Mesfin, Tewodros (PhD)Mesgina, Benyam2021-05-042023-11-042021-05-042023-11-042016-06http://etd.aau.edu.et/handle/123456789/26302The intention of this study is to analyze the effect of service quality dimensions on the customer satisfaction of the Business Development Services of the Ethiopian Chamber of Commerce and Sectorial Associations. Competitiveness of Ethiopian businesses in the domestic and especially in the international market should be improved. The capacity of Ethiopian businesses is weak due to many factors i.e lack of business information, knowledge, skill, attitude, fair competition, policy problems... Private sector Institutions like ECCSA should be strengthened to provide business information, advisory services, need and skill based trainings, advocate the interest of businesses, promotion and support services. These are BDS services. The qualities of those services determine the satisfaction of customers and support the growth of businesses and in turn develop the economy of Ethiopia. The objective of the study is to examine the influence of service quality on the level of satisfaction of ECCSA customers. Specifically the study investigate the effect of each service quality dimensions (tangibles, reliability, assurance, responsiveness and empathy) on the service quality of ECCSA customers in its BDS. Service quality is a concept that has aroused considerable interest and debate in the research literature because of the difficulties in both defining and measuring it with no overall consensus emerging on either. The measurements that were used in this study are developed based on the widely accepted SERVPERF model which is the most common method for measuring service quality. A descriptive statistics analysis is used to evaluate the positive and significant relationship between service quality dimensions and ECCSA customer satisfaction. The study considered BDS Customers of ECCSA those are members and potential non-members. The actual numbers of those customers are not known since every time different business companies use ECCSA services. 384 samples were selected and trade facilitation center of ECCSA considered to collect data from different business sectors. Customers visited ECCSA trade facilitation center to get different services have been targeted to collect information vi conveniently based on self-administered questionnaires. On average 60 customers per day have been visited the trade facilitation center and the researcher managed to collect on average 20 filled questionnaires per day. Totally 383questionnires were properly filled and collected. But only 1 questionnaire was dropped by the researcher because it was not filled properly by the respondent. The study showed that there is significantly positive relationship between each of the five dimensions and ECCSA customer satisfaction. But strong positive and significant relationship observed between the two dimensions: tangibles and assurance with ECCSA customer satisfaction; moderate positive and significant relationship between empathy and customer satisfaction; and weak positive and significant relationship exhibited between the other two dimensions: reliability and responsiveness with customer satisfaction. That means tangibles assurance and empathy affect and impact customer satisfaction more significantly than reliability and responsiveness. The tangibles are more than any of the service quality dimensions in affecting the customer satisfaction of ECCSA in its BDS. The better the perception of customers towards these 5 dimensions, the higher will be their satisfaction and benefit out of the BDS services of ECCSA. ECCSA should promote its BDS services and encourage businesses from all regions in Ethiopia to benefit out of it. It should improve its tangibles and assurance dimensions significantly to get highest customer satisfaction. Based on the needs of customers ECCSA is expected to deliver up-to-date and accessible business information as well as business development services conveniently using modern technologies and structured office , assign competent and motivated service providers to support and provide assurance to its customers. So the study advised ECCSA to design well developed strategy towards those 5 dimensions according to their level of influence on customer satisfaction. Accordingly, further researches are expected to be conducted on the internal service providers’ and major stakeholders’ side and consider other factors those could affect customer satisfaction of ECCSA customers.en-USService QualityCustomers SatisfactionBusiness Development Service(BDS)Thesis