Studies in the foodservice industry have reported conflicting findings on the strength of relationships between service quality dimensions and customer satisfaction, suggesting that contextual factors condition these relationships. Drawing on the SERVQUAL model and supported by conceptual reasoning and empirical findings, this study examines whether business size moderates the relationship between service quality dimensions, namely service reliability, responsiveness, assurance, empathy, tangibility, and customer satisfaction. The study employed an explanatory, cross-sectional design and convenience sampling technique. The study used a structured questionnaire to collect data from 401 diners in micro and small foodservice enterprises in Kinondoni Municipality, Tanzania. The study analysed usable data from 392 respondents using descriptive statistics and multiple linear regression. Findings show that business size positively moderates the relationships between reliability, assurance, and empathy and customer satisfaction. The moderation effect on the tangibility-customer relationship was negative. The moderating effect of business size on the responsiveness-customer satisfaction relationship was insignificantly positive. Conclusively, the findings suggest that the relative importance of service quality dimensions in influencing customer satisfaction varies across business sizes. This study contributes to the SERVQUAL literature by introducing business size as a moderator between the SERVQUAL dimensions and customer satisfaction, thereby providing additional insight into the contextual conditions under which service quality dimensions’ influence customer satisfaction.
Keywords: Customer Satisfaction, Moderation, Service Quality, business size
