MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING UNIVERSITY OF ECONOMICS HO CHI MINH CITY VU THI MAI CHI DOES CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE ALWAYS BENEFIT SERVICE COMPANIES? EXAMINING CUSTOMERS’ EPISTEMIC MOTIVATION AND INTE[.]
MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING UNIVERSITY OF ECONOMICS HO CHI MINH CITY VU THI MAI CHI DOES CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE ALWAYS BENEFIT SERVICE COMPANIES? EXAMINING CUSTOMERS’ EPISTEMIC MOTIVATION AND INTERACTION WITH THE BEAUTY SERVICE CONTEXTS THE DISSERTATION OF ECONOMIC DOCTOR Ho Chi Minh city – 2022 MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING UNIVERSITY OF ECONOMICS HO CHI MINH CITY VU THI MAI CHI DOES CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE ALWAYS BENEFIT SERVICE COMPANIES? EXAMINING CUSTOMERS’ EPISTEMIC MOTIVATION AND INTERACTION WITH THE BEAUTY SERVICE CONTEXTS Major: Business Administration ID: 9340101 THE DISSERTATION OF ECONOMIC DOCTOR Supervisor: Assoc Prof TRAN HA MINH QUAN Ho Chi Minh city – 2022 DECLARATION OF AUTHENTICITY I would like to declare that, the thesis “Does customer experience always benefit service companies? Examining customers’ epistemic motivation and interaction with the beauty service contexts” is my own and conducted with the instruction and advice of Assoc Prof Tran Ha Minh Quan Apart from the acknowledged references, there are not any materials previously published or written by another authors, or has not been previously submitted to any other educational and research programs or institutions I take full responsibility for the legality of the whole scientific research process of this dissertation PhD Student Vu Thi Mai Chi i ACKNOWLEDGMENTS First and foremost, I am sincerely acknowledging the managing boards of Industrial University of Ho Chi Minh City (IUH) and University of Economics Ho Chi Minh City (UEH) for offering me the chance of studying PhD and financially supporting my study I would like to thank the lecturers, researchers who have imparted their knowledge and experience in research so that I could fulfill all requirements for the degree of PhD I would like to express my deepest gratitude to my supervisor, Assoc Prof TRAN HA MINH QUAN makes me a better reader, a better thinker, and a better writer His constant guidance, invaluable suggestions, and deep research insights have immensely shaped this study This dissertation would never have been written without their kind and patient assistance I would also like to express my sincere appreciation and gratitude to all my kindly colleagues and friends who had contributed to the completion of this study Above all, the dissertation is dedicated to my beloved parents, my son, who have been encouraging me along the way ii TABLE OF CONTENT DECLARATION OF AUTHENTICITY ACKNOWLEDGMENTS i LIST OF TABLES v LIST OF FIGURES vi ABSTRACT vii TÓM TẮT viii CHAPTER - RESEARCH OVERIEW 1.1 Research background and rationales of the research 1.2 Research gaps 1.3 Research aims 1.4 Research objectives and questions 1.5 Research context 1.5.1 Beauty service industry 10 1.5.2 Beauty service industry in Vietnam 13 1.5.3 Beauty salon service 16 1.5.4 Beauty salon service in Vietnam .17 1.6 Key terms 18 1.7 Research subject and scope .19 1.8 Structure of the research 19 CHAPTER - LITERATURE REVIEW 21 2.1 Review of Customer experience (EX) .21 2.1.1 Conceptualization of Customer experience .21 2.1.2 Consequences of Customer experience 27 2.2 Review of Customer engagement behavior (EG) 33 2.2.1 Conceptualization of Customer engagement behavior 33 2.2.2 Antecedences of Customer engagement behavior 36 2.3 Theoretical background .39 2.3.1 Customer-Dominant Logic 39 2.3.2 Social Identity Theory .42 2.3.3 Need for Cognition 44 iii 2.4 Proposal framework 45 2.5 Operationalization of the selected variables 47 2.5.1 Customer experience (EX) .47 2.5.2 Customer engagement behavior (EG) .50 2.5.3 Relationship between Customer experience (EX) and engagement behavior (EG) 52 2.5.4 Mediating role of Customer-firm identification (FI) and employee identification (EI) .53 2.5.5 Moderating role of Customer epistemic motivation (EM) 56 2.5.6 Controlled variables 59 CHAPTER - RESEARCH METHODOLOGY .61 3.1 Research framework and hypotheses 61 3.2 Research design 64 3.3 Population and sampling 67 3.3.1 Sampling method .68 3.3.2 Sample size determination .69 3.4 Instrument development 69 3.5 Scales used in the research framework 71 3.5.1 Measurements of Customer experience 72 3.5.2 Measurements of Customer epistemic motivation 74 3.5.3 Measurements of Customer- Firm Identification 74 3.5.4 Measurements of Customer-employee identification 75 3.5.5 Measurements of Customer engagement behavior 75 3.6 Data collection process 77 3.7 Data analysis process 82 3.8 The results of Pilot study 89 3.8.1 The results of Qualitative pilot study .89 3.8.2 The results of Quantitative pilot study 95 CHAPTER - DATA ANALYSIS 101 4.1 Descriptive analysis of Sample .101 4.2 Validation of Measures: Reliability and Validity 104 iv 4.2.1 Reflective-reflective second-order construct 104 4.2.2 Reflective-formative second-order construct 108 4.2.3 Reliability and Validity of Measurement model 109 4.3 Assessment of Common method bias .113 4.4 Testing hypotheses by PLS-SEM application 113 4.4.1 Mediation analysis 115 4.4.2 Moderation analysis .116 CHAPTER - DISCUSSION AND CONTRIBUTIONS 119 5.1 Findings of the research 119 5.2 Discussion of the findings .121 5.2.1 Characteristics of demographic .121 5.2.2 Scale validates of customer experience 121 5.2.3 Relationship of EX and EG – mediating and moderating role 122 5.3 Contributions of the research 124 5.3.1 Theoretical contributions .124 5.3.2 Practical contributions 125 5.4 Limitations and Future research suggestions 127 5.5 Conclusion .128 PUBLICATION 132 REFERENCES 133 APPENDIX I: ENGLISH QUESTIONNAIRE xi APPENDIX II: VIETNAMESE QUESTIONNAIRE xvi APPENDIX III: LIST OF BEAUTY SALONS xxi APPENDIX IV: LIST OF EXPERTS OF IN-DEPT INTERVIEW .xxv APPENDIX V: DATA FROM QUANTITATIVE PILOT STUDY xxvi APPENDIX VI: SCALE ASSESSMENT OF CUSTOMER ENGAGEMENT BEHAVIOR xxxvii APENDIX VII SCALE ASSESSMENT OF CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE xlii APENDIX VIII PLS – SEM xliv v LIST OF TABLES Table 1.1 Classification of beauty services in Vietnam 14 Table 1.2 Services offered by beauty establishes .16 Table 2.1 Overview of some important definitions of EX 24 Table 2.2 Relevant literature on EX’s dimensions and consequences .31 Table 2.3 Overview of some important definitions of EG .34 Table 2.4 Relevant literature on EG’s dimensions and antecedences .37 Table 2.5 Value creation nature of Customer-Dominant Logic 41 Table 3.1 Research implementation progress 67 Table 3.2 Summary of demographic variables 70 Table 3.3 “Customer experience” scale 72 Table 3.4 “Customer epistemic motivation” scale 74 Table 3.5 “Customer- Firm Identification” scale .75 Table 3.6 “Customer-employee identification” scale 75 Table 3.7 “Customer engagement behavior” scale 76 Table 3.8 Summary of data collection procedure .78 Table 3.12 Data analysis techniques and purposes for Pilot test .87 Table 3.13 Synthesis of data analysis methods for the main research .88 Table 4.1 Discriptive analysis of Sample .101 Table 4.2 ANOVA for Customer experience .103 Table 4.3 Outer loadings of ‘Customer engagement behavior’ scale 105 Table 4.4 Convergent validity of ‘Customer engagement behavior’ scale 106 Table 4.5 HTMT value of ‘Customer engagement behavior’ scale .106 Table 4.6 HTMT confidence interval of ‘Customer engagement behavior’ 107 Table 4.7 Convergent testing results of ‘Customer experience’ scale 108 Table 4.8 Convergent validity of Constructs 110 Table 4.9 Correlations and Discriminant validity of Constructs 112 Table 4.10 Path analysis results 114 Table 4.11 The results of mediation analysis 116 Table 4.12 Summary of Hypotheses test results for Structural model 117 vi LIST OF FIGURES Figure 1.1 Categorize services by customer interaction 11 Figure 1.2 Quality evaluations for goods and services .12 Figure 2.1 Customer experience framework .27 Figure 2.2 Conceptual model of Customer experience 28 Figure 2.3 Conceptual model of Customer engagement 35 Figure 2.5 Characteristics of the offering and actor focus .39 Figure 2.6 Customer-dominant logic of service and service management 40 Figure 2.7 Proposed framework .47 Figure 3.1 Research framework and hypotheses .62 Figure 3.2 Research procedure 66 Figure 4.1 Validity testing result of Customer engagement behavior 107 Figure 4.2 Validity testing result of Customer experience 109 Figure 4.3 Relationships in Path analysis model 118 vii ABSTRACT The primary purpose of this study is to explain how and when customer experience benefits the company Built upon Customer-Dominant Logic, Social Identity theory and Need for Cognition, the study propose that customer experience leads to customer engagement behavior via two routes: customer-firm and customer-employee identification Furthermore, the study advances that customers’ epistemic motivation negatively moderates the mediated effect of customer experience on customer engagement behavior The methodologies used for the research is a combination of qualitative and quantitative technique A survey method was employed for the two studies by recruiting female consumers of beauty salons in Vietnam The results demonstrated that customer experience quality as a measurement for customer experience applies to the context of the study and provided empirical support for the hypotheses This research found that customer experience positively influences customer engagement behavior mediated by customer-firm and customer-employee identification Furthermore, this research revealed that customer epistemic motivation negatively moderates the mediated effect of customer experience on customer engagement behavior via customer-employee identification However, the moderating role of customer epistemic motivation is insignificant for the mediated relationship via customer-firm identification Finally, this research offers theoretical and practical contributions that are elaborated and further discussed Keywords: Customer experience, Social identity theory, Customer-dominant logic theory, Need for cognition theory, customer engagement behavior, beauty service ... AUTHENTICITY I would like to declare that, the thesis ? ?Does customer experience always benefit service companies? Examining customers’ epistemic motivation and interaction with the beauty service. .. (Mann and Rawat, 2016) According to social identity theory, when customers value their interactions with the company and the service staff, they are more likely to identify with the company and the. .. EDUCATION AND TRAINING UNIVERSITY OF ECONOMICS HO CHI MINH CITY VU THI MAI CHI DOES CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE ALWAYS BENEFIT SERVICE COMPANIES? EXAMINING CUSTOMERS’ EPISTEMIC MOTIVATION AND