The highest mean is 95.4378, the weighted
equipment rating. And the lowest one is 60.0578, the weighted
highly motivated staff.
N
Mean
Std. Deviation
Equipment Rating Weighted
201
95.4378
51.10232
Appearance Weighted

86. 200
94.4850
52.34568
Changing Facilituies Weighted
200
93.8000
51.14547
Smart staff weighted
202
91.9554
53.12112
Convenience weighted
202
89.2624
48.78010
information weighted
200
87.6250
50.05800
Staff with good customer care weighted
199
73.0251
36.84111
Attending to needs of every customer weighted
197

87. 70.8376
36.25356
Reliable Serice weighted
200
67.4650
31.25288
readiness to respond to user requests weighted
199
67.2915
33.01401
Informing Customers pf changes weighted
200
66.7500
32.74736
willingness to help users weighted
201
66.7214
33.83285
Service carried out 1st time weighted
198
66.3485
31.58109
Service provided as promised weighted
200
66.1100

88. 32.25196
dealing with customer complaints weighted
198
65.7551
35.55195
well mannered and informative staff weighted
202
65.1832
32.41078
secure transactions weighted
201
63.2289
32.59459
knowledgeable and reliable staff weighted
198
60.8763
28.91632
prompt service to users weighted
191
60.7199
32.42134
prompt actions on customer feedback weighted
191
60.5471
31.46946

89. highly motivated staff weighted
199
60.0578
28.65315
Valid N (listwise)
177
Table 10
The table 11 shows the difference between weighted orders and
original unweighted results. The weighted case is helpful for
entering the frequency counts along with scores combination.
Weighted Order
Unweighted Order
Change
Equipment Rating Weighted
1
2
+1
Appearance Weighted
2
5

90. +3
Changing Facilituies Weighted
3
6
+3
Smart staff weighted
4
13
+9
Convenience weighted
5
15
+10
information weighted
6
19
+13
Staff with good customer care weighted
7
11
+4
Attending to needs of every customer weighted
8
17
+9

91. Reliable Serice weighted
9
3
-6
readiness to respond to user requests weighted
10
14
-4
Informing Customers pf changes weighted
11
8
-3
willingness to help users weighted
12
4
-8
Service carried out 1st time weighted
13
7
-6
Service provided as promised weighted
14
9
-5
dealing with customer complaints weighted

92. 15
20
+5
well mannered and informative staff weighted
16
1
-15
secure transactions weighted
17
12
-5
knowledgeable and reliable staff weighted
18
16
-2
prompt service to users weighted
19
10
-9
prompt actions on customer feedback weighted
20
21
+1
highly motivated staff weighted
21

93. 18
-3
Valid N (listwise)
177
Table 11
Summary and conclusion
According to the questionnaire, there are 202 people who
offering the valid data participating in the survey. In which,
62.4% of them are male, and 37.1% of them are female. The
male participants are 24.7% more than the females. Most of
them are undergraduate students in first and second year. The
attitude of participants to the university sports centre is between
neutral and satisfactory. A large number of people may be
satisfied with the appearance, physical facilities and changing
rooms of the sports centre. They are also satisfied with the
willingness to help users and the knowledge and manners to
supply and maintain confidence. However, comparing with the
equipment, it seems that people feel a little disappointed with
the staff there, including the attitude they dealing with customer
complaints, prompt actions based on customer feedback.
However, these may be changed in different sample
composition. For example the percentage of satisfaction may be

94. different according to whether the participant is a member or
not. Female and male may have different opinions on the same
question.
The questionnaire may be helpful for improving the quality of
university sports centre. It displays the aspects people may not
satisfy with. It may be better for them to be patient when
dealing with customer complaints and take measures to deal
with the customer feedback. It is also a effective method to
maintain competitive advantages the customers satisfying with.
Recommendation
As there is just one chance to collect data, it is necessary to
check and make sure that the data collected is essential, can
answer the research questions and achieve the objective by
observations. Creating data requirements tables is helpful. First,
whether an explanatory or descriptive research is needed as the
main outcome should be decided. Secondly, each research
objective of question should be sub-divided into the data needed
to be gathered in specific investigative questions. Thirdly,
repeat sub-dividing until the questions of investigating are
sufficiently precise. Fourthly, the variables about the data
needed to be collected for each investigative question should be
identified. Fifthly, the level of detail should be established for
the variable data. Finally, measurement questions should be

95. developed to capture the data when requiring it for each
variable. These would be useful in the future research.
References
Bryman, A., & Bell, E. (2011). Business research methods /
Alan Bryman, Emma Bell. Oxford Oxford University Press
c2011.
Cameron, S., & Price, D. (2009). Business research methods : a
practical approach / Sheila Cameron and Deborah Price. London
Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development 2009.
Field, A. P. (2000). Discovering statistics using SPSS for
Windows : advanced techniques for the beginner / Andy Field.
London SAGE 2000.
Hinton, P. R., McMurray, I., & Brownlow, C.
(2014). [ebook]SPSS explained / Perry R. Hinton, Isabella
McMurray and Charlotte Brownlow. Hove Routledge 2014.
Marshall, C., & Rossman, G. B. (2011). Designing qualitative
research / Catherine Marshall, Gretchen B. Rossman. London
SAGE 2011.

96. Sara, E. (2009). ILO school-to-work transition survey: A
methodological guide. Switzerland: ILO
Saunders, M., Lewis, P., & Thornhill, A. (2012). Research
methods for business students / Mark Saunders, Philip Lewis,
Adrian Thornhill. Harlow Pearson 2012.
22
ASSIGNMENT2
Yulan Kang