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Modeling the effect of E-service quality and knowledge culture on employee performance: A SEM approach based on survey data from Chinese real estate industry

Entering the era of digitalization, the real estate industry unlocked the bricks-and-clicks model of operation. The virtual-and-real interaction has led to new demands for service quality from a new generation of customers, and e-service quality (ES-QUAL) is a response to this demand and has attracted the attention of scholars and practitioners specializing in the sales and service sectors of the real estate industry. The study investigated the relationships between the implementation of ES-QUAL, knowledge culture, and employees’ performance from an internal perspective, while emphasizing a specific Chinese research context. A total of 602 responses, received from brokers, front-line salespeople, and sub-branch managers, were collected through a web-based questionnaire survey from the Shanghai branch of the largest real estate brokerage company in China, called Lianjia. A multi-method approach of the structural equation modeling (SEM) and bootstrapping estimation was employed to test the hypotheses and evaluate the validly and reliability of the data. The results indicated that ES-QUAL and knowledge culture positively influenced employee performance, and the direct effect of ES-QUAL on knowledge culture was stronger than on employee performance. Additionally, knowledge culture was found to be partially mediating the relationship between ES-QUAL and employee performance. The study provided managerial insights and discussed strategies for implementing ES-QUAL to achieve desired organizational performance by fostering a learning-oriented culture. Read more...