Post choice satisfaction of vietnamese undergraduate students in ho chi minh city

Furthermore, this study will assist management of higher education to develop and implement the service strategy in market orientation to achieve the higher service quality as well as th

POST-CHOICE SATISFACTION OF VIETNAMESE

UNDERGRADUATE STUDENTS

IN HO CHI MINH CITY

In partial Fulfillment of the Requirements of the Degree of

MASTER OF BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION

POST-CHOICE SATISFACTION OF VIETNAMESE UNDERGRADUATE

STUDENTS IN HO CHI MINH CITY

In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements of the Degree of

MASTER OF BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION

In Marketing

by

Ms Ly Thi My Dung ID: MBA03009

International University - Vietnam National University HCMC

February 2013 Under the guidance and approval of the committee, and approved by all its members, this thesis has been accepted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree

-Acknowledge

This thesis is my last and most important project in Marketing major of Master program at International University, HCM City The research could not be done without the support of many individuals I would like to take this opportunity to thank people who helped me in different ways during my work

Firstly, I respectfully thank my helpful instructor, Prof Le Nguyen Hau, for his extraordinary support His unwavering support, invaluable mentorship, and insightful ideas shaped both my thesis and my character He has been expectations, fair with his constructive criticism, and a great source of information Secondly, I would like to thank to people who spent time with me on survey and interviews for collecting information Thirdly, I want to thank my friends in MBA class who share me more useful information Finally, I really appreciate my professors and lecturers in MBA class who give me a lot of wonderful knowledge in this course

Plagiarism Statements

I would like to declare that, apart from the acknowledged references, this thesis either does not use language, ideas, or other original material from anyone; or has not been previously submitted to any other educational and research programs or institutions I fully understand that any writings in this thesis contradicted to the above statement will automatically lead to the rejection from the MBA program at the International University – Vietnam National University Ho Chi Minh City

Copyright Statement

This copy of the thesis has been supplied on condition that anyone who consults it

is understood to recognize that its copyright rests with its author and that no quotation from the thesis and no information derived from it may be published without the author‟s prior consent

© Ly Thi My Dung/ MBA03009/2011-2013

Table of Contents

List of Tables viii

List of Figures ix

Abstract .x

CHAPTER ONE - INTRODUCTION 1

I BACKGROUND 1

II RATIONALE OF THE STUDY 4

III RESEARCH OBJECTIVE 5

IV RESEARCH QUESTION 6

V RESEARCH METHODOLOGY 6

VI SCOPE 7

VII SIGNIFICANCE OF THE RESEARCH 7

VIII PROPOSED STRUCTURE 7

CHAPTER TWO - LITERATURE REVIEW 9

I DEFINITION OF EDUCATION 9

II DEFINITION OF STUDY 9

III QUALITY IN EDUCATION 10

IV STUDENT PERCEIVED VALUE 10

V CUSTOMER SATISFACTION 11

VI THE EUROPEAN CUSTOMER SATISFACTION INDEX MODEL 11

1 The evolution of national satisfaction index models 11

2 The European Customer Satisfaction Index model 12

CHAPTER THREE – CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK AND RESEARCH HYPOTHESES 17

I FACTORS INFLUENCING ON STUDENT SATISFACTION 17

1 Image 17

2 Perceived quality of teaching and learning 18

3 Perceived quality of student support services 18

4 Perceived quality of facilities and resources 19

5 Perceived value and sacrifice 19

II CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK AND HYPOTHESES 21

CHAPTER FOUR – RESEARCH METHODOLOGY 23

I RESEARCH DESIGN 23

II RESEARCH APPROACH 24

1 Qualitative research 25

2 Quantitative research 25

3 Construct measurement 25

III QUESTIONNAIRE DESIGN 34

IV PILOT STUDY 35

V DATA COLLECTION METHOD 35

1 Sample 35

2 Sample size 36

3 Sampling method 37

VI Data analysis techniques 37

1 Data analysis techniques 37

2 Coefficient alpha 37

3 Exploratory factor analysis (EFA) 38

4 Regression analysis 38

5 One-Way ANOVA 38

CHAPTER FIVE – DATA ANALYSIS AND RESULTS 40

I SAMPLE DEMOGRAPHICS 40

II DESCRIPTIVE STATISTICS OF FACTORS OF ECSI 42

1 Independent variables 43

2 Dependent variables (Sample of 404 cases) 46

3 Evaluation reliability of measurement (Cronbach‟s Alpha before EFA) 46

4 Evaluation of measurement‟s structure (Exploratory Factor Analysis - EFA) 49

5 Regression and hypotheses testing results of the relationship between independent variables and dependent variable 56

6 ANOVA Test 60

III DISCUSSION AND IMPROVEMENT 60

1 Student satisfaction among group of student 60

2 Discussion and suggestion for university managers 61

CHAPTER SIX – CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION 68

I CONCLUSION 68

II LIMITATION AND RECOMMENDATION FOR FURTHER RESEARCH 70

REFERENCES 71

APPENDIX 78

List of Tables

Table 1 List of hypotheses .21

Table 2 Construct measurement scales 32

Table 3 The name of university 40

Table 4 Table of student‟s major 41

Table 5 Demographic characteristics .41

Table 6 Descriptive statistics of independent variables (sample of 404 cases) 45

Table 7 Descriptive satisfices of dependent variables 46

Table 8 Cronbach‟s Alpha before EFA 48

Table 9 EFA results for independent variables .52

Table 10 Re-coding for independent variables .53

Table 11 EFA results for dependent variables 54

Table 12 EFA and Cronbach‟s Alpha after EFA of independent variables 55

Table 13 Correlations 57

Table 14 Results of the relationship between image, quality, value and satisfaction .57

Table 15 Coefficients .58

Table 16 Hypothesis results .59

Table 17 Differences among student groups to CS in each university .60

Table 18 Final factors influence on student satisfaction .69

List of Figures

Figure 1 The original SCSB (Swedish Customer Satisfaction Barometer) model 13

Figure 2 The ACSI (American Customer Satisfaction Index) model 14

Figure 3 The ECSI (European Customer Satisfaction Index) model 15

Figure 4 Proposed Research Model .21

Figure 5 Research process 24

Figure 6 Revised Research model 60

Nowadays, it is necessary that service providers of school try to develop and offer high quality as well as increase customer satisfaction by service experience It requires a deeply understanding of the factors, which lead to positive perceptions of schools‟ services

In the current study, the main research subject is students, whose university experience is found out because learning environment may enhance the students experience by encouraging participation Therefore, this study reviews existing literatures on students satisfaction and measurement, specifically how it affects in education industry

Until now, there are a lot of studies, which have been conducted about this topic and various results have been found in many countries but just only few study about this topic was conducted in Vietnam That is why this study is done by surveying 404 freshman students, who have studied at six universities in Ho Chi Minh City to examine the relationship between students' overall satisfaction with influential factors, such as image, quality and value

The results of the analysis are based on insight into the satisfaction and service quality constructs in HCMC in Vietnamese higher education sector The research also provides a conceptual framework for understanding the impact of the dimensions on service quality and the impact of service quality on constructs, which include image, value and satisfaction Furthermore, this study will assist management of higher education to develop and implement the service strategy in market orientation to achieve the higher service quality as well as the higher education quality to enhance the students‟ satisfaction level

Keywords: The European American Customer Satisfaction Index (ECSI) Model, Higher Education, Perceived Quality, Perceived Value, Students‟ Satisfaction, SPSS

CHAPTER ONE - INTRODUCTION

This chapter presented the rationale of the thesis and reason of conduct this research After the problem formulation, the objective of the thesis was stated, and then followed by research question, delimitation and outline of the thesis

I BACKGROUND

Nowadays, most of university marketers all over the world are interested in understanding and managing the students‟ experience It has appeared and has been controlled by many challenges, in which the high rate of withdrawal from schools was represented for those challenges Besides, students have viewed education as a necessity to meet the industry needs as well as the global competitive environment Furthermore, it required marketers to deeply understand the university experience from students‟ perspective to enhance the level of student satisfaction and loyalty (Mansfield

& Warwick, 2006) This issue particularly related to the first year students because this was the year that students expected about their learning environment, the quality of their education and value, which they would perceive from their qualification have established Therefore, these determinants of student experience became an important subject for higher education institutions (HEIs) for managing purpose as well as retaining students and attracting potential students (Helgesen, 2008)

As any organization, HEIs depended on offering high quality to create students‟ satisfaction of service experiences to keep competition in the educational field Besides,

it included the development of higher education services to meet students‟ expectations and provided students an enriching educational experience The developmental

experience could obtain both of inside and outside the classroom, as well as between service providers and students, and between groups of the students themselves Thus, students were viewed as the center subject that a school needed to clearly know students‟ experience to deliver expectation educational service to them (Thomas & Cunningham, 2009) Therefore, it required that institutions had to understand students‟ assessment processes to develop the high quality experience to meet students‟ needs (Marsfield & Warwick, 2006; Thomas & Cunningham, 2009) Because students were assumed as customers of the institution, the correlation of the student and the institution was considered as process of reciprocal co-production and value exchange (Vargo & Lusch, 2004) and then both of those elements worked together to create the educational experience Therefore, the institutions should deeply know students‟ need, then provided superior value as well as deliver higher levels of students‟ satisfaction and optimize students‟ learning experience (Kalafatis, Ledden & Samouel, 2007) Moreover, once an institution provided students the higher value than others, he could increase students‟ retention as well as students‟ recommendation and return (LeBlanc

& Nguyen, 1999) Nevertheless, perceived value in higher education was known very less and how value was created for increasing perceived value (Alves, 2010)

In recently years, educational market in Vietnam has been more interested because most people were aware the importance of education in society Vietnam has been the 150th member of the World Trade Organization (WTO), thus Vietnam has faced many challenges from the integration Besides economic challenge, education also needed to be raised to suit with international standard, which required that higher educational institutions had to provide higher service quality to meet the requirements

of the commercial environment as well as students‟ demand It led that the numbers of established public and private universities in Vietnam have been significantly

increasing According to the Ministry of Education and Training‟ statistic, the numbers

of universities and colleges in Vietnam were 369 in 2008; 386 in 2010 (Tuong Vi, 2010; Kieu Oanh, 2011) In 2012, the whole country has 419 universities and colleges,

in which there were 123 universities and colleges in the South of Vietnam (Tran Quynh, 2012) It meant that there were more choices available for students, who could choice to study at the higher prestigious and higher quality school than others Therefore, almost educational marketers have considered providing high education quality as well as high service quality to satisfy students to retain the recent students and attract the potential students in the increasing competitive market Until now, there are various studies, which mention on service quality and consumers‟ satisfaction as well as measurements of service quality have been absolutely examined Parasuraman and his colleagues (1985) built up a five gap service quality model, which has leaded the main stream of service quality research But, the recent study just focuses on the determinants of consumer satisfaction more than the quality of service issue

From the above-mentioned problem, this study was conducted The themes in the theoretical framework of this study were directly related to the research questions, which sought to establish the students‟ satisfaction The core issue was how to know students perceived their expectation and actual experience, which related to services provided by universities In this educational context, measuring the impact of the perceived university image, perceived quality, perceived value of students on satisfaction and dissatisfaction became extremely important The provided literature review indicated that none of Vietnamese researchers that have examined the impact of macro-economic factors on students‟ satisfaction in the educational context Those factors have established the difference between perceived qualities; perceived value and students‟ satisfaction in the American customer satisfaction index (Fornell et al., 1996)

and in the Europe customer satisfaction index (Eklöf, 2000) Therefore, a major contribution of this study was to identify the differences of Vietnamese students‟ perception and its overall impact on satisfaction of the educational and non-educational services in Vietnam

This study has examined the relative importance of perceived university image, and perceived quality within the sector Besides, it explored students‟ perceptions of education value in the establishment of students‟ satisfaction The findings of this study would be beneficial in terms of decision-making and contributed to the roles that assisted the HEIs marketers to improve service quality and education quality to maintain current students and attract new potential students

II RATIONALE OF THE STUDY

In the recently years, the number of universities and colleges in Vietnam has been significantly increasing so educational environment has become the competitive sector Therefore, students and their parents carefully have concerned in the education quality, service quality of those universities as well as outcome quality of students, who have graduated from those universities before making decision whether enter or not enter For example, student A prefers Information Technology (IT) major; he or she trends to enroll in the famous universities, such as University of Technology, University of Sciences, FPT University, HUFLIT University, etc… If he passed in the university entrance exam, he might choose to study in one of those famous universities, otherwise he might consider to study at another university, which has that IT major When someone asked him “Why do not you choose International University (IU),

which is belong to Vietnam National University – Ho Chi Minh City (VNU-HCM)?” and he may reply that, “Is it Saigon International University?” it means that he may be confused between IU-VNU and Saigon IU Therefore, a question was raised “How to

distinguish between IU and Saigon IU?”, “How to build the specific image of IU as well as increase the reputation of IU in the community?”, “How to improve education quality and service quality to meet consumers‟ expectation as well as understand the levels of student satisfaction?”

In general, this study has focus on surveying freshmen to examine how their perception of service quality and education value of university, where they have studied

by applying the European Customer Satisfaction Index (ECSI) Model Besides, this research has tested whether freshmen satisfy or dissatisfy with service quality of university after they have chosen that university and had real experiences From the research findings, it identified missing and issues of dissatisfaction, which provided opportunities for university managers to improve overall service quality, education quality and enhance student satisfaction Furthermore, it served for university managers

to improve student advisory services to build a relationship between university and its students to improve its reputation over time In addition, the major theme of this study was to suggest managers the better opportunity for attracting potential students from their competitions With the above-mentioned problem, it has leaded to topic, which

was needed to study: “POST-CHOICE SATISFACTION OF VIETNAMESE UNDERGRADUATE STUDENTS IN HO CHI MINH CITY”

III RESEARCH OBJECTIVE

The objectives of this research were:

- To identify the factors influencing students‟ satisfaction, among factors, which factor is the most and the least important (effectively)

- To identify the differences in satisfaction among students of six universities in Ho Chi Minh City

- To propose recommendations to improve the service quality and education quality of universities to increase students‟ satisfaction for retaining students until graduation and then attracting them back Furthermore, this study will propose suggestions for

managers to attract potential students in the educational market

IV RESEARCH QUESTION

To achieve the research objectives, the research study focused the following questions:

1 How to identify the factors influencing on students‟ satisfaction, among these factors, which factor is the most effectively (important)?

2 What are the differences in perception about education quality, service quality, value and sacrifice among students of six universities?

V RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

This research has used the qualitative and quantitative method to collect the data

in order to study the impact factors to students‟ satisfaction Direct interview

supervisors and lecturers were used to test scales, which were collected from the prior studies to design questionnaire for the current study Then direct questionnaire were distributed to the respondents, who are the freshman students in HCM City in the South

of Viet Nam The purpose of this study was to test hypotheses and evaluate the research model for understanding correctly the consumers‟ preference when the factors were identified

Data collection method:

- Data needs: factors that influence on student satisfaction

- Sampling method: purposive sampling method is selected

- Sample size: 404 samples

The more details of research method are presented in Chapter 4

VI SCOPE

The data for this study was mainly collected in six universities in HCM City, such as University of Technology, International University, University of Science, Lotus University (Hoa Sen University), Huflit University and University of Social Science and Humanities The target group was freshman students of those universities The reason for that was discussed in Chapter 4 – Research methodology

VII SIGNIFICANCE OF THE RESEARCH

The findings of the research would explain the theoretical contributions and get rich the existing literature This research had explained further those factors that influenced freshmen‟s perception of service quality and education value The results of this research would be beneficial to both students (customers) and marketers (service providers) for better future planning and decision-making Therefore, marketers might gain a better understanding of the educational experience and the impact that has on students‟ satisfaction Consequently, the research findings might provide opportunities for university managers to improve overall service quality of university and satisfaction

of students Furthermore, it served for managers to improve student advisory services

in order to build a long-term relationship between universities and its customers, and to improve its reputation over time In addition, insights could give them better opportunity for attracting prospective students and staying ahead of their competition

VIII PROPOSED STRUCTURE

The research was included six chapters Firstly, chapter 1 (Introduction) looked

at the general background of the research, research problem, research objectives; brief methodology and scope, which were expected from the research work and gave the overview about the structure of this study Secondly, chapter 2 (Literature Review) provided the European Customer Satisfaction Index (ECSI) Model Thirdly, chapter 3

(The theoretical framework) was also presented in this chapter as well as hypotheses based on the research questions Fourthly, chapter 4 (Research Methodology) discussed the research methodology design, research procedures and data analysis This chapter also gave details of the questionnaire items and the development of the survey The statistical procedures of the SPSS programs also used in the research were provided and discussed Next, chapter 5 (Data analysis and Results) would show the results of the analysis of the data collected through the main surveys, including descriptive statistics

on the demographics of the respondents The validity and reliability of the constructs of interest were also assessed, followed by an analysis of the data and the results of the tested proposed model to answer the research question and hypotheses Furthermore, this chapter would provide the discussion from the findings of this research project, based on the research questions and hypotheses of the research From that, the improvement for each factor is provided Finally, chapter 6 (Conclusions and Recommendations) would provide the conclusions based on the findings of this research project and limitations of the research And the recommendations for further research were provided

CHAPTER TWO - LITERATURE REVIEW

After the chapter one stated background and purpose of the thesis, the chapter two would introduce concepts of education, quality in education and models of former relative studies about factors affecting learners’ satisfaction to support assumptions

and research model used in this thesis

I DEFINITION OF EDUCATION

Education was defined as (1) the act or process of imparting or acquiring general knowledge, systematically during childhood and adolescence (The World English Dictionary, 2009), (2) the act or process of communicating knowledge, especially at school, college or university Education was also a process of teaching, training and learning, especially in schools or colleges to improve knowledge and develop skills (Oxford Advance Learner‟s Dictionary) Moreover, it indicated the purpose of education was to develop the powers of reasoning and judgment, and generally preparing oneself or others intellectually for mature life (The Random House Dictionary, 2011) In general, education basically was illustrated as mutual interactions between teacher and learner within the long enough period of acquiring knowledge for the learner‟ development

II DEFINITION OF STUDY

Study was explained as application of the mind to the acquisition of knowledge,

as by reading, investigation or reflection (The World English Dictionary, 2009) Besides, it was a personal effort to gain knowledge (The Random House Dictionary, 2011) Study was also defined as the devotion of time and attention to acquiring

knowledge on an academic subject, especially by means of books, activity of this type

as pursued by one person (The Oxford Dictionaries) Basing on the explanations of key words in the paper by Dictionary about Education and Study, a basic view of the education field could be withdrawn

III QUALITY IN EDUCATION

The term “quality in education” has been defined by various scholars, such as

“value addition in education” (Feigenbaum, 1951), “excellence in education” (Peters

and Waterman, 1982), “fitness of educational outcome and experience for use” (Juran and Gryna, 1988), and “meeting or exceeding customer‟s expectations of education” (Parasuraman, Zeithaml and Berry, 1985) Therefore, quality in fact was not easy to define and measure, and clearly means different things to various stakeholders and the different interests that they have represented (cited in Sahney, Banwet & Karunes, 2004)

IV STUDENT PERCEIVED VALUE

The value perceived by a student was the overall evaluation based upon the perception of that they have received and they have given whereas they have utilized the service (Hermawan, 2001; LeBlanc and Nguyen, 1999; Ledden et al., 2007) However, there were agreement across the literature that the existence of various differences and the adoption of various terms to reflect value, in particular, that perceived value was based upon a comparison between benefits and sacrifices (Zeithaml, 1988; Cronin et al., 2000; Hermawan, 2001 and Ledden et al., 2007) In this study, the value perceived by the student was a broad concept that included more than a trade-off between what was given and what was received and thus includes other components, which might be relevant in higher education (Alves, 2010)

V CUSTOMER SATISFACTION

Customer satisfaction was defined as an overview evaluation about performance

of a firm or utilization of a service after purchasing (Fornell, 1992) Besides, it was the key point of the CSI framework, which included a system of cause and effect and it ran from the antecedents of customer satisfaction (e.g expectations, image, perceived quality and value) to the consequences of customer satisfaction (e.g customer loyalty and customer complaints)

In the higher educational context, students‟ satisfaction was defined as a term attitude, which has arisen from students‟ assessment of their educational experience while they have used services Student satisfaction was an important issue that has not yet been explored Satisfaction or dissatisfaction of students with a university or faculty did not only affect students‟ performance and the competitive advantage of universities in the competitive environment, but also it affected both the physical and psychological health of students Therefore, many researchers have identified the levels of satisfaction and behavioral intention of students, when they have satisfied or dissatisfied with a university The results of the prior studies shown that once students satisfied with a university, they would have positive actions through positive recommendation (Mavondo et al., 2004), revenues increasing and costs decreasing for educational institutions (Shah, 2009) and education continuing (Helgesen & Nesset, 2007) Otherwise, they would have negative attitudes and

short-activities toward a university when they dissatisfy with a university

VI THE EUROPEAN CUSTOMER SATISFACTION INDEX MODEL

1 The evolution of national satisfaction index models

The Swedish Customer Satisfaction Barometer (SCSB) was the first national customer satisfaction index and established in 1989 It has applied for domestically

purchasing and consuming products and services (Fornell, 1992) and being the results

of the surveying approximately 130 companies from 32 of Sweden‟s largest industries Then, the American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI), which was surveying results from nearly 200 companies from 34 industries and introduced in 1994 (Fornell et al., 1996) Next, the Norwegian Customer Satisfaction Model (NCSI) was introduced in

1996 and reports results for 42 companies in 12 different in 1999 (Andreassen and Lervik, 1999; Andreassen and Lindestad, 1998a) Finally, the European Customer Satisfaction Index (ECSI) was used the most popular because it was the most developing model among the prior models (Eklöf, 2000), cited in Jonhson et al (2001)

2 The European Customer Satisfaction Index model

The SCSB model

In this model, there were two primary antecedents of satisfaction It included customer perceptions of performance experience about utilizing a product (or service) and customer expectation about that performance (Fornell, 1992) Here, perceived performance was viewed as equalization with perceived value, or perceived level of quality received and related to the price (or price paid) Value for each dollar was considered as a figure that consumers used to compare brands with each other (Emery, 1969) Therefore, if perceived value increased, customer satisfaction would increase (Johnson et al., 2001)

Moreover, a firm needed to examine whether its product or service met customer expectation or not This expectation has significantly influenced on customer satisfaction because it was viewed as the core factor in the assessment process (Oliver, 1980) When customer used products or services, they had controlled consumption experience toward a firm‟s products or services as well as advertising and word-of-mouth information Therefore, expectations had positively related to perceived

performance, which it seized customer experience and predict the level of performance they would receive (Johnson et al., 2001) Basing on the theory of exit-voice (Hirschman, 1970), which described that, a client who satisfied or dissatisfied with the products or services that a firm provided, he would have two feedback cases: exit and voice Thus, the customer can either exit or stop buying products or services from the firm or voice complaint of dissatisfaction with the firm to try to receive compensation if

he was dissatisfied with that firm‟s products or services At that time, increasing customer satisfaction was synonymous with increasing customer loyalty and decreasing customer complaint (Bloemer & Kasper, 1995), which meant that a customer has tended to repurchase a particular product or service Loyalty was the last dependent variable in the model since its value was a mandate for actual customer retention and profitability Consequently, the SCSB model included a relationship from complaint behavior to customer loyalty When the relationship was positive, a firm may be successfully in turning customer complaint into customer loyalty; otherwise (negative), customer was dissatisfied with a firm and complain about firm‟s product or service, who may lead to exit (Johnson et al., 2001)

Fig.1 The original SCSB (Swedish Customer Satisfaction Barometer) model (Fornell, 1992)

The ACSI model

The ACSI was developed in 1994 based on the SCSB There were main differences between the SCSB and the ACSI In ACSI, perceived quality and measures for customer expectations were added (Fornell et al., 1996) In 1996, the ACSI model was extended to describe two types of perceived quality, which were product quality and service quality In this model, it forecasted that when perceived value and perceived quality increased, customer satisfaction would increase Furthermore, there were two measures of customer loyalty in this model, which were rating of repurchase likelihood and construction from two survey ratings The two survey ratings included the ability that a firm could raise its price before the customer certainty did not choose

to buy product again or the ability that a firm would have to decrease its price before the customer would choose again in the next time (Johnson et al., 2001)

The NCSI model

The NCSB was build based on the ACSI model, in which it included corporate image and its relationships to customer satisfaction and customer loyalty Corporate image included customer satisfaction and it affected behavioral intentions such as loyalty In a study of four companies from different industries, Selnes (1993) hypothesized and documented these effects for brand reputation In general, a positive

Fig.2 The ACSI (American Customer Satisfaction Index) model (Fornell et al., 1996)

Perceived Value

Customer

Expectations

Customer Satisfaction (ACSI)

Customer Loyalty Perceived

Quality

Complaint Behavior

correlation between the constructs was found by Andreassen and Linderstad (1998a, b)

in two studies related to the impact of corporate image on customer intention (Johnson

et al., 2001)

The ECSI model

The ECSI has represented another change based on the ACSI model (Eklöf, 2000) The ECSI was similar with ACSI, which included the customer expectations, perceived quality, perceived value, customer satisfaction, and customer loyalty However, there was a distinction between service quality and product quality in a subset of ACSI industries and that was also standard in the ECSI In this model, loyalty measurement was measured by ability to retain as well as ability to recommend a company (or brand) and whether the amount customers purchased a product or service

to be increase or not Compared ACSI, ECSI had two basic differences First, ECSI did not include complaint behavior because it was considered as a result of satisfaction Second, ECSI was incorporated corporate image as a latent variable in the model because it was in keeping with the original NCSB Corporate image specifically has direct effects on customer expectations, satisfaction and loyalty (Johnson et al., 2001)

Fig.3.The ECSI (European Customer Satisfaction Index) model (Eklöf, 2000)

Perceived Value

Customer

Expectations

Customer Satisfaction (ECSI)

Perceived

Quality

Customer Loyalty Image

In general, this study has just applied the ECSI model because of the following reasons:

- The theory has already been successfully applied to measure student satisfaction and student loyalty in higher educational context

- The ECSI model has been applied in determining the antecedents of satisfaction, trust and repurchase intention in the hotel and the postal context

- The ECSI model has been used in identifying consumer loyalty in the setting of the product consumptions, such as food, electricity, car…

CHAPTER THREE – CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK AND

RESEARCH HYPOTHESES

In this session, basing on the literature review and prior studies we would suggest factors in which influence on student satisfaction From that suggestion, the research model and hypotheses would be introduced in order to answer the study questions

I FACTORS INFLUENCING ON STUDENT SATISFACTION

1 Image

Image has represented the overview impression, which customers or students have about a firm or university (Alves & Raposo, 2010) In a university context, image was viewed as students‟ perception of a university, or in other word, it was what students think of a university based on the stimuli they have received with their senses (Arpan et al., 2003) It was important for marketers to create an appealing university image in order to attract customers from competitors The key factor was to create an image that matches with the targeted customer expectations A favorable university image has affected to purchase behavior as well as loyalty and provides the customer with “added value” Most of students have gone through many experiences and received experiences of learning environment from a university, thus they could draw emotional and personal impressions (Kuo & Ye, 2009) Image was often the first criterion for assessing university, whether it is a key factor in shaping students‟ expectations of studying outcomes and subsequent satisfaction?

H 1 : University image will positively affect students’ satisfaction

2 Perceived quality of teaching and learning

In a university, teaching has been considered as a main service and core factor

of students‟ university experience (Athiyaman, 2001 and Hill et al., 2003) Good teaching and qualified teaching staff have viewed as key criteria in influencing students‟ perception of education quality (Lizzio et al., 2002; Paddle, 2010) Learning was the result of teaching, which student has learnt for a long time to acquire knowledge to perceive the world and respond to it (Alexander et al., 2009) Consequently, learning also related students to academic staff (Mavondo et al., 2005) The questions would be raised: Whether the current learning environment was able to meet students‟ expectations of studying outcomes and ensured subsequent satisfaction?

H 2 : Quality of teaching and learning will positively affect students’ satisfaction

3 Perceived quality of student support services

In the ACSI model, it has divided “perceived quality” into “perceived product quality” and “perceived service quality” (Fornell et al., 1996) Perceived product quality was assessed by consumption experience of products Meanwhile, perceived service quality was evaluated by consumption experience related to services, such as customer service, conditions of product display, range of services and products, etc… Both perceived product quality and perceived service quality had a direct and positive effect on overall customers‟ satisfaction

Perceived product quality has been mentioned in the above paragraph, thus this paragraph has just mentioned on perceived service quality In perceived service quality, student support services have referred to academic and non-academic assistance provided to students In his study of Japanese students, Hirano (2000) identified four main areas of student services: (1) economic (tuition fees, loans and scholarships); (2)

physical (participation in sports, recreation to maintain health); (3) mental health (psychological tests, vocational aptitude texts and support to raise consciousness toward employment) and (4) habitual (access to information for job opportunities, facilities and student life) (sited in Quintal, 2011) However, the current study has been implemented in Vietnam so it has been just mentioned in two of four items of students support service, such as physical and habitual because they were suitable to Vietnamese students Consequently, this study would focus on testing impact level of students support service toward student perception of service quality, whether student support service could help students achieve expected study outcomes and subsequent satisfaction?

H 3 : Quality of student support services will positively affect students’ satisfaction

4 Perceived quality of facilities and resources

Facilities and resources of university were physical evidence, that added value

to the student experience (Paswan & Ganesh, 2009), in which the classrooms, library, self-study areas, car parks, layout, food outlets, sport recreation, internet facilities and health services were influential in students‟ satisfaction with their university (Douglas

et al., 2006; Padlee et al., 2010) Here, the question was raised, whether students have clearly expectations or simply take for granted the facilities that help to deliver their studying outcomes?

H 4 : Quality of facilities and resources will positively affect students’ satisfaction

5 Perceived value and sacrifice

Perceived value has defined as the overview evaluation of customer of the product or service usage upon on perceptions of what was received and what was given (Zeithaml, 1988) In the prior studies, the forms of value could be included functional,

social, emotional epistemic and conditional However, this study has just adapted two first categories, such as functional and social value

Functional value was shown as the service could express its usage purposes In

the university context, it referred to students‟ expectations that they would be able to achieve their career goals after they have got the bachelor degree (LeBlanc & Nguyen, 1999) Besides, they were more likely to follow up the academic activities, which were closely linked with the future career objectives of students (Vekiri & Chronaki, 2008) Furthermore, functional value has been found as the primary determinant of value perceptions in previous studies and especially in the higher education field, where the compromise of price or quality was found to predict students‟ loyalty (LeBlanc & Nguyen, 1999)

H 5 : Functional value will positively affect students’ satisfaction

Social value was considered as the benefits received by interacting with the

service providers and groups of customers Besides, it was also the value, which students perceived from communicating with friends both inside and outside class in the higher education context (LeBlanc & Nguyen, 1999) Moreover, the social aspect of the university experience was considered as important factor in determining students‟ intentions to remain with the institution In addition, co-operative teaching approaches, which focused on creating the educational experience between students, have been strongly associated to increase in perceived social value (Thomas, 2002)

H 6 : Social value will positively affect students’ satisfaction

However, perceive value has referred to customer assessment of fairness, right,

or deserving for the perceived cost of the offering (Bolton & Lemon, 1999) Here, perceived costs included monetary payments and non-monetary sacrifices Sacrifices included time consumption, energy consumption and stress, which were experienced by

consumers On the contrary, customer-perceived value was the result of an assessment

of the relative rewards or sacrifices, which were offered (Yang and Peterson, 2004) In summary, quality and sacrifice were two common antecedents of value (Cronin et al., 2000)

H 7 : Sacrifice will negatively affect students’ satisfaction

II CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK AND HYPOTHESES

In order to answer to the above research questions, the hypotheses were summarized as follows:

Table 1: List of Hypotheses

H1 University image will positively affect student satisfaction

H2 Quality of teaching and learning will positively affect student

Fig 4 Proposed Research Model

Functional value

Image

Student satisfaction

H6:+

H3(a,b): +

H5:+

satisfaction

H5 Functional value will positively affect satisfaction

H6 Social value will positively affect satisfaction

H7 Sacrifice will negatively affect student satisfaction

CHAPTER FOUR – RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

From the research objectives, scope, research methodology, which were mentioned in chapter 1, and literature review was presented in chapter 2, this chapter would particularly present the approach used to conduct the research

I RESEARCH DESIGN

Business research methods could be classified on the basis of either function or technique (Zikmund, 1997) Based on function, there were three types of research including exploratory, descriptive and causal studies Based on technique, business research could be classified into experiments, surveys and observational studies As indicated by Zikmund (1997), descriptive research focused on the research question starting with who, what, when, and where with the main purpose of describing characteristics of a population or a phenomenon, while causal studies were concerned with the „why‟ question, about „how‟ one variable affects another (Emory 1985) Consequently, the four research questions of the current study indicated that this study combined both descriptive and causal studies

In terms of research techniques, survey research was chosen to assess the research questions (hypothesis) for current study because of two reasons Firstly, surveys provided a quick, efficient and accurate means of assessing information about a population, especially in cases where there was lack of secondary data (Zikmund, 1997) Secondly, the survey has been the most popular method, which was used previously to measure service quality

Research process as illustrated as the below figure:

II RESEARCH APPROACH

Generally, this research has used both quantitative and qualitative researches to prevent biased subjective opinion as well as assure convincing findings of the study

“Quantitative method was relied on the ability of the researcher to measure the phenomena under investigation and the use of statistics to analyze the raw data” (Cavana, Delahaye & Sekaran, 2001) Meanwhile, “Qualitative research method is aimed at understanding the rich, complex and idiosyncratic nature of human phenomena” (Cavana, Delahaye & Sekaran, 2001) Qualitative research has involved inductive reasoning while quantitative research was based on deductive reasoning

Data collection & processing

1 Qualitative research

The qualitative research has done by in-depth interview five individuals, who are experts and lecturers of IU The method was used to test whether measure scales drawn from the prior studies suit or not suit in Vietnamese context From that, semi-structure questionnaire has been conducted to have the draft questionnaire The draft questionnaire was used for the pilot testing the experts to make clearly the content of questionnaire and correct questionnaire The aim was to confirm, adjust and improve the questionnaire Finally, the final questionnaire was conducted and used in the quantitative research

2 Quantitative research

This study has also used quantitative and survey method to collect data because

it was useful and convenient in surveying a large population In this method, the questionnaire was developed again as a research instrument in order to test the reliability and validity of research hypothesis and research model In instrument development stage, the related literature and related studies were searched for building

a construct measurement scales

3 Construct measurement

3.1 Perceived image

The perceived image was measured with four statements, which were created and validated in the prior studies X was repesented as a specific university These statements were represented as follows:

Dimension Sources Modification for the

present study

1 I have a good impression

about this university

Kao (2007), Wang (2012)

I have a good impression about university X

2 I believe that this university

is a strong academic

Burnett (2008) I believe that X is a strong

academic

3 I believe that this university

has the prestige in the

4 I believe the image is

projected by this university

has an influence on value of

3.2 Perceived quality of teaching and learning

The perceived quality of teaching and learning was measured with eight statements, which were created and validated in the prior studies These statements were represented as follows:

Dimension Sources Modification for the

present study

5 Lecturers have extensive

knowledge about their

subjects

Kao (2007); Wang

Parraga, Kara &

-Cerda-Urrutia (2009)

Lecturers of X have extensive knowledge about their subjects

6 Lecturers deliver theoretical

subjects

Wang (2012)

Lecturers of X deliver theoretical and practical mixed subjects

7 Instructors‟ empathy and

-Vasquez-Parraga, Kara & Cerda-Urrutia(2009)

Instructors‟ empathy and attention to the students

teaching is flexible

Instructors‟ method teaching is flexible

Lecturers of X have good communication skills

towards students Vasquez-Parraga,

Kara & Urrutia(2009)

12 Lecturers motivate students

My lecturers of X motivate me in class

3.3 Perceived quality of student support services

Perceived quality of student support services were also measured with ten items, which were created and validated in the previous researches These items were represented as follows:

Dimension Sources Modification for the

14 Fulfillment of faculty‟s

commitments to solve

problems

Vasquez-Parraga, Kara & Cerda-Urrutia (2009)

-Faculty of X is alway fulfills it‟s commitments

to solve problems

15 Faculties usually give me

adequate feedback about my

17 Residential accommodation

of this university provides

good living conditions Wang (2012);

Biodun, Din &

Abdullateef (2012)

Residential accommodation of X provides good living conditions

18 Residential accommodation

of this university is charged

at reasonable price

Residential accommodation of X is charged at reasonable price

19 University supports students

for transport (e.g bus)

Arambewela & Hall (2009)

X supports students for transport (e.g bus)

20 Guidance and information on

extra-3.4 Perceived quality of facilities and resources

Perceived quality of facilities and resources of a university was also measured with five items, which were created and validated in the researches of Parasuraman et al., (1995), Sheu (2010) and Wang (2012) These five items were represented as follows:

Dimension Sources Modification for the

present study

23 Teaching tools and equipment

are up-to-date

Parasuraman, Zeithaml and Berry, (1985);

equipment of X are date