Perceptions of service quality dimensions and patronage of street food vendors in South African townships

Abstract

Street food vendors are common in South Africa’s townships and are typically patronised by individuals in lower- income brackets. The extent to which service quality considerations play a role in the patronage of such informal,

survivalist food businesses remains largely unexplored as service quality studies tend to focus more on well- established businesses. In response to this shortcoming, this empirical study investigates whether customers’

perceptions of service quality – based on the dimensions of tangibles, reliability, responsiveness, assurance and empathy – are related to repeat patronage of street food vendors. The researchers assumed a positivist philosophical disposition and relied on data collected from a purposive sample of patrons to investigate the possible existence of relationships between service quality dimensions and repeat patronage. Results revealed favourable perception scores for tangibles, assurance and reliability but not for responsiveness and empathy. The service quality perceptions of first-time customers were also shown to be statistically different from those of repeat patrons. Interestingly, while findings point to the existence of statistically significant relationships between service quality dimensions and repeat patronage, the weak and moderate strengths of the identified relationships highlight that patronage considerations for the studied population possibly lie outside the five dimensions of service quality.