A new hybrid model for quality assessment of scientific conferences based on Rough BWM and SERVQUAL

Organizing scientific conferences requires the execution of a series of activities which aim to ensure quality in terms of published papers, completed reviews, information forwarded to participants on time, to putting together an exceptional event as a whole. Essentially, this is far from an easy task and requires the participation of a large number of people who will carry out organizational obligations daily, and often all day long. The quality, or rather satisfaction of the conference participants can be viewed through five aspects: Reliability, Responsiveness, Assurance, Empathy, and Tangibility–dimensions that comprise the SERVQUAL model. In this paper, a new hybrid model that uses the advantages of rough set theory, multi-criteria decision making, and quality assessment models has been developed. The proposed model uses the Rough BWM (Best–Worst Method) in order to determine the significance of five aspects, while the modified SERVQUAL model, based on 28 items, is used to determine expectations and observations. The model was applied for the evaluation of quality of the New Horizons Conference held on November 17–18, 2017, in Doboj. The conference was attended by authors from all six continents, representing a total of 58 different institutions. Therefore, it was necessary to fulfill the wishes and demands of numerous authors, which naturally differ due to the different geographical areas from which they hail. The total sample, on the basis of which the quality of the scientific conference was assessed, includes 104 authors who completed the questionnaire. A total of six hypotheses were set up, which were then tested using the Signum test.