Context-Contingent Service Quality Formation in Emerging E-commerce Environments: Reassessing SERVQUAL in Malaysia’s CEP Industry

HRMARS - The expansion of e-commerce has transformed evaluation criteria within Malaysia’s courier, express, and parcel (CEP) industry, raising questions about the contextual applicability of traditional service quality models. This study re-examines the SERVQUAL framework in a digitally mediated, high-frequency service environment by integrating additional value-oriented attributes. Using survey data from 482 CEP users and partial least squares structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM), the findings demonstrate a differentiated configuration of service quality effects. Reliability, assurance, convenience, and price exhibit significant positive associations with customer satisfaction, whereas responsiveness, empathy, and tangibility do not emerge as statistically significant predictors in the present context. Customer satisfaction subsequently exerts a substantial positive influence on re-use intention. The results suggest a structural recalibration of service quality formation in platform-based logistics systems, in which certain classical dimensions serve as baseline expectations rather than differentiating predictors. By demonstrating the context-contingent configuration of service quality effects, this study advances a more situational understanding of service evaluation in emerging digital economies.