A Multi-Group Structural Comparison of the Service Quality-Relationship Quality-Continuous Use Intention Model by Customer Characteristics

Purpose: This study empirically examines the structural relationships among service quality, relationship quality, and continuous use intention in the office multifunction printer rental context and investigates whether these relationships differ according to customer characteristics, specifically firm size and contract period, using multi-group analysis. In doing so, the study assesses the structural stability of the proposed framework across heterogeneous customer groups.Methods: Survey data were collected from 204 corporate customers using multifunction printer rental services. Service quality was measured based on SERVQUAL, including tangibles, reliability, responsiveness, assurance, and empathy, while relationship quality was composed of trust and satisfaction. Continuous use intention was defined as customers’ intention to continue using the service. The research model was analyzed using PLS-SEM with bootstrapping of 5,000 resamples, and measurement invariance was tested through MICOM prior to conducting PLS-MGA across firm size groups and contract period groups.Results: The structural model results indicate that several dimensions of service quality significantly and positively affect trust and satisfaction, which in turn significantly increase continuous use intention. The multi- group analysis revealed no significant differences across firm size groups and only one significant difference across contract period groups in the responsiveness–trust path (β = -0.442, p = .015, two-tailed). Overall, the findings suggest that the structural relationships remain largely consistent across heterogeneous customer groups.Conclusion: This study demonstrates that the structural relationships among service quality, relationship quality, and continuous use intention are largely stable across customer groups in the office multifunction printer rental service context. No statistically significant differences were found across firm size groups, and only one path-level difference was identified in the responsiveness–trust relationship across contract period groups. These findings suggest that maintaining consistent service quality and relationship-building efforts may be more important than heavily differentiated strategies based on customer characteristics in this market.