The enjoyment of shopping is approached in many perspectives with different topics such as clarifying the opinion that shopping is a form of entertainment Moss, 2007; Customer segmentati
Trang 1CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION
1.1 Search context
With a population of 93.7 million people, the majority are young people
who have a high demand for individual shopping and international integration
The retail market in Vietnam is considered one of the attractive emerging
markets for multinational retail investors in the world
Retail revenue in 2017 experienced a good growth, estimated at VND
2,937.3 trillion and accounted for 74.7% of the total and experienced an
increase of 10.9% compared to 2016, according to General Statistics Office of
Vietnam In addition, there has been a surge in the number of traditional retail
systems The country has had 8539 traditional markets concentrated mainly in
rural areas (accounting for 75%) and the number of wholesale markets is 83
markets (accounting for 0.97%) by the end of December 2017 Regarding
modern retail channels, the whole country has 957 supermarkets at 62 out of 63
provinces and cities (Ha Giang is the only province which has not owned any
supermarkets) and 189 shopping centres at 51 out of 63 provinces and cities,
concentrating mainly at big cities such as Hanoi, Hai Phong, Da Nang, Ho Chi
Minh, Can Tho The number of supermarkets and shopping centres in these big
cities constitutes 47% and 50% respectively of the total number of the country's
supermarkets and shopping centres
1.2 The reason for choosing topic
Academically, the enjoyment of shopping in retail has been an enticing
subject for researchers around the world since the 1950s (Store, 1954;
Martineau, 1958) The enjoyment of shopping is approached in many
perspectives with different topics such as clarifying the opinion that shopping is
a form of entertainment (Moss, 2007); Customer segmentation based on their
feelings and perspectives on shopping (El-Aldy, 2007); Learning about the
factors influencing customer’s entertaining shopping experience (Ibrahim et al.,
2002; Mirela Mihić & Ivana Kursan Milaković, 2017); The studies on
entertaining customer experiences are chosen to conduct various types of
retailing around the world such as stores, supermarkets, online retail, shopping
malls, and shopping centres, etc However, the factors influencing the
customer's entertaining shopping experiences will be different and depend on
the characteristics of the study context, the subjects and the types of retail
These factors are critical and valuable in this research but may not in the other
ones Regarding retailing in shopping centre, the specific research direction of
the factors of shopping centres affecting customer’s entertaining shopping experiences has received attention from a few scientists around the world Whilst this research direction in Vietnam seems to be untapped Therefore, against the backdrop of Vietnam's economy (considered an emerging market in Asia), retailing in shopping centres is in need of having more studies with a view to contributing more "new points" to the retail field around the world-The typical case studies for an emerging market as Vietnam
Practically, Vietnam is experiencing a period of the golden population
with a vast amount of individual spending and the integration demand which has changed the consumer awareness and had a remarkable effect on Vietnamese people's consumption habits and trends, especially the young Shopping at modern retail channels such as supermarkets, convenience stores, and shopping centres is now becoming a habit and a trend for Vietnamese people Nowadays, shopping centres are standardized in terms of design, merchandise, and services, therefore, the competition via the quality of merchandise or price is no longer an effective tool of retailers, but they have to resort to using the customer experience as a tool Successful retailers are the ones that create the entertaining shopping experience for customers (Shaw and Ivens, 2002) In fact, besides the recent emergence of new shopping centres of domestic and international retail corporations such as Vingroup and Aeon Japan
at many big cities in Vietnam, there have been a lot of shopping centres that need restructuring (Trang Tien Plaza in Hanoi) or even are closed due to prolonged absence of customers, namely, Thuan Kieu Plaza in Ho Chi Minh City, Hang Da, Grand Plaza in Hanoi or Parkson Plaza in big cities such as Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh, etc This is because they do not catch up with the demand and new consumption trends of Vietnamese people, especially do not generate the entertaining shopping experience for customers when they go shopping at shopping centres Therefore, in order to attract and build loyalty among this new generation's customers, general managers of shopping centres need to base on the foundation of the entertaining shopping experience, thereby building right business strategies that align with changes in the retail model and Vietnamese people's consumer trends today
Derived from the theory and practices in Vietnam, that the topic “A study
on factors affecting customer’s entertaining shopping experiences in shopping centres” is chosen is necessary and has academic and practical values
towards Vietnam retail market in particular and the world retail market in general
Trang 21.3 Research objectives and research questions of the dissertation
Research objectives
The overall objective is to determine the attributes that influence the
entertaining shopping experience of the customers who buy merchandise and
services at shopping centres in Vietnam
Research questions
- How is the entertaining shopping experience understood and measured
under the perspective of customers about merchandise and services?
- What are the attributes influencing the customer’s' entertaining
shopping experiences at shopping centres in Vietnam?
- How does each attribute affect customers’ entertaining shopping
experiences at shopping centres in Vietnam?
1.4 Subject and scope of the study
Subject
- The customer's entertaining shopping experience at shopping centres in
Vietnam
- The factors affecting customers’ entertaining shopping experiences in
shopping centres in Vietnam
Scope of the study
- Regarding respondents: people who buy merchandise and services in
shopping centres
- Regarding the content: the dissertation focuses on conducting research
on shopping centre’s attributes affecting customer’s entertaining shopping
experiences
1.4 Research methodology
Qualitative research is the research to discover scientific theories which
are based on previous studies The research aims to identify attributes of
shopping centres that have the effect on customer’s' entertaining shopping
experience in Vietnam
Quantitative research is a traditional method in scientific research to
verify models and research hypotheses on the basis of market data collection
1.5 New research results
New academic contributions
The dissertation builds and verifies the model of attributes of shopping
centres that affect the customer’s entertaining shopping experience in Vietnam,
a country with an emerging market The model includes 7 attributes, namely,
merchandise, atmospherics, accessibility, personal service, amenity, food, entertainment, and security
The dissertation builds a new scale for entertaining shopping experiences scale which is “experiencing behaviour" scale with 3 assessment criteria This scale has not been verified in previous studies
The dissertation completes the 7-element scale of shopping centres in accordance with the actual conditions of Vietnam market
Based on customer’s' perspectives on shopping, the dissertation segments customers into two groups, including relaxed shopper segment and practical shopper segment
New practical contributions
The dissertation aids general managers of shopping centres in Vietnam to identify attributes in shopping centres affecting the customer’s entertaining shopping experiences and also to determine the impact level of each attribute on the customer’s entertaining shopping experiences This is the basis for general managers of shopping centres to focus on improving the critical factors in order
to create a right model of retailing in shopping centres for the era and consumption trends of Vietnamese people today
The results of customer segmentation in this dissertation are the basis for general managers in shopping centres to choose the target customer segment and thereby build the right business strategies
Finally, the dissertation is a useful reference in research, teaching and learning
1.6 Dissertation structure
The main thesis structure encompasses 5 chapters:
Chapter 1: Introduction Chapter 2: Literature review Chapter 3: Research methodology Chapter 4: Research results Chapter 5: Conclusions and implications for business administration
CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW 2.1 Theoretical Background
2.1.1 Customer experience
Experience is a broad concept which is the emotions, feelings and knowledge that a person acquires when customers engage in a certain activity, according to Gupta and Vajic in 2000 and they get the experience in most of the time whether they want it or not Experience is characterized by the proactive
Trang 3participation, people's full integration into a certain event and their state of mind
(Pine and Gilmore, 1998)
Customer experiences can be understood as follows when interacting
with any product, service or organization, customers will have the experience
and each customer will have the different experience even though they
experience the same context This experience will generate a state of positive or
negative emotions for customers, which depends on the specific circumstances
and is derived from the comparison between the customer's wishes and the
experience that customers get
2.1.2 Entertaining Shopping
According to Guiry and Lutz, Entertaining shopping is understood as a
shopping activity characterized by customer’s enjoyment and satisfaction
resulting from the shopping process without necessarily purchasing
merchandise or services (2000) The entertainment of shopping activities is
considered the same as when people engage in other recreational activities or
even some people assume that shopping is more enticing and can entertain them
more than participating in other recreational activities
2.1.3 Entertaining shopping experiences
Entertaining shopping experiences can be defined as a whole experience
that brings a positive emotional state, creates enjoyment and satisfaction for
customers when they go shopping This emotional state is similar to the
emotional state customers get when they engage in leisure or other recreational
activities This emotional state is characterized by satisfaction, perceived
freedom and psychological state of customers (Jones, 1999) With this viewpoint,
entertaining shopping experiences are measured through the ability to achieve
customer's "entertainment" and are measured by comfort, fun, stress reduction,
relaxation and entertainment However, under the perspective of the results, as
customers get a sense of entertainment in shopping, they often increase the time
they spend in stores, boost spending or impulsive buying and their interest for the
stores (Babin et al., 1994; Donovan et al., 1994; Jones, 1999) The sense of
entertainment also has an effect on the intention of the consumer to return to the
shops (Sit et al., 2003; Hart et al., 2007) Hence, within the scope of this study,
Researcher desires to take the customer's entertaining shopping experiences into
consideration not only from the perspective on emotions but also from the
perspective on customer behaviour in shopping centres
2.1.4 Shopping centres
Within the scope of this study, the researcher uses the term “shopping centre” to refer to modern shopping places under the "N in 1" model throughout the dissertation and applies the concept of "shopping centre" according to Regulation on supermarkets and shopping centres issued together with Decision No.1371/2004/QĐ-BTM of the Ministry of Trade (now the Ministry of Industry and Trade of Vietnam) on 24 September 2004 This Decision defines the
concept of shopping centre as follows: “A shopping centre is a modern and multifunctional business organization which encompasses a complex of shops and service-providing outlets, halls, meeting rooms, offices for rent, etc It is arranged in a centralized and continuous way in one or some adjacent architectural works; meets the standards of business area, technical equipment and business management and business organization; has civilized and convenient service methods to meet the development needs in private business activities and also to meet the customer's needs regarding merchandise, services.”
2.2 Literature review
Due to the special appeal of this field, retail research has always attracted researchers from all over the world In chronological order, we can list some researchers such as Martineau (1958), Lindquist (1974), Bell (1999), Oppewal
& Timmermans (1999), Jones (1999), Leo & Phillippe (2002), Sit et al., 2003, Hart et al., 2007, Yeu Teng Wong et al., 2012, Mohamad Saad & Madiha Metawie (2015) Mirela Mihić & Ivana Kursan Milaković (2017), etc
These studies focus on numerous topics Firstly, they focus on understanding the factors of retailers (stores or shopping centres) and their effects on shopping pleasure and customer behaviour Secondly, customer factors have an impact on shopping pleasure and customer behaviour (including customer psychology such as shopping motivation, shopping orientation or some other personal factors such as financial ability, attitude towards advertisement, personal demand, price sensitivity, etc) Thirdly, these studies do research and generalize the retailer factors and customer factors that have an effect on shopping pleasure and customer behaviour On the other hand, the results of these studies also segment customers into groups, according to their behaviours and feelings on the retailer's image when shopping
General results of scientific researches related to Shopping Enjoyment and Entertaining Shopping Experience published in other countries and in Vietnam have reached the following conclusion:
Trang 4(1) Customer satisfaction no longer plays as a decisive factor to keep
them, whilst customer experience does strengthen and retain the loyalty of a
new generation of customers
(2) Shopping is a form of entertainment being chosen by more people,
compared to other entertaining activities
(3) There exist many customer segments in retailing, however, amongst
them are two typical customer segments encompassing: first, those who go
shopping for entertainment (so called relaxed shoppers), second, those who
consider shopping as a compulsory or a responsibility (so called practical
shoppers)
(4) Researches about Shopping Enjoyment and the factors influencing
Entertainment Shopping Experience concentrate on 3 points: first, independent
research on retail-related issues (in grocery and Shopping centre), second,
independent research on customer-related issues, third, mixed research (on both
retailers and customers)
Hence, such general results highlight that the researches about types of
retailing in Shopping Centres and Entertainment Shopping Experience of
customers have been conducted mainly in Western countries, which has gained
developed economy, has implemented retailing for a long time, and has attained
remarkable success In term of emerging markets in Asia and in other nations,
related studies have been carried out mostly in Singapore, Korea, Malaysia, etc
In Vietnam, there is a mere number of researches related to this topic, but only
surrounding supermarket retailing Meanwhile, other modern types of retailing
in Vietnam is having developed considerably in both quality and quantity;
however, the retail in shopping centres which is being on the strong growth
momentum with the multifunctional orientation to satisfy the demand of
customers is neglected Moreover, customers’ feelings depend much on their
impressions once they experience the factors of shopping centres.Therefore, it is
essential for general managers of shopping centres to create a modern shopping
centre model meeting demands of Vietnamese consumers, providing them with
entertaining shopping experiences Depriving from the theory and practice, the
researcher has chosen to independently study factors of Shopping Centres that
influence Entertaining Shopping Experiences of customers, thus erasing the
inappropriate ones as well as adding ones that are appropriate to market data
Also, general results demonstrate that Entertaining Shopping Experiences of
customers are based on the perspectives of feelings; however, according to the
perspectives of results, customers who are pleased with the entertainment they gain during the process of shopping tend to stay much longer, to pay much more, and to be impulse buys For that reason, via this research, the researcher expects to develop the scale of Entertaining Shopping Experiences based on the behaviours, with an aim to contribute to building new theories in practical research sources related to this field in the world
2.3 Research Framework 2.3.1 Expected Research Model
Due to the consumer trend of “n in 1”, Shopping Centres has become an ideal destination for Vietnamese consumers, in which they and all members in their family can buy from daily necessities to fashion items, and join services of entertainment, food, education, etc This illustrates that 7 initial attributes in shopping centres of Sit et al (2003) are relatively adequate and appropriate to ones in Vietnam currently Thus, researcher has learnt from the study of Sit et
al (2003) in order to erect the initial research model of this dissertation
Initial Research Method is depicted as follows:
Image 2.11: Initial Research Model
Source: Researcher’s proposal
2.3.2 Research Scale Draft 1
Table 2.1 An Overview of Concepts and Scales of Image attributes in
Shopping centres of Sit et al (2003)
Merchandising
Merchandising, a core attribute of
Branded merchandise Stores stock my preferred brands
Merchandise
Security
Accessibility Atmospherics Services Food Entertainment
Entertaining Shopping Experiences
Trang 5Attributes Scale
shopping centres, is illustrated via
the diversity of merchandise, the
presence of branded merchandise,
and favourite one
Good range of products
Accessibility
Accessibility of shopping centres
encompasses both micro-accessibility
and macro-accessibility
Micro-accessibility concerns parking
facilities and easy access within the
shopping centre Meanwhile,
macro-accessibility indicates good condition
of access roads to shopping centres
Close to home Ease of access/navigation Adequate parking space Easily find the entrances and exits to the centre
Easy to get around within the centre
Opening hours are appropriate for me
Atmospherics
Atmospherics of shopping centres
involves the atmosphere quality such
as music, light, temperature, décor,
colour of shopping centres
Pleasant background music Fashionable colour scheme Modern décor
Well-lit Air-conditioned
Service
Service of shopping centres is divided
in personal service and communal
one Specifically, personal service is
expressed through behaviours and
knowledge of staff Communal
service provides customers with
advantages related to ambulances or
restrooms within shopping centres
Both services are considered
“augment products” which support
the merchandising (core products) of
shopping centres
Assistance at information desk Courtesy at information desk Prompt service at information desk Knowledge of employees at information desk
Neat uniform of employees at information desk
Helpfulness of centre management Positive attitude of centre management Adequate escalators
Adequate lifts Directory sign boards Centre brochures Clean restrooms Easy to find the restrooms Restrooms are conveniently located
Overall cleanliness of the centre
Food
Food is an entertainment attribute of shopping centres, it supplies a needed break for customers during or after the process of their shopping, it
is represented via food courts
Food court
Entertainment
Entertainment is a distinct attribute
of shopping centres in term of creating an entertaining environment within the centre, hence exciting shopping experiences Entertainment attribute consists of special event entertainment and specialty entertainment
Specialty entertainment (movie theatres) Many occasional or seasonal
entertainments (shows)
Security
Security is generalized via the security of customers when shopping
in the centre such as the safety in parking lot, restrooms and the safety
of lift or escalator systems and the presence of security guards
Safety of my vehicle in car park Personal safety in car park Personal safety within the centre Safety of escalators
Safety of lifts Security guards on duty Safety in restrooms
Source: Sit et al (2003)
Table 2.2: Scale on Entertainment Shopping Experiences
Comfortable
Le Van Huy (2011)
Excited Stressful Relaxing Entertained
Source: Le Van Huy (2011)
2.3.3 Research hypothesis
H1: Merchandising exerts positive impacts on Entertainment Shopping
Trang 6Experiences of customers
H2: Accessibility exerts positive impacts on Entertainment Shopping
Experiences of customers
H3: Atmospheric exerts positive impacts on Entertainment Shopping
Experiences of customers
H4: Services exert positive impacts on Entertainment Shopping Experiences
of customers
H5: Food exerts positive impacts on Entertainment Shopping Experiences of
customers
H6: Entertainment exerts positive impacts on Entertainment Shopping
Experiences of customers
H7: Security exerts positive impacts on Entertainment Shopping Experiences
of customer
CHAPTER 3: RESEARCH DESIGN
3.1 Introduction of Research Areas
According to researcher’s synthesis, there have been 3 shopping centres
(appendix 3A) being fit for the scale of Supermarket regulations in Hanoi by the
end of December 2017 Shopping centres have also issued together with
Decision No 1371/2004 / QD-BTM by the Minister of Trade (the Ministry of
Industry and Trade at present), including 3 centres meeting the standard of class
I, 6 centres with class II and 9 ones with class III
Features of Shopping centres class I:
Two of shopping centres class I belong to Vingroup (Vincom Mega Mall
- Times City and Vincom Mega Mall - Royal City) and the other is Long Bien
Aeon Mall of Japan’s Retailing Group Aeon
Features of Shopping Centres Class II:
There are 6 shopping centres class II, encompassing 3 centres from
Vingroup (Ba Trieu Vincom, Nguyen Chi Thanh Vincom, Long Bien Plaza
Vincom) and 3 others namely Tay Son Mipec Centre, Long Bien Savio Mega
Mall, Lotte Shopping Centre
Features of Shopping Centre class III:
There are 9 shopping centres such as Ruby Plaza, Artemis, Pham Ngoc
Thach Vincom centre, Long Bien Mipec Centre, Trang Tien Plaza Shopping
Centre, Thang Long Big C, Xuan Thuy IPH Shopping Centre, Bac Tu Liem
Vincom Plaza, and Me Tri The Garden Shopping Centre Regarding the location, these 9 centres are located in different districts and offer ease access for customers
3.2 Research design
3.2.1 Research procedure
The research procedure consists of 4 steps: first, document research phase; second, quantitative research phase (in-depth individual interviewing and group discussion); third, preliminary quantitative research phase; and fourth, formal quantitative research phase
3.2.2 Data collection methods and analysis tools
In this dissertation, Researcher uses two types of data: secondary and primary data
Secondary data is data from published scientific works related to the focus of research in the dissertation and information on the research market Primary data is new data collected first-hand to serve the dissertation, including the attributes in shopping centres, and the opinion of the research subject on customers' entertaining shopping experiences in shopping centres Secondary data collection methodology:
Published scientific works: Researcher uses keywords to look up on search engines such as Google, Google Scholar, Science Direct, ProQuest, Emerald, etc
Market data: Researcher acquires data from Statistical Yearbook of Vietnam, professional journals, market research firms, and internal reports of shopping centres
Primary data collection methodology:
Primary data collection: observation technique is implemented for shopping centres; techniques of in-depth individual interviewing, group discussion, direct interviewing via questionnaires distributed in shopping centres, and online interviewing via Google+ are implemented in both qualitative and quantitative research to gather ideas and opinions of experts, managers, store owners, staff, and customers of shopping centres
Data analysis tools:
Researcher uses SPSS Statistics V.22 to analyse primary data collected from questionnaires
Trang 73.3 Qualitative research
3.3.1 Qualitative research design
Qualitative research: the next important phase during the research
process to detect the attributes in shopping centres which are appropriate for
the research context of Vietnamese market Researcher also adjusts and adds
other attributes in line with Vietnamese market to the scale Findings from the
qualitative research serve to build the research model and to determine the
second draft scale for the dissertation
Data collection and sampling methods in qualitative research
In this research, observation technique, in-depth individual interviewing
and group discussion techniques are implemented to gather data for the
qualitative research
Research sample description
In-depth individual interviewing is conducted with 06 experts (03
marketing specialists in the training field, 03 experts in the retail sector); 10
different subjects working in shopping centres (general managers of shopping
centres, store owners, and staff of shopping centres) Demographic
characteristics of the research subject are described in Appendix 1B
Group discussion is conducted with 2 groups of regular customers of
shopping centres The first group consists of 8 office workers, both male and
female, aged between 25 and 40, with high purchasing power and mutual
interest in shopping in shopping centres The second group consists of 8
students
3.3.2 Findings of qualitative research
Findings of observation in shopping centres
Shopping centres: Findings from observing 18 shopping centres show that they
all have essential attributes which satisfy "N in 1" customers' needs
Customers: relatively diverse groups of customers, including students,
working people, and retirees They go to shopping centres for shopping, for
supermarkets, for a stroll, for deal hunting, for events, for dining, and for
entertainment services such as movies or games, etc
Findings from in-depth interviewing and group discussion on the
attributes in shopping centres have revealed that 8 attributes, namely
Merchandising, Atmospherics, Accessibility, Personal service, Amenity, Food,
Entertainment, and Security, are considered as having an impact on customers' entertaining shopping experiences
Findings from in-depth interviewing and group discussion show that the concept of entertaining shopping experiences is properly understood Customers' entertaining shopping experiences must be viewed not only from the emotional perspective but also from the behavioural perspective Therefore, Researcher adds the behavioural scale to the research model to measure customers' entertaining shopping experiences in shopping centres
Findings from group discussion show that there are 2 perspectives on shopping One regards shopping as a recreational activity while the other views
it as a mandatory task
Formal research model and research hypothesis
Based on findings from the qualitative research, the model of the attributes in shopping centres influencing customers' entertaining shopping experiences is demonstrated in figure 3.2
Figure 3.2: Formal research model of the dissertation
(Source: Researcher's proposal)
Accordingly, the research hypothesis is proposed as follows:
Table 3.1: Formal research hypothesis
"Emotion" scale "Behaviour" scale
H 1a : Merchandising has positive H 1b : Merchandising has positive
Merchandising Atmospherics
Security
Accessibility Personal service Amenity Food Entertainment
Entertaining shopping experiences
- Emotion
- Behaviour
Trang 8"Emotion" scale "Behaviour" scale
influence on customers' emotion influence on customers' behaviour
H 2a : Atmospherics has positive
influence on customers' emotion
H 2b : Atmospherics has positive influence on customers' behaviour
H 3a : Accessibility has positive
influence on customers' emotion
H 3b : Accessibility has positive influence on customers' behaviour
H 4a : Personal service has positive
influence on customers' emotion
H 4b : Personal service has positive influence on customers' behaviour
H 5a : Amenity has positive influence on
customers' emotion
H 5b : Amenity has positive influence on customers' behaviour
H 6a : Food has positive influence on
customers' emotion
H 6b : Food has positive influence on customers' behaviour
H 7a : Entertainment has positive
influence on customers' emotion
H 7b : Entertainment has positive influence on customers' behaviour
H 8a : Security has positive influence on
customers' emotion
H 8b : Security has positive influence on customers' behaviour
Source: Researcher's proposal
3.4 Quantitative Research
3.4.1 Quantitative research design
Sampling procedure in quantitative research
Figure 3.2: Sampling procedure in the quantitative research
Source: Researcher's self-design Questionnaire design
The questionnaire is designed based on the findings from the qualitative
research The main contents of the questionnaire in both preliminary and formal
phases are: (i) Customers' behaviour in shopping centres, (ii) Customers'
opinion on the attributes that influence customers' entertaining shopping
experiences; (iii) Customers' feelings towards entertaining shopping
experiences; (iv) Personal information
Determine
the overall
research
Set the framework
Define the sample size
Determine the sampling method
Select the sample
The questionnaire is designed based on the Likert scale of 5 levels, Level 1- Strongly disagree; Level 2- Disagree; Level 3– Neutral; Level 4- Agree; Level 5- Strongly agree
Data collection methodology in quantitative research
In this dissertation, Researcher uses two primary data collection methods for the quantitative research in both preliminary and formal phases: direct data collection in shopping centres via direct interviewing with questionnaires, and indirect data collection via the Internet The preliminary phase takes place on April 2017 The formal phase takes place on May and June 2017
Data analysis in quantitative research
The data in this research is analysed by SPSS Statistics The sequence of data analysis is conducted corresponding to each research period: from the preliminary to the formal phase
The preliminary quantitative research phase only performs the Cronbach's alpha analysis to assess the reliability of the scale The formal phase is conducted to test the model and the statistical hypothesis The data is analysed
in the following sequence: Descriptive statistics analysis; Reliability test of the scale with Cronbach's alpha; Exploratory factor analysis EFA; Statistical inference The dissertation measures the difference and the relationship between independent variables and dependent variables and conducts multiple linear regression
3.4.2 Results of preliminary quantitative research
The adjusted scale after the qualitative research is applied in the questionnaire to serve the preliminary quantitative research After running Cronbach's alpha test, the reliability of the scales will be tested The results
of the analysis show that all component variables of the independent variables (Merchandising, Atmospherics, Accessibility, Personal service, Amenity, Food, Entertainment, Security) have the item-total correlation > 0.3 and the Cronbach’s alpha if item deleted is > 0.6 Therefore, the scales all reach reliability The results of the formal quantitative research are presented in Chapter 4
CHAPTER 4 RESEARCH RESULTS 4.1 Research sample characteristics
To achieve the desired sample size of 500 subjects, Researcher performs the data collection in two ways: from direct investigation in 18 shopping centres
Trang 9in Hanoi, and from online questionnaires via the Internet The official data is
gathered from 495 subjects, with 381 direct respondents in shopping centres and
114 indirect respondents via the Internet The demographic characteristics of the
research subject (appendix 5) are described in Table 4.1:
Table 4.1: Demographic characteristics of the research subject
Marital
status
Others (Divorced/separated/widowed) 107 21.62%
Education
level
Office worker (in business enterprise) 114 23.03%
Direct labourer (in business enterprise) 85 17.17%
Source: Researcher's SPSS Statistics data analysis result
4.2 Official scale assessing results
4.2.1 Assessing reliability of the scale (Cronbach’s Alpha)
The scale reliability assessment results of 7 independent variables: 2 observed variables excluded are AC5 and AC6 (belonging to the variable
“Accessibility”) The scale reliability assessment results of dependent variables: 1 observed variable is excluded is EM5 (belonging to the variable “Emotion”)
4.2.3 Assessing the scale values (EFA analysis)
Results of independent variables scale value assessment
Results of EFA assessment of shopping centres’ attributes show that 7 factors extracted with total variance explained of 70.767, which reflects exploratory factor analysis of 70.767% On the other hand, when it comes to rotation matrix, that observed variables have loadings smaller than 0.5 and converge on many factors; thus, according to EFA testing principles, these variables can be excluded; only the observed variables that converge on one factor and have loadings bigger than 0.5 are kept
Factor 1: According to EFA factor analysis (appendix 8A), there are 8
observed variables attributed to Factor 1 including ME1, ME2, ME3, ME4, ME5, ME6, ME8, ME9 The observed variable ME7 converges on the seventh factor In terms of content, it is shown that these 8 variables still describe shopping centres’ merchandising; therefore, the first factor will include 8
observed variables and remain the name “Merchandising”
Factor 2: Appendix 8A shows that 7 observed variables all attribute
to factor 2, including: 04 observed variables CS1, CS2, CS3, CS4 of the factor “Customer Services”; 01 observed variable ME7 of the factor
“Merchandising”; 01 observed variable AM9 of the factor “Amenity” and
01 observed variable EN4 of the factor “Entertainment” Regarding the content, these observed variables reflect the shopping centres’ operation Therefore, factor 2 includes 7 observed variables reflecting the operation of
the shopping centres and is named “Operation”
Factor 3: Appendix 8A shows that 8 observed variables attributing to
factor 3 are AM1, AM2, AM3, AM4, AM5, AM6, AM7, AM8 (AM9 converges on factor 7) In terms of contents, these 8 variables still describe amenities that shopping centres provide for customers during their shopping experience there Thus, factor 3 includes 8 observed variables and remains on
the initial scale as “Amenity”
Trang 10Factor 4: 6 observed variables attributing to factor 4 are FO1, FO2, FO3,
EN1, EN2, EN3, in which 3 observed variables belonging to Food scale are
FO1, FO2, FO3 and the other three variables of Entertainment scale including
EN1, EN2, EN3 (EN4 converges on the seventh factor) Three observed
variables of initial Food scale converge on 3 observed variables of the activity
Entertainment, which can be interpreted from market perspective as that types
of food and entertainment all serve the needs of relaxation for customers
Therefore, factor 4 comprises 6 observed variables and is named Food and
Entertainment
Factor 5: Appendix 8A shows that 6 observed variables attributing to
factor 2 are AT1, AT2, AT3, AT4, AT5, AT6 Thus, the scale “Atmospherics”
do not undergo any changes
Factor 6: Converged by 4 observed variables: AC1, AC2, AC3, AC4,
which are four observed variables of the scale “Accessibility” Regarding
contents, all these 4 observed variables reflect shopping centres’ location;
therefore, factor 6 is composed of 4 observed variables and named “Location”
Factor 7: Is the convergence of 4 observed variables: SE1, SE2, SE3,
SE4 In terms of content, these 4 variables still indicate the issue of customers’
security during their stay in shopping centres Thus, factor 7 includes 4
observed variables and remains its name as Security
Results of dependent variables scale value assessment
The EFA factor analysis results for customers’ entertainment shopping
experiences show that 2 factors are extracted with total variance explained of
63.045, which reflects explained explanatory factor analysis of 63.045% On the
other hand, according to rotation matrix results (appendix 8B), all observed
variables of these two factors have factor loadings that are greater than 0.5;
therefore, observed variables are kept
Factor 1: The EFA factor analysis results indicate that 5 observed
variables attributing to factor 1 are EM1, EM2, EM3, EM4, EM6 In terms of
content, these 5 variables still reflect customers’ feelings when they go to
shopping centres Thus, the first factor will include 5 observed variables and
still be known as “Emotion”
Factor 2: According to the EFA factor analysis results, there are 3
observed variables converging on factor 2 including BE1, BE2, BE3 Therefore,
factor 2 will be composed of 3 observed variables of initial behaviour scale and
keep being called “Behaviour”
From EFA analysis implications, the research model is modified as follows
Image 4.1: Formal research model of the dissertation
(Source: Researcher’s proposal)
The research hypothesis proposed in Table 4.5 is as follows:
Table 4.2: Formal research hypothesis
H 1a : Merchandising has positive influence on customers’ emotion
H 1b : Merchandising has positive influence on customers’ behaviour
H 2a : Atmospherics has positive influence
on customers’ emotion
H 2b : Atmospherics has positive influence on customers’ behaviour
H 3a : Location has positive influence on customers’ emotion
H 3b : Location has positive influence on customers’ behaviour
H 4a : Amenity has positive influence on customers’ emotion
H 4b : Amenity has positive influence on customers’ behaviour
H 5a : Food and Entertainment has positive influence on customers’ emotion
H 5b : Food and Entertainment has positive influence on customers’ behaviour
H 6a : Security has positive influence on customers’ emotion
H 6b : Security has positive influence on customers’ behaviour
H 7a : Operation has positive influence on customers’ emotion
H 7b : Operation has positive influence
on customers’ behaviour (Source: Researcher’s proposal)
4.2.3 Assessing reliability of the scale after analysing EFA (Cronbach’s Alpha)
Merchandising Atmospherics Location Amenity Food - Entertainment Security Operation
Entertaining Shopping Experiences
- Emotion
- Behaviour