(Luận văn) client perceived service and satisfaction in business to business professional tax consultant services

t to UNIVERSITY OF ECONOMICS HO CHI MINH CITY ng hi International School of Business ep w n lo ad ju y th Nguyen Thi Ngoc Phuong yi pl ua al n Client perceived service and satisfaction in business-to-business professional tax consultant services n va ll fu oi m at nh z z k jm ht vb ID: 22110046 SUPERVISOR: Dr Vo Thi Ngoc Thuy om l.c gm MASTER OF BUSINESS (Honours) n a Lu n va r Ho Chi Minh City- 2014 Master thesis Acknowledgement t to ng hi I would like to express my gratitude to my supervisor, Dr Vo Thi Ngoc Thuy, for the ep patient guidance, encouragement and advices she has provided throughout the time preparing w n this thesis In addition, I would like to thank all the members of committee and professors at lo ad International School of Business and my colleagues for their great orientation, instructions y th and comments for my further improvement of my thesis ju yi Thanks to all participants in the research survey for their kind support and pl cooperation Finally, I also would like to thank family and friends who always support and n ua al encourage me a lot va Nguyen Thi Ngoc Phuong n fu March 2014 ll oi m at nh z z k jm ht vb om l.c gm an Lu n va re Master thesis Abstract t to ng hi ep This thesis attempts to empirically confirm the applicability of La et al.' s (2009) conceptual model regarding client perceived value in professional business-to-business w n service in professional tax services in the context of Vietnam It endeavors to expand the lo ad concept of value and satisfaction in business-to-business professional tax services in the y th context of Vietnam This is the first research representative in the context of Vietnam that is a ju yi theoretical contribution to the research on value and client satisfaction from an Asian pl behavior perspective ua al The results show that in the context of professional tax consultant services m n va Vietnam, clients tend to perceived performance and value in the same stage called perceived n fu service There are five factors which are empirically confirmed having positive effects to ll m oi perceived service i.e technical skills, interpersonal skills, customer orientation, reputation nh and relationship with tax authorities In addition, perceived service is a key contributing at z factor to client satisfaction The results also indicate that the impacts of reputation and z vb relationship with tax authorities on perceived service are not different in terms of firm's k jm ht international experience and nature of engaged services, respectively l.c gm In addition, the research aims to provide managerial implications Based on the finding, discussion and recommendations in the research, professional tax firms can have om further actions to address client's need and more improve the level of customer satisfaction an Lu n va re ii Master thesis CONTENTS t to ng Acknowledgement i hi Abstract ii ep Chapter 1: w 1.1 Introduction Research background n Research problem lo 1.2 ad Research objectives 1.4 Scope ofthe research 1.5 Significance ofthe research 1.6 Structure of the thesis ju y th 1.3 yi pl ua al Literature review n Chapter 2: va Literature review 2.2 Qualitative analysis 16 2.3 Hypothesis 22 n 2.1 ll fu oi m nh Methodology 26 at Chapter 3: z Methodology 26 2.2 Measurement 27 z 2.1 jm ht vb Chapter 4: Data Analysis 32 k Purifying data 32 3.2 Measurement analysis 32 3.3 Hypothesis testing 38 3.4 Moderator testing 45 om l.c gm 3.1 an Lu Chapter 5: Discussion and Conclusion 48 Managerial implication 52 4.3 Conclusion 53 4.4 Limitation and Further research directions 53 r 4.2 n Results Discussion 48 va 4.1 lll Master thesis REFERENCE 55 t to APPENDIX 57 ng hi ep • LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES w Tables n lo ad Table 1: Summary of qualitative analysis' results 20 ju y th Table 2: Summary of indicators of the constructs used in the research model 28 Table 3: The Cronbach alpha coefficients of components 33 yi pl Table 4: Exploratory Factor Analysis 34 al n ua Table 5: Extracted Factors 37 n va Table 6: The Cronbach alpha coefficients of new components 38 Table 7: Summary of regression results: Factors having impacts on Perceived Service 41 ll fu oi m Table 8: Relationship among independent variables (Technical Skills, Interpersonal Skills, Customer Orientation, Reputation, Relationship with Tax Authorities) and dependent variable (Perceived Service) 42 at nh Table 9: Summary of regression results: Factor having impact on Client Satisfaction 44 z z jm ht vb Table 10: Relationship between independent variable (perceived service) and dependent variable (client satisfaction) 44 Table 11: Summary of Chow test results 46 k l.c gm Figures Figure 1: Summary of qualitative analysis' results 22 om an Lu Figure 2: Proposed Conceptual Model of Client Perceived Value and Satisfaction in Business-to-Business Professional Tax Services in Vietnam 25 lV r Figure 5: Summary ofthesis results 47 n Figure 4: Regression results: Factors having impacts on Perceived Service 43 va Figure 3: Conceptual Model of Client Perceived Value and Satisfaction in Business-toBusiness Professional Tax Services in Vietnam 39 Master thesis Chapter 1: Introduction t to ng 1.1 Research background hi In the intensively competetive landscape of the world's economy in general and ep Vietnamese' in specific, almost all industries have faced many challenges and difficulties w n The professional tax consultant service industry is not an exception In order to gain lo ad competitive advantage, service firms today are required to deliver superior client value (Flint, ju y th Woodruff and Gardial, 2002) Value has been linked to loyalty, increased profits, long term yi survival and competitive advantage (Khalifa 2004; Woofruff 1997; Hamel and Prahalad pl 1994; Day and Wensley 1988) However, the definition of value is often vague and the ua al interpretation might be very different between the client and the service provider due to n va different perspectives This might be the reason why many scholars state that 'how" clients n fu interpret value is more important than 'how' service providers believe what value is supposed ll m oi to be (Blois, 2004) This concept is further complicated when studying professional services, nh which are more complex and intangible than regular services, meaning clients often have at z difficulty in confidently evaluating performance outcome (La, Patterson and Style, 2009) z vb Understanding clients' view of value which links to the comprehension of clients' perceived jm ht performance is a one of critical success factors for almost of the firm especially professional k l.c gm firms La, Patterson and Style (2009) find significant strong positive relationship from performance that completely mediates the relationship to satisfaction through value to om satisfaction in professional business-to-business services an Lu Professional tax services are professional services provided by professional tax firms tax regulations and practices Professional tax services advise or consult clients based on r complicated than ever, especially in emerging countries where there are frequent changes in n and the complex of many types of business and transactions, tax law become more va whose staff- tax consultants- are experts in tax law Together with the growth of economy Master thesis interpretation of the most updated tax law and experience on current practices which many t to clients not have inside their organizations Therefore, except the company with extremely ng hi simple financial affairs, the others are about to seek to appoint a firm to provide tax services ep 1.2 Research problem w In line with the difficult economic environment as well as the growth in both quality n lo and quantity of many professional tax service firms in Vietnam, clients have more choices to ad ju y th satisfy their needs The competition in this industry becomes fiercer Thus, almost these firms more focus on how client perceives the firm's service performance and value which is proved yi pl having connections to client satisfaction that in turn should be the ultimate goal of all firms n ua al (Morgan et al, 2005) n va In recent years, substantial research has examined the client perceived performance, ll fu client perceived value (and its determinants) in business-to-business professional services m Research has also found empirical support for the relationship between client perceived oi at nh performance and client satisfaction through value (La, Patterson and Style, 2009) In addition, z previous research show the evidence indicating that client satisfaction in turn connects to z ht vb repurchase, loyalty, and willingness to maintain a long-term relationship with the service k jm provider (Iacobucci et al., 1994; Athanassopoulos et al., 2001 ) Consequently, many gm researchers desire to examine the determinants of client perceived performance and to om l.c confirm the relationship between client perceived performance and client satisfaction through value in various professional services in particularly However, most of the research has an Lu focused on examine antecedents of value and what value means as well as what impacts on professional services sector Currently, researchers have made some recent attempts to r devoted to examine client perceived value and client satisfaction in business-to-business n 1988) and Gronroos (1984)measurement model and its dimensions Little research has been va client satisfaction in business-to-consumer professional services using Parasurama (1985 and Master thesis investigate and develop alternative B2B specific scales in some specific industries such as t to engineering consultant, software, etc The most significant contribution to this era has been ng hi the conceptual model for client-perceived value and satisfaction in an international ep perspective in developing economies developed by La et al (2009) w 1.3 Research objectives n lo Given the unique characteristics of the professional tax services which are provided ad ju y th on a basis of tax regulations and current practices, a study focus on examining client perceived value and client satisfaction in professional tax services sector applying La et al.' s yi pl (2009) conceptual model would be useful for both practitioners and researchers Since the al n ua level of development of tax regulations and practices are different among countries, this study n va specifically focus on business-to-business professional tax services in Vietnam ll fu Further to the above discussion, this study aims to obtain following objectives: m 1) To examine the antecedents of client perceived performance; oi z professional tax services in Vietnam; at nh 2) To test the effect of client perceived performance to client perceived value in z k jm professional tax services in Vietnam; and ht vb 3) To test the effect of client perceived value to client satisfaction with these factors to client perceived service in the context of Vietnam om 1.4 Scope of the research l.c gm 4) To explore factors/ situations (moderators) leading to the different influence of an Lu Initially, the qualitative analysis will be conducted to confirm whether the factors tax services in the context of Vietnam Through this process, the analysis is expected to re performance and value in La et al.'s (2009) conceptual model are applicable in professional n the factors/ situations leading to the different influence of these factors to client perceived va having significant effect to client perceived performance and client perceived value as well as Master thesis identify factors that reflect the unique characteristics of the professional tax service in t to Vietnam ng hi Then, data for quantitative analysis are collected to confirm the identified factors and ep their moderators The sampling frame for this study was clients of tax consultant firms in Ho w Chi Minh City where most of the largest tax consultant firms place their offices Their clients n lo can spread from Da Nang to Ca Mau and are engaged in various industries ad ju y th 1.5 Significance ofthe research This thesis attempts to confirm the applicability of La et al.' s (2009) conceptual yi pl model are applicable in professional tax services in the context of Vietnam It is expected that al n ua this model will be further modified to reflect the reality of the professional tax services in n va Vietnam through qualitative analysis to confirm/ disconfirm the applicability of the factors/ ll fu relationship and/or introduce of new factors/ relationship relative to client perceived m performance, value and satisfaction Then quantitative analysis is conducted to provide oi • at nh empirical evidence to strengthen the results of qualitative analysis It endeavors to expand the z concept of value and satisfaction in business-to-business professional tax services in the z ht vb context of Vietnam This is the first research representative is in the context of Vietnam that gm behavior perspective k jm is a theoretical contribution to the research on value and client satisfaction from an Asian l.c In addition, the research aims to provide managerial implications This finding is om expected to help professional tax firms understand deeply about the factors having significant an Lu effect to client perceived performance and value in a client's perspective such as technical addition, exploring the factor leads to different influence of factors having significant effect re actions to address client's need and more improve the level of customer satisfaction In n reputation Based on this understanding and finding, professional tax firms can have further va skills, interpersonal skills, customer orientation, relationship with tax authority, and Master thesis to client perceived performance and value is extremely important for the firms in this sector t to to identify their relative competition in comparison with others Further to that, the firms can ng hi set up strategy in order to be more competent and successful ep 1.6 Structure of the thesis w This thesis comprises chapters Chapter is the introduction which gives an n lo ad overview of research background, problems, objectives, scope and significant ofthe research ju y th The next section is Chapter which provides a review of the literature on client perceived performance and its factors; client perceived value and satisfaction in service, qualitative yi pl study and hypotheses Then the thesis continues with Chapter - the discussion about ua al methodology followed by empirical investigation and its results in Chapter The thesis ends n n va with Chapter - discussion about the results, managerial implication and limitation ll fu oi m at nh z z k jm ht vb om l.c gm n a Lu n va re Master thesis Perceived performance (PER) Alpha: 833 t to ng hi ep 18.30 11.721 710 784 PER21 18.26 11.572 727 781 PER22 18.48 12.799 396 854 PER23 18.14 12.405 659 797 18.38 11.842 671 792 18.49 12.497 527 822 w PER20 n PER24 lo PER25 ad 2.014 816 758 CLI.PER27 2.320 813 763 CLI.PER28 7.74 2.667 644 908 CLI.PER26 ju 7.61 yi y th Client perceived value (CLI.PER) Alpha: 870 7.59 pl ua al Client satisfaction (CLI.SA T) Alpha: 882 n 7.68 704 892 2.200 812 794 2.325 oi m CLISAT31 808 ll 7.55 798 fu CLI.SAT30 2.266 n 7.57 va CLI.SAT29 at nh In which: z TEC - Technical skills z om an Lu n va CLI.PER - Client perceived value l.c PER - Perceived performance gm REL - Relationship with tax authorities k SER- Service fee jm REP - Reputation ht CUS - Customer orientation vb INT - Interpersonal skills t re CLI.SAT- Client satisfaction 72 Master thesis Appendix 4: Results ofEFA t to KMO and Bartlett's Test ng 872 hi Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin Measure of Sampling Adequacy ep 2223.148 Approx Chi-Square Bartlett's Test of Sphericity 465 Sig .000 w df n lo ad ju y th Total Variance Explained Extraction Sums of Squared Loadings Initial Eigenvalues yi Component /o of Variance pl Total Total Cumulative % al Cumulative % 38.699 11.997 38.699 38.699 47.006 2.575 8.307 47.006 52.556 1.721 5.550 52.556 1.632 5.264 57.820 1.416 4.567 62.387 4.030 66.417 3.802 70.220 11.997 2.575 8.307 1.721 5.550 1.632 5.264 1.416 4.567 62.387 1.249 4.030 66.417 1.179 3.802 70.220 935 3.015 73.235 847 2.733 75.968 10 738 2.381 78.349 11 704 2.270 80.619 12 699 2.253 82.872 13 584 1.884 84.756 14 558 1.801 86.557 15 475 1.534 88.091 16 431 1.391 89.482 17 429 1.385 90.867 n ua m 38.699 % of Variance n va ll fu 57.820 oi at nh 1.249 z z 1.179 k jm ht vb om l.c gm n a Lu n va re 73 Master thesis t to Initial Eigenvalues Extraction Sums of Squared Loadings % of Variance Cumulative % Total Component ng Total 1.189 92.056 19 354 1.141 93.198 330 1.063 94.261 250 805 95.066 234 754 95.820 23 711 96.531 24 195 630 97.161 25 181 583 97.744 26 146 27 139 449 28 120 388 29 109 350 99.402 30 100 323 99.725 31 085 275 100.000 ep 369 ju hi 18 w n 20 lo ad 21 y th 22 220 % of Variance Cumulative % yi pl n ua al 98.214 n va 470 98.663 ll fu oi m 99.052 at nh z z gm 'i l.c 10 om an Lu > c ::> m k jm ht vb Scree Plot 12 va n re z0 $ $ 910111213141S161718192021Z:2Z324:ZSU'Z7:Z6-Z9303'1 Component Number 74 Master thesis Appendix 5: The Cronbach alpha coefficients of new components t to ng hi ep w TEC1 2.094 735 561 8.08 2.266 631 680 8.01 2.500 489 833 n 8.00 lo TEC2 ad Interpersonal skiDs (INT) Alpha: 829 ju y th TEC3 yi INT4 11.21 5.284 549 5.019 616 4.763 723 754 4.434 744 742 831 pl 11.00 INT6 0.97 INT7 11.00 n ua al INT5 n va ll fu Customer orientation (CUS) Alpha: 852 7.58 2.227 CUS9 7.73 2.048 CUS11 7.53 2.346 oi m cuss 801 777 739 679 833 at nh 713 z z Reputation (REP) Alpha: 881 vb 591 REP13 15.01 7.387 744 REP14 14.79 7.585 777 745 l.c 7.379 842 14.65 849 gm SER16 886 k 7.896 jm 14.99 ht REP12 848 om Relationship with tax authorities (REL) Alpha: 802 672 680 REL19 6.54 4.949 596 n 4.270 va 6.78 n REL18 704 a Lu 4.113 781 t re Perceived performance (PER) Alpha: 874 PER20 22.51 16.818 710 848 75 Master thesis 22.48 16.573 736 845 PER22 22.69 18.178 397 895 PER23 22.36 17.458 687 852 PER24 22.60 16.922 678 853 CLI.PER26 22.36 16.706 723 847 w 22.35 17.455 718 849 t to PER21 ng hi ep n CLI.PER27 lo Client satisfaction (CLI.SA T) Alpha: 882 2.266 798 808 7.55 2.325 704 892 2.200 812 794 ju CLISAT31 y th CLI.SAT30 7.57 yi ad CLI.SAT29 7.68 pl ll fu INT - Interpersonal skills n va TEC -Technical skills n ua al In which: oi m CUS -Customer orientation k jm ht om l.c gm CLI.SAT - Client satisfaction vb CLI.PER- Client perceived value z PER - Perceived performance z REL - Relationship with tax authorities at SER- Service fee nh REP -Reputation n a Lu n va re 76 Master thesis t to Appendix 6: Descriptive analysis ng Maximum Mean Std Deviation Skewness Statistic Statistic Statistic Statistic Statistic hi Minimum ep w 4.05 851 -.464 TEC2 3.96 857 -.478 4.04 879 -1.009 3.51 862 -.044 3.73 875 -.472 3.76 856 -.335 3.73 927 -.516 3.84 814 -.339 840 -.237 847 -.520 793 -.606 n TEC1 lo ad TEC3 y th INT4 ju yi INT5 pl 1 cuss CUS9 CUS10 3.79 CUS11 3.89 REP12 3.52 REP13 3.50 851 REP14 3.73 784 ht SER15 3.90 764 -.341 SER16 3.86 852 -.566 REL17 3.16 1.253 -.189; REL18 3.38 1.203 -.5151 REL19 3.62 1.104 -.474 PER20 3.71 901 -.179 PER21 3.75 912 -.235 3.53 1.058 -.721 n INT7 va ua al INT6 n fu 3.69 ll oi m at nh -.464 z 872 z om l.c gm n a Lu n va t re - k - -.198 jm - vb PER22 - - -.155 - 77 Master thesis t to ng • Minimum Maximum Mean Std Deviation Skewness Statistic Statistic Statistic Statistic Statistic hi ep 3.87 825 -.264 PER24 3.63 917 -.082 PER25 3.52 945 -.205 3.86 905 -.417 3.88 798 -.232 3.73 784 042 3.83 795 -.262 3.85 833 -.409 3.72 810 -.092 w PER23 n lo CLI.PER26 ad yi pl CLI.SAT29 ju CLI.PER28 y th CLI.PER27 CLI.SAT31 n ua al CLISAT30 n va ll fu In which: oi m TEC - Technical skills at z CUS - Customer orientation nh INT- Interpersonal skills z om l.c n a Lu CLI.SAT- Client satisfaction gm CLI.PER- Client perceived value k PER- Perceived performance jm REL - Relationship with tax authorities ht SER - Service fee vb REP - Reputation n va t re 78 Master thesis Appendix 7: Summary of results of regression testing (Regression analysis for factors t to ng affecting Perceived Service) hi 1st ep Appendix 7A: regression Model Summaryb w n R Adjusted Error of Square R Square the lo R ad Model ju 717 R Square Change 101 a 21.357 514 48800 490 514 Sig F df2 dfl F Change Change Estimate y th I Change Statistics Std .000 yi pl a Predictors: (Constant), REP, REL, TEC, INT, CUS n ua al b Dependent Variable: PER.SER va n ANOVA" Sig F Mean Square ll df fu Sum of Squares Model 101 Total 49.482 106 238 z 24.052 z Residual ooob 21.357 5.086 at nh 25.430 oi m Regression vb jm ht a Dependent Variable: PER.SER b Predictors: (Constant), REP, REL, TEC, INT, CUS k gm Coefficients" Coefficients Collinearity Statistics Sig t Model B Error 345 882 380 TEC 148 076 155 1.952 054 761 1.313 INT 228 084 239 2.699 008 616 1.625 cus 239 087 250 2.739 007 576 1.735 n 305 VIF va (Constant) Tolerance Beta an Lu Std om Standardized Coefficients l.c U nstandardized 79 r • Master thesis t to 101 052 148 1.924 057 810 1.234 REP 205 089 204 2.315 023 619 1.616 ng • REL hi ep Casewise Diagnostics" Case Number Std Residual w n PER.SER Predicted Value Residual 5.00 3.2022 1.79783 3.562 5.00 3.2619 1.73813 lo 3.684 ad 23 ju y th yi Appendix 7B: 2"d regression pl ANOVA" ua al Model Sum of Squares df F Mean Square Sig n 28.798 Residual 17.480 fu va Regression Total 46.279 104 5.760 ooob 32.620 n 177 99 ll oi m z b Predictors: (Constant), REP, REL, TEC, INT, CUS at nh a Dependent Variable: PER.SER z ht vb Statistics jm Standardized Residual k 105 Std Error of Skewness 236 Kurtosis 274 Std Error of Kurtosis 467 n -.207 a Lu Skewness om 97566545 l.c Std Deviation Missing gm Valid N n va re 80 Master thesis Histogram t to D endent Variable: PER.SER ng • hi Mean = 44E-15 Std Dev = 0.976 ep N = 105 w n lo ad ju y th yi pl n ua al va n ll fu Regression Standardized Residual m oi Normal P-P Plot of Regression Standardized Residual nh 1.0-r-_ _Dependent _ :., _ _Variable: _ _ _ _PER.SER _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ ::_ at z z vb jm ht 0.8 k a 0.6 E gm .0 Q ::::J l.c "CC Gl 0.4 a Lu D om uGl )C w n va 0.2 n r o.o-IS!~ r -, -,, , 0.8 0.6 0.4 0.2 0.0 Observed Cum Prob 81 Master thesis Scatterplot t to Dependent Variable: PER.SER ng • R2 Linear= hi 3- ep iii 2- :I "0 "0 Gl 1- ad N "0 "0 (/) -1- Ill 0 00 oo fu -2 -1 , ll I n -3- m -3 va • r:o n a: -2- 00 % ':b ua C) 0 oooo q, o al Gl Gl - lb coo 0 Q 00 r o o v~o 'Uq, 0 00 0 0 00~ 0 00 oOoo pl 'iii oo yi c 0 0 ju c co 0 y th .co 'boo lo n w Gl a: