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Purpose: In the COVID-19 pandemic, consumers increasingly opt for, or are forced to, use home delivery services. The authors study retailers' decisions regarding "delivery mode", which is about outsourcing (vs. insourcing) the delivery service to a traditional delivery company or an unbranded carrier and its effects on consumers' perceived overall quality, perceived hygienic quality, and subsequently, willingness to stay with the firm beyond the pandemic. Design/methodology/approach: A pre-test, an experiment and a post-test were conducted with participants from the UK (Total N = 380). Findings: The results of this study show that (1) in a pandemic, perceived hygienic quality overshadows perceived service quality as a key determinant of consumers' choices, and (2) while consumers have a relatively negative view of the hygienic level of unbranded carriers, they do not differentiate between traditional delivery carriers and retailer-branded carriers. Thus, they are equally interested in using the services of the latter ones. Originality/value: This study shows that during a health crisis, consumers change their hierarchy of motivations to reflect the new protection motivations. The authors usher perceived hygienic quality as a variable that should be seriously considered as both a tactical and a strategic variable affecting the attractiveness of alternative home delivery methods and consumers' intentions to continue using them after the pandemic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this study, several service quality variables and concepts were used to examine differences in the perception of education quality, and the main factor affecting that perception, between students in the USA and the UK. 322 US and UK postgraduate business school students were asked about their satisfaction with their education, compared with their expectations with respect to various quality aspects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]