Abstract:
As modern Information Technology has created a way to a variety of
information service opportunities, many options other than the conventional
library service are available for users. A stiff competition has emerged among
information service providers and therefore university library professionals
too have to think of their competitive advantage. Service quality has gained a
high concern as a strategy for developing the competitive position of an
organization and many studies in different fields have established a strong
relationship between service quality and competitive advantage. Viewing
inversely, some practitioners contemplate that the competitive position of
resource capabilities can influence the improvement of service quality. In
order to examine the relationship between competitive position and the
service quality in a university library context, an exploratory survey was
employed utilizing a VRIO based questionnaire and LibQUAL+ based
instrument with 89 library professionals selected from 15 state university
libraries in Sri Lanka. The study reveals that there is a moderate positive
correlation between two variables (r = .286, n= 66, p = .020). As the
relationship is moderate, further studies seem essential to support the
hypothesis. The large percentage of residuals indicates that there are more
factors contributing to the service quality in university libraries. This study deploys a robust process to develop a measuring instrument for a competitive
position in university libraries and uncovers many research areas in the field.
