Evaluate customers’ satisfaction with advertising on newspaper at hung yen newspaper office

INTRODUCTION

Research Background

Advertising strategy is one of the four most important strategies in marketing – mix ( Jerome, 1964 led by Kotler.P, 2004) For businesses, advertising is considered as a tool to to hold the position of products and services in the consumer's mind when it was known (Al Ries and Laura Ries, 2005, Jack Trout, 2002) Today with the advent of many new types of communication because of the development of telecommunications and information technology, the forms of advertising are becoming more and more diverse Businesses tend to use more forms of electronic communication (ICTnews.com) However, advertising through newspaper is still chosen by many businesses as an effective and reliable advertising channel

Therefore, advertising in the press is an inevitable demand of businesses, organizations and individuals wanting to promote products and popularize their image. They are the reflecting objects of the media, and also "luxury customers" for the editorial offices to help them increase the added income besides their fixed salary from writing It is one of the indispensable activities in media economics.

In Vietnam, it is difficult to know exactly the time when the first advertisement appeared in the history of Vietnamese press, but certainly the earliest advertisements were presented in the beginning in 1882 In the first issue in 1882, Gia Dinh Newspaper spent the entire last page to put up advertisements for the Pharmacie reynau From then on, advertising has become a fix page and appeared regularly on Gia Dinh Newspaper and many other presses.

In Hung Yen city, advertising services have strongly and quickly developed in both quantity and quality in recent years Ads have appeared on a variety of media, and each media has its own strengths to make a certain attraction of public It is argued that advertisements in Hung Yen Newspaper have been already advertised on other means of communications such as magazines, Internet, Radio-TV, which have had a fierce competition and been more and more dominant recently Thus, it is very necessary to evaluate the quality of advertising services and customer satisfaction with them

In the field of researching on service quality and customer satisfaction with services, there are many popular models such as: Service quality five gap model (Parasuraman & ctg, 1985); Technical and functional quality model (Gronroos, 1984); Kano’s model (1984), the service quality five gap model (Parasuraman et al., 1985), SERVQUAL model (Parasuraman et al., 1988) Between them, the most popular and reliable model, that was applied in many researches is SERVQUAL model and its variants (Cronin and Taylor, 1992;) Thus, this study will use adjusted SERVQUAL model to measure service quality and customer satisfaction with the advertising services of Hung Yen Newspaper.

Research Motivations

The advertising services in Hung Yen Newspaper have had in recent years a fierce competition with other magazines, Radio – Television and advertising printing companies, so the revenues of this unit have fallen and been unstable This problem now ends in deadlock and has still no solutions

Hung Yen Newspaper is the place where the author is now working, so the research on customer satisfaction on the advertising services will help suggesting practical solutions for managing and having appropriate policies for the author as a direct manager of advertising department.

Up to now, there have been no researches which study on customer satisfaction with the advertising services in Hung Yen Newspaper

The application of the model for measuring the satisfaction of customers with the service quality plays an important role in improving sustainable development strategic orientations in order to bring benefits to the unit, to increase the quality of theNewspaper, and to better the life of employees.

Research Purposes

The first, surveying and studying on the satisfaction of customers, who are using the advertising services of Hung Yen Newspaper based on SERVQUAL model.

The second, defining and examining all factors in the research model affecting the service quality and customer satisfaction with services

The third, measuring diffenrent feelings and perceiveness with the services between different groups of customers

The fourth, suggesting solutions and policies for increasing customer satisfaction on the services provided by Hung Yen Newspaper in order to attract more and more customers to the unit.

Research Procedures

The research procedures are described by the following figure (Figure 1.4.1):

- Designing the interview, exploring implicit factors6

Step 1: Researching, at this step, the author confirmed thesis title according to the advices of advisor and co-advisor and made to work with advisor and co-advisor, proposed the title and issue for the thesis

Bước 2: Building the research model, at this step, the author considered the models and literature related on this thesis They were the models of customer satisfaction with services, such as: Kano’s model, Gronroos’s model, SERVQUAL, etc The results of this step were determining the main literature and models to build the theoretical research model At this step, the author also made a group discussion with ten customers about the aspects of the SERVQUAL model to the satsfaction with provided services. Through this qualitative analysis, the author will detect and add the factor

“competitiveness of price” into traditional SERVQUAL model to build research framework.

Bước 3: Selecting the research scales After building research model and theoretical framework based on SERVQUAL model but adding the fator “competitiveness of price”, “Ad layout” and “attractive to readers” into this, the author selected an appropriate scale for the study This research applied 22 scales of Parasuraman for measuring the factors in SERVQUAL model, and the factor “competitiveness of price”,

“Ad layout” and “attractive to readers” was build based on making qualitative interview with customers through the step of qualitative analysis The scales of SERVQUAL model were adjusted to semantically suit the context of Vietnam, and to

Testing scales Factor analysis Testing the model

Designing observed variables Adjusting observed variables ensure customer understanding and consistancy of customer response about the questions

Using five point Likert is in accordance with the context of Vietnam because its precision is same with seven point Likert and the vitenamese semantic characteristics among them are not much different The Likert scale also helps the calculation of quantitative concepts become favorable by statistical methods The results of this step were to build signal for each factors (items) of the study by using the five point Likert scale.

Step 4: Building variables At this step, the autor continously tested the scales which were built in step 3 by making an interview with customers using the company’s services to adjust questions once again before before the official survey The results of this step were to complete the final questionnaire which would be used to investigate the expected sample size.

Step 5: Data survey and processing After building and adjusting the final questionnaire, the author investigated and processed actual data The investigation strategy was to directly use paper questionnaire with customers using the company’s service when they do the transaction The interview results would be added into excel spreadsheet with two diffeent people, then paired the same file to detect data entry errors before processing data After data were cleaned, they would be declared and processed by SPSS 18.0 with steps such as: testing scale by Cronbach `s Alpha coefficient, Explore factor analysis (EFA).

Step 6: Adjusting the research model After testing data by Cronbach`s Alpha and EFA, the theoretical model would be adjusted according to the results from Explore factor analysis (EFA) and then the author would build new research hypotheses for the new model.

Step 7: Model verification and data analysics After step 6, the author used the method of ordinary least square to build the regression equations, tested the suitability of the research model by using statistical methods, such as: Scatterplot graph, Histogram graph, testing the residual normal distribution, testing the regressive relationship between concepts, etc to ensure the model does not violate the OLS method Next, the author would test research hypotheses through testing the p-value of t-statistic and F- statistic To test the difference between subtotals in the research according to the classification criteria, the author used ANOVA method.

Step 8: Conclusions After doing analysis data and representing research results in step

7, the author would sum up the important conclusions, and also made managerial implications and suggestions as well as proposed solutions and recommendations for furthur researches.

LITERATURE REVIEW

Service, service characteristics and service quality

Service is considered as an economic commodity and defined in many different ways This study will give some common concepts of “service” as follows:

According to Gronroos (1990) "Service is an activity or a series of activities of nature more or less than the normal intangibles, but not necessarily take place in the interaction between customers and service employees and / or the service provider's system Service is provided as solutions to customer problems”.

According to Zeithaml and Britner (2000), “service is an act or performance offered by one party to another” to create value for customers and satisfy needs and expectations of customers.

According to Lovelock (2001 led by Oliveira, 2010), service is an economic activity which creates values and provides benefits for customers in a specific time and place, as an outcome of a desired change or on behalf of the person who received/ used this service.

According to Kotler and Armstrong (2004), service is an activity or benefits that business can offer their customers to build, strengthen and expand the long-term partnerships with them.

And in the opinion of Mairelles (2006 led by Oliveira, 2010), “a service is essentially intangible and only assessed when combined with other funtions, that is,with other tangible productive processes and products”.

Each author has one different definition of “service”, but in gerneral, they will agree with the characteristics of service Service characteristics inculude following aspects:

Differ from other physical products (tangible), services are intangible, it means, they cannot be touched, gripped, handled, looked at, smelled, tasted or heard. Furthermore, a service cannot be (re)sold or owned by somebody, neither can it be turned over from the service provider to the service consumer nor returned from the service consumer to the service provider Quality of service is only shown in the interactive process between customers and employees of the company (Svensson, 2002) Because of this characteristic, customers are difficult to know in advance the quality of service which they intend to buy

Heterogeneity is reflected in the difference of level of service performance,which means that service can range from very poor to perfection Service quality has no heterogeneity between the time of service performance and depends on individual perceiveness on service With the same providing process, each customer has different perceiveness of the service quality.

Heterogeneity relates to high changes in the implementation of a certain service. Service quality may change according to providers, customers and service execution time This characteristic makes the standardization of services more difficult

The service provider is indispensable for service delivery as he must promptly generate and render theservice to the requesting service consumer It is reflected in the difficulty of distinguishing the service creation process and service usage A service can not be separated into two separate processes: (1) service creation process and (2) service usage process They are simultaneous.

The creation and usage of a service simultaneously occur This is the big difference with other tangible goods Tangible goods are produced and put into storage or distributed to customers They are two separate processes and can be clearly separated In contrast, service is a process of creating, using at the same time, customers and service providers involved throughout the service creation process This leads to some following issues

Services are rendered and consumed during the same period of time As soon as the service consumer has requested the service (delivery), the particular service must be generated from scratch without anydelay and friction and the service consumer instantaneously consumes the rendered benefits for executing his upcoming activity or task.

The consumer does not secure ownership of the service and not set up a warehouses to store goods.

The quality of goods is tangible and can be measured by some objective criteria such as: features, utilities and durability However, service quality is intangible. Customers receive services through communication activities, getting information and perceiveness And they can find the salient features of the service and assess the service quality just only after they have “bought” and “used” it already. Therefore, the quality of service has not been precisely determined.

According to Zeithaml, service quality is the assessment of customers about the transcendence and gerneral exellence of an entity It is a form of behaviors and the consequences from a comparison between “expected” and “perceived” things.

Service quality is the level of service which meets the needs and expectations of customers (Lewis & Mitchell, 1990; Asubonteng et al., 1996; Wisniewski & Donnelly, 1996).

Service quality means a service which can meet the expectations of customers and satisfy their needs (Edvardsson, Thomsson & Ovretveit, 1994).

Or in other opinion, service quality is the gap between the expectations of customers and their perceptions after using the service (Parasuraman et al., 1985, 1988).

Therefore, service quality can be defined as customer perception of the quality of the service which they received from a particular company based on the comparison of its performance in providing service with general customer’s expectations of other companies in service provider sector.

Service quality is measured by the expectations and perceptions of customers with five determinants (Parasuraman A., 1988) as follows:

(1) Reliability: The ability to perform the promised service dependably and accurately.

(2) Responsiveness: The willingness and/ or readiness of employees to help customers and to provide prompt service, timeliness of service.

(3) Assurance: The knowledge and courtesy of employees and their ability to convey trust and confidence.

(4) Empathy: The provision of caring, individualized attention to customers.

(5) Tangibles: Physical evidence of the service: appearance of physical facilities, tools and equipments used to provide the service, appearance of personnel and communication materials, other customers in the service facility. Although there have been so many different concepts of service quality, but in general, the quality of service consists of following characteristics:

For customers, qualified service is a service which demonstrates its superiority(innate excellence) compared with other products/ services The innate excellence of service does make the quality of service become the strength of service providers It must also be added here that the assessment of the transcendent of service is strongly affected by the perceptions of the receivers/ users This relationship has a big meaning for evaluating service quality in the marketing activities and the researches on customer satisfaction with services

Service quality has units of goodness and the most quintessential crystallized in products, services and forms the characteristics of products and services Thus, services or products with high quality will contain “innate excellence” than low-level services. This distinction is associated with the determination of the transcendently tangible or intangible attributes of products and services This attribute helps customers recognize and differentiate service quality of the business from other competitors However, in practice, it is very difficult to determine the core service characteristics adequately and accurately, so this characteristic has no absolute but relative value to help identify service quality in specific cases more easily.

The relationship between service quality and customer satisfaction

In this study, customer satisfaction is understood as the satisfied feelings of customers with their expectations of the services they are provided Service quality is considered satisfactory if the customers used and perceived it as or more than they expected An in contrast, service quality is considered unsatisfactory when the customers assess it is not as good as they expected.

According to Anderson (1994); Cronin & Taylor (1992), satisfaction is defined as a result of service quality In cause and effect relationship, it is described as the consumer assessment of service quality.

Generally, as mentioned in this section, researchers mostly suggest that service quality and satisfaction are different constructs (Bitner, 1990; Parasuraman et al., 1988).Service quality is defined as a form of attitude, a long-run throughout evaluation of the service provider, while customer satisfaction is regarded as an affective or emotional reaction to a recent or an specific service encounter (Parasuraman et al., 1988; Cornin and Taylor, 1992; Spreng and MacKoy, 1996).

Advertising service

Nowadays, there are so many different concepts of “advertising” Here are some of the typical definitions of advertising:

In the specialized curriculum of marketing and advertising, the author wrote:

“Advertising is an information activity, which is required to pay fee, has unilateral characteristic, and is not “private” for anyone It uses all measures and public information to support a product, a brand, a factory, a purpose, a candidate, or a certain organization, etc which are named in the ads”(A.Dayan, 1995).

In a prestigious language dictionary, advertising is defined as follows:

“Advertising is an activity which aims to make people aware of a brand, in order to stimulate the public to buy a product or use a service, etc.” (Petit Larouse, Illustré 1993).

“Advertising is a presentation to widely introduce the public know to attract more and more customers”.(Vietnamese dictionary, Institute of Linguistics, Danang

These above definitions of advertising although have different ways of expression but have a lot of common viewpoints in defining the concept of advertising Thus, in this study, advertising can be understood as follows:

“Advertising is a form of introducing the products, companies, events, etc to the public in order to provide information, impact the awareness and change action behaviors, and attract them to advertised products”.

The businesses who try to advertise their products and services have the ultimate goal of bringing their advertising messages to the target customers and other persons who related on target customers In essence, the economics of advertising effectiveness is the lowest cost to achieve the purposes of promoting products, so there are some important aspects customers care when putting up advertisement in the press including:

Ability to attract readers: The ability to attract readers of the newspaper reflects the number of readers that the advertising information about the products and services can reach For the form of the paper press, the ability to attract readers also reflects the classification of target customers, because each press will have different reader groups and these groups will be important subjects for the services which need to be advertised The ability to attract readers is expressed in the publishing volumn, the number of instalments, etc.

Ad layout: This reflects the designs for scientifically appropriate advertising messages That means customers feel comfortable when reading and seeing the ads, and have no missing information Normally, the designs must integrate information and advertising in order that customers can not easily ignore the advertising messages in the press

Competitiveness of price: The ultimate goal of the advertising businesses is their benefits, therefore they always care about the competitiveness of price, especially now when the advertising means appear more and more, and the ability to compete price between competitors also becomes more and more fiercely.

Models of service quality and customer satisfaction

In the field of researching on service quality, the researchers built and proposed many models such as: Kano’s model (1980s), Gronroos’s model (1984), the service quality gap model, SERVQUAL model (1991) or CSI models of nations and areas to assess the quality of service and customer satisfaction with service This study will introduce some popular research models, which are applied in building theoretical model of the research.

2.5.1 Service quality five gap model

This model by A.Parasuraman et al offers an integrated view of the consumer- company relationship and identifies five gaps affecting the decrease of perceived level of service quality based on comparison between actual perceiveness and customer expectation about service (See figure 2.3.1).

According to Parasuraman, expectation is considered as customer’s hope and belief as well as desire and is formed on the basis of outside transmitted information, individual needs and their experiences.

Gap 1 is the distance between what customers expect and what service providers think they expect Basic points of this difference is that the service company does not fully understand the chracteristics which creats the quality of its service as well as the way to transfer services to customers in order to meed their needs.

Gap 2 occurs when service providers have difficulty in changing their perception of customer expectations into the feature of service quality In many cases, the providers may be aware of customer expectations but they can not always transfer these expectations to the specific criteria of quality and transfer them right as customers expected The main reason of this issue is the professional skill of the staff and strong fluctuation of service needs.

Gap 3 occurs when the company’s staffs do not transfer services to customers right according to the determined criteria In the field of service, the staff can directly contact with customers and play a very important role in the process of creating quality.However, the staff can not always fulfill their tasks in accordance with criteria set out.

Gap 4 is the impact of advertising means and information on customer expectations to the service quality Ads will make customers put more expectations on the services, so when using the service if the quality is not as advertised, and the promises about services though the ads are not true, they can harm customer perceptions of the services.

Finally, gap 5 is the gap between a customer's perception of the experience and the customer's expectation of the service Customers' expectations have been shaped by word of mouth, their personal needs and their own past experiences. Routine transactional surveys after delivering the customer experience are important for the company to measure customer perceptions of service.

Parasuraman et al supposed that service quality is the function of the gap 5.This gap depends on four previous gaps, so to shorten this gap, it is needed to shorten those gaps first Shortening the gap means also increasing the quality of the services.The model of service quality is as follows:

Figure 2.3.1 The Service Quality Five Gap Model

Communications to customers Service Delivery

Change the company’s feeling into quality standard Gap 3

SERVQUAL scale is a scale which is commenly applied for measuring service quality and customer satisfaction in many different fields such as: banking services (Shahriar Shafee and Gerard Cliquet, 2010; Mohammad Mizenur Rahaman et al., 2011; Rakesh R, 2012), education services ( Ostavio Jose De Oliveira, 2009; Robert E Miller and Nita G Brooks, 2010; Jalal R.M Hanaysha et al., 2011; M.I Mohammad, Y.L Gambo and M.M Omirin, 2012), etc SERVQUAL model includes fve main factors (See figure 2.3.2):

Reliability: the capability to deliver dependable, accurate and consistent service Responsiveness: the willingness or readiness of the company’s staffs to provide service

Assurance: the professional qualifications and the polite, affable attitudes of the staffs in serving customers

Empathy: the caring, attention to customers

Tangibles: the appearance, closing of the staffs or the facilities' conduciveness to service

Recent researches on customer satisfaction with services

For more than 20 years, the researches on customer satisfaction with service quality have been studied by many researchers in the world in different fields such as: health care services (Emin Babakus and W Glynn Mangold, 1992; Mohamed M.Mostafa, 2005; Asghar Zarei et al., 2012; Pascal W Soita, 2012), traveling services (Charilaos Kouthouris and Konstantinos Alexandris, 2005; Bui Thi Tam, 2009; Mohammed Javed Hosein, 2012), telecommunications sector (Anita Seth, K Momaya and H M Gupta, 2008; Jusuf Zekiri, 2011; Rifayat Islam, 2012), banking services (Shahriar Shafee and Gerard Cliquet, 2010; Mohammad Mizenur Rahaman et al., 2011; Rakesh R, 2012), education services ( Ostavio Jose De Oliveira, 2009; Robert E Miller and Nita G Brooks, 2010; Jalal R.M Hanaysha et al., 2011; M.I Mohammad, Y.L

Gambo and M.M Omirin, 2012), etc This study will introduce and sum up some results from recent studies using SERVQUAL.

Table 1 Summary of results from recent researches

Author- year of publication Article Factor Research field

Adapting the SERVQUAL scale to hospital services: An empirical investigation, Heath service research, 26(6), 767 -

An empirical study of patients expectations and satisfactions in Egyptian hospitals,

International journal of health care quality assurance, 18 (7),

Service quality of private hospitals: The Iranian patients` perpective, BMC Health service Research, 1 -7

Measuring perceived service quality using SERVQUAL: A case Uganda Health and Fitness sector, International

Journal of Business and Social Sciene, 3(5), 261 -277

Can service quality predict customer satisfaction and behavioral intentions in the sport tourism industry? An application of the SERVQUAL model in the outdoors setting,

Bui Thi Tam Evaluating the quality of 1 Reliability Traveling services

(2009) tourist guide services in the program: " Central Heritage Journey ", Journal of Science,

Impact of service quality on customer satisfaction: A case of tourism industry in Bangladesh, International

Journal of Research in Finance and Marketing, 2(2),

Managing the customer perceived service quality for Cellular mobile Telephony: An Empirical investigation,

Applying SERVQUAL Model and factor analysis in assessing customer satisfaction with service quanlity: The case of Mobile Telecommunications in Macedonia, International

Application of SERVQUAL Model in customer service of mobile operators: A study from the context of Bangladesh,

European Journal of Business and Management, 4(1), 47 - 54

Adaptation and application of the SERVQUAL scale in higher education, POMA 20 th

Annual Conference Orlando Florida USA.

Class service quality: Moving Beyond SERVQUAL,

Service quality and students` satisfaction at higher learning institutions: The competing dimentions of Malaysian Universities` competitiveness,

Journal of Southeast Asian Research, 1 - 10

Assessing facilities management service in Postgraduate Hostel using SERVQUAL technique,

Journal of Emerging Strends in Economics and Management Sciences, 3(3),

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

Background of the research unit

On 1.1.1997, Hai Hung province was split into two provinces including Hung Yen and Hai Duong after more than 28 years of consolidation According to this, Hai Hung Newspaper was also separated into two newspapers: Hai Duong Newspaper and Hung Yen Newspaper in order to meet the requirements of propaganda for political missions of these new provinces Today, Hung Yen Newspaper’s head office is under the address of No 309, Nguyen Van Linh street, Hung Yen province

Function: Hung Yen Newspaper is an agency of the Provincial Party Committee, under the direct leadership of the Provincial Standing Committee and Party Committee; the voice as well as a bridge between of the Party, government and people of Hung Yen.

Duty: Hung Yen Newspaper has tasks of publishing the publications of Hung Yen

Newspaper, conducts press activities as prescribed by the State and under the direction of the provincial committee.

Organization: Hung Yen Newspaper office now has a total of 45 both payroll and contract staffs About the organizational scale, the Newspaper is divided into six divisions including: Socio-political Journalism Department, Economic JournalismDepartment, Editorial Secretarial Department, Department of Readers' Services,Department of Administration and Management, Hung Yen Electronic Newspaper

Publications of the Newspaper: Besides the traditional printing press (5 instalments/week from Monday to Friday), Hung Yen Newspaper has now two types of press including Hung Yen monthly publication and Hung Yen Electronic newspaper

Method and the number of publishing publications: Hung Yen Newspaper publishes weekly and monthly, and the released objects of the newspaper office are mainly officials and people in the province, released by post Thus, over the years the number of printing and distribution of Hung Yen newspaper is relatively stable with 6,300 sheets/ period In addition, the Newspaper is also exchanged with the Central Newspaper and other presses nationwide The Newspaper is also released out of Hung Yen provinces to other hometown associations all over the country.

The advertising staffs: The advertising and the publishing in Hung Yen

Newspaper operate parallelly and have a reciprocal relationship with each other in publishing and advertising products to the public as well as in attracting other companies, businesses, organizations and individuals to put up their advertisements in the Newspaper

In the field of advertising, Hung Yen Newspaper has a quite big number of staffs. Because the advertising is related to technical department, including designs, graphics, and desktop publishing, so within the research scale, the author will mention the editorial department of advertising contents

The advertising editorial department is responsible for receiving the advertising contracts of the businesses, companies, organizations and individuals who want to promote their products and company’s image both inside and outside the province These advertising contracts are approved by the leadership and then published in the issues.

Research model

After considering the different models of service quality and customer satisfaction with services, the author decided to select SERVQUAL as the basic model to build a theoretical research model for the study However, to ensure the meaning of factors in the model, the author used a qualitative research to find out really meaningful factors for customers in the field of advertising in the paper press The final proposed model includes following factors :

Research hypotheses

Reliability: means that services must be provided to customers on time and promptly as they asigned The reliability brings customers the safe feelings when they decided to choose the service and is one of the factors creating service quality (Parasuraman et al., 1988) A product/service which is assessed reliable will make customers feel satisfied than others This is proven through many researches such as : the researches by Mohamed M.Mostafa (2005), Pascal W Soita (2012), Asghar Zarei et al (2012) in the field of health care services ; the researches by Anita Seth, K Momaya and H M Gupta (2008), Jusuf Zekiri (2011), Rifayat Islam (2012) in the telecommunication sector; the researches by Gwo Guang Lee and Hsiu Fen Lin (2005), Samar I Swaid and Rofl T Wigand (2009) in the field of E-commerce ; the research by Ostavio Jose De Oliveira (2009), Hishamuddin Fitri Abu Hasan et al (2008), Mohd.Razi Ur Rahim (2012), M.I Mohammad, Y.L Gambo and M.M Omirin (2012) etc So, this study gives out following hypothesis:

H1: The factor Reliability positively affects general satisfaction of customers with the advertising services

Assurance shows ability and professional skills of the company’s staffs when providing services to customers It includes: problem solving skills, serve attitudes,respect for customers Customers appreciate the assurance of service provider means that they feel totally satisfied with the quality of the company’s services In contrast,when customers deprecate the assurace of service provider, they do not feel satisfied with services of the company This was proven by many previous studies such as: the researches by Charilaos Kouthouris and Konstantinos Alexandris (2005), Bui Thi Tam

(2009), Mohammed Javed Hosein (2012) in the field of traveling services ; the researches by Izah Mohd Tahir and Nor Mazlina Abu Bakar (2007), Shahriar Shafee and Gerard Cliquet (2010), Mohammad Mizenur Rahaman et al (2011), Rakesh R

(2012) in the banking services ; the researches by Neetu Bala et al (2011), Ali Tahmouri

(2012) in the assurance services; the researches by Robert Y, Cavana et al (2007), Hoo Lien Yee and Dazmin Daud (2011), Muthupandian K.S and Vijaya Kumar (2012) in the transport sector, etc Thus, this study hypothesizes that:

H2: The factor Assurance positively affects general satisfaction of customers with the advertising services.

Tangibles: includes conditions, facilities, methods for the process of providing services of the company to its customers The signal theory in information economics (Akerlof, Spencer, Spilizt (2001) led by Wheeland, 2008) proved that tangibles send a message/ signal of the possibility of trust and good quality The fact that the comfort of the tangible conditions for the provision of services will increase customer satisfaction. This was proven thorugh many researches such as: the researches by Jasmina Grzinic

(2007), Karunaretne and Jayawardena (2010), R.Renganathan (2011) in the field of hotel services; the researches by Emin Babakus and W Glynn Mangold (1992), MamtaBrahmbohatt, Narayan Barser and Nisar G Joshi (2011), Asghar Zarei et al (2012),Pascal W Soita (2012) in the health care services; the researches by Anita Seth, KMomaya and H M Gupta (2008), Muhammad Asif Khan (2010), Jusuf Zekiri (2011),

Rifayat Islam (2012) in the telecommunication sector, etc For this reason, it is necessary for the study to launch the hypotheses as follows:

H3: The factor Tangibles positively affects general satisfaction of customers with the advertising services.

Ad Layout: expressed in designs for scientifically appropriate advertising messages, customers feel comfortable when seeing the ads and have no lack of advertising information An appropriate and scientific ad layout will increase effectiveness of the ads and bring full information to target customers The results of quantitative research show that customers assess the ad layout as an important factor affecting their satisfaction level Thus, the factor “ad layout” will be added into the model and this study hypothesizes that:

H4: The factor Ad Layout positively affects general satisfaction of customers with the advertising services.

Competitiveness of price : The ultimate goal of the advertising businesses is their benefits (Mankiw, 2005; Pham Van Minh, 2009) Therefore they always care about the competitiveness of price, especially now when the advertising means appear more and more, and the ability to compete price between competitors also becomes more and more fiercely The factor “price” is assessed as one of the important factors for customers when they decide to choose an effective adveertising method So, the study adds the factor “competitiveness of price” into the model and gives out following hypothesis:

H5: The factor Competitiveness of price positively affects general satisfaction of customers with the advertising services.

Attraction to readers: The ability to attract readers of the newspaper reflects the number of readers that the advertising information about the products and services can reach For the form of the paper press, the ability to attract readers also reflects the classification of target customers, because each press will have different reader groups and these groups will be important subjects for the services which need to be advertised The ability to attract readers is expressed in the publishing volumn, the number of instalments, etc) Through the step of quantitative research, the results show that customers assess the ability of the newspaper to attract readers as an important factor when they choose an advertising method in different presses For this reason, it is necessary for the study to launch the hypotheses as follows:

H6: The factor Attraction to readers positively affects general satisfaction of customers with the advertising services.

Measurement of observed variables

The observed items (investigation questions) are referenced from the previous researches and adjusted to suit the specific research conditions The questions of the new factors in the research model are also built and adjusted through the step of quantitative research (see more in 3.5) The contents in detail are as follows:

No Code Contents of questions References

1 HH1 The newspaper office has modern facilities and equipments Parasuraman et al

2 HH2 The facilities in service activities of the newspaper office are attractive.

3 HH3 The staffs are neatly and politely dressed.

4 HH4 The facilities (tools, equipments…) in the newspaper office are modern and sufficiently provided and serviced.

5 HH5 The newspaper office has convenient transaction time.

6 TC1 The newspaper office always provides its services as promised Parasuraman et al

7 TC2 The newspaper office always resolves adequately when customers enquire or complain.

8 TC3 The newspaper office performs services right at the first time you do the transaction.

9 TC4 The newspaper office provides services right at the fix time they promised.

10 TC5 The newspaper office notifies customers the time when services done.

11 DG1 The number of readers of the newspaper office is now very big

12 DG2 The publishing scale of the office is currently large

13 DG3 The newspaper attracts customer’s carings (diverse, update and accurate information, etc.).

14 NL1 The activities of the staffs create more and more trust with customers.

15 NL2 Customers feel safe when using services of the newspapaer office

16 NL3 The newspaper office’s staffs always show their courtesy and politeness for customers.

17 NL4 The newspaper office’s staff have sufficient knowledge to answer all questions of customers.

18 BC1 The layout of advertising pages is designed scientificially (easy to see and recognizable, etc.).

19 BC2 There are many spaces to put up advertisments in the newspaper

20 BC3 The design of advertising space in the newspaper attracts the attention of readers

21 BC4 The pictures bring out the information of the ads

22 GIA1 The price of advertising services of the newspaper office is competitive compared with other magazines, radio – television, and advertising printing companies

23 GIA2 The price of advertising services is appropriate with the cost for advertising of organizations and individuals

24 GIA3 The newspaper office has price discount policies for big advertisments.

VII General satisfaction with services

27 HL1 Customers feel satisfied with the advertising services of the newspaper office

29 HL2 Customers feel satisfied with the assurance of the newspaper office

30 HL3 Customers continue using Hung Yen

Newspaper’s services for the next times.

Research Design

To build scale for each definition (factor) in this study, the author firstly made a qualitative interview through the method of group discussion with ten customers using services of the company The dicussion contents included all issues of service quality and the satisfaction of customers when using the advertising services of the newspaper office Through the step of quantitative research, the author proposed to add the new factor “competitiveness of price”, “ad layout” and “attraction to readers” into the model, and remove the factors “empathy”, “responsivenes” from the theoretical research model.

To detect the important factors affecting customer satisfaction with the advertising services, the author dicussed with the advertising department of the office, used a list of factors that may influence customer satisfaction to make this quantitative research To make questions (observed items) for new factors (ad layout, competitiveness of price, attraction to readers), the customers attending to the interview are allowed to prepare the contents of questions and expressed at least three different aspects of the factors that were given by the author or added more new meaningful aspects of factors or new factors into the model.

The qualitative research questionnaire used in this study were obtained from the standardized questionnaire in the SERVQUAL scale The questions were adjusted through the step of qualitative interview to get the first draft questionnaire, then the author made an interview with fifteen customers to check the suitability of words used in it, because the questions were translated from English to Vietnamese, so they might make customers confused The new factors “competitiveness of price”, “attraction to readers”, “ad layout” were built based on summary of added aspects from customer’s opinions, then adjusted and the author would build observed items for these new factors in the model The building of questions (items) for new factora was done by making both direct and inverse questions to test the consistency of customer’s understanding about each aspect For example the question “ You think the price of services matches their quality?” will have inverse question “You think the price of services does not match their quality” The rule here is that each question only inlcudes one aspect in order to avoid the confusion of customers when answering the question with too many aspects but they do not agree with any aspects.

Selecting scale for the research is necessary for all studies An appropriate scale will help the author find it easy to analyze data and detect research problems In this study, the author used the five point Likert scale In principle, the more detail the scale is, the more accurate it is, however, the five point Likert scale is appropriate with this study, because its accurateness is similar to the seven point Likert.

To ensure the reliability of the research, the selection of appropriate sample size is needed In principle, the bigger the number of samples is, the more accurate research results are, however, a too big sample size will affect the cost and time to conduct the research Moreover, the long research time can make the research results become less reliable and tend to change.

For this study, due to the cost limit in implementing the research, the sample size should be determined on the principle of minimum necessary to ensure the reliability of the study The expected number of samples is 200 samples, and to ensure this sample size, 250 questionnaires are distributed to customers.

The determination of how appropriate the sample size is still has many controversies Maccallum et al (1999) sumed up opinions of previous researchers about the minimum sample size According to Kline (1979), the minimum number of samples is 100, but according to Guiford (1954), the number of samples is 200 and Comrey & Lee (1992) gave the sample size for the respective views is that: 100 = bad, 200 pretty, 300 = good, 500 = very good, 1000 or more = excellent.

Some other researchers did not give a specific number but the relationship between the number of observed variables with the sample size According to Trong and Ngoc (Vietnam, 2008) using the 5 - Power Rule, i.e the number of samples x 5 = the minimum sample size of the study to ensure reliability

In this study, sampling according to the rules of Comrey and Lee (1992), and reference from rules of Ngoc & Trong with 26 observed variables The minimum sample size is 26x5 = 130 Thus, the sample size with 250 samples is a good sample size (according to Comrey and Lee, and it also satisfies the 5 – power rule of Ngoc and Trong of minimum sample size.

Due to the research time and cost limit, this study uses convenient random sampling method instead of whole survey The number of questionnaires will be randomly distributed to all customers who come to do transaction at the newspaper office, and then the questionnaire will be directly filled by customers It will be done untill the research gets the valid samples as expected

Research subjects (overall): Customers of Hung Yen newspaper office.

Data analysis method

The obtained data are cleaned and analysized by using SPSS 18.0 through statistical steps uncluding:

The actual data will be statistically classified according to the following criteria: type, scale, time of making advertisement, ect At the same time, the author will also calculate the average point, maximum value, and standard deviation of the answers in collected questionnaire.

The observed variables are verified by using the Cronbach `s Alpha and the method of Item-total correlation The observed variables which do not ensure the reliability will be removed from the scale and do not appear in the explore factor analysis (EFA).

In this study, Cronbach `s Alpha coefficient must be at least 0.6 (Hair et al.,

1998) If the correlation coefficient of the total variable is less than 0.3, it is considered as a “spam variable” and will be deleted from the scale (Nunally and Burstein, 1994)

After being tested by Cronbach`s Alpha and Item-total correlation, the observed variables will be analyzed by EFA method Some standards applied in testingEFA in the study are as follows:

Test the appropriateness of factor analysis to the data through the statistical values of Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin (KMO) Accordingly, if the KMO value is greater than 0.5, the factor analysis used here is appropriate (Garson, 2003), in contrast, if the KMO value is less than 0.5, the application of factor analysis here will be not appropriate to data The number of factors: The number of factors is determined based on the eigenvalue index which represents the variation explained by each factor According to Kaiser’s standards, the factors with an eigenvalue index less than 1 will be removed from the research model (Garson, 2003).

Variance explained criteria: The total variance explained criteria must be greater than 50% (Hair et al., 1998).

The convergence value: To reach the convergence value of the scale, the single correlation coefficient between variables and the factor loading must be greater than or equal to 0.5 within a factor (Garbing and Anderson, 1988).

The distinct value: To reach the distinct value, the value of distinction between the factor loadings must be greater than or equal to 0.3 (Jabnoun, 2003)

Principal components method with Varimax rotation to ensure the number of factors is smallest (Ngoc and Trong, 2008).

3.6.4 Naming factor and adjusting the research model

After doing the explore factor analysis, based on the actual data, the author renames the factors and adjusts the model as well as original research hypotheses to fit the actual data.

Because the research model have some new added factors, the estimate method used here will be Stepwise According to Nguyen Dinh Tho (2011), Stepwise method is appropriate to an exploring research, and the Enter method is more appropriate to a testing research.

3.6.6 Testing the suitability of the research model

After building the rrgression funtion by method of ordinary least squares, to ensure the reliability of model, the author tests the suitability of the hypotheses of the OLS method The contents are as follows:

Linear dependence between independent variables: Using the scatterplot graph to test the linear dependence hypothesis contact between independent variables in the model

Residual autocorrelation: Using the Spearman’s Rank correlation coefficient to test the residual autocorrelation hypothesis

Testing the residual normal distribution: Using the P-Plot and Histogram graphs to test the residual normal distribution hypothesis

Tesitng the multicollinearity: Multicollinearity is a statistical phenomenon in which two or more predictor variables in a multiple regression model are highly correlated.The main effect of this phenomenon is that an independent variable can bring information of other independent variables, and it makes the regression function can not exactly predict For this phenomenon, the tolerance or VIF (variance inflation factor) đwill be used to test According to Hoang Trong & Mong Ngoc (2008), if VIF is less than or equal to 10, the independent variables do not correlate linearly with each other . Testing the error variance of the residuals: The changing error variance is a phenomenon in which the variances of terms are different When the variances of errors change, the estimates of regression coefficient will become ineffective, and t- and F- statistics will also be no longer effective If the magnitude of the standardized residuals increases or decreases, the violation of the hypothesis supposing that the variance do not change may be violated.

Testing the autocorrelation: The autocorrelation of a random process describes the correlation between values of the process at different points in time, as a function of the two times or of the time difference In that case, Durbin-Watson-test is the most popular test for the phenomenon of time series correlation.

After checking, if the research results show that the hypotheses do not violate, we can conlude that, estimates of regression coefficients are unbiased, consistent and effective, and the conclusions obtained from regression analysis are reliable

The research hypotheses will be tested through the research data from regression function The testing standards use the t statistics and the p-value (sig.) With the reliability coefficient = 95%, we will test the p-value with 0.05 to conclude the posed research hypotheses For testing the differences between subtotals, the study will use t- test and ANOVA to test each hypothesis, and the testing standards based on the value of the corresponding p-value for each specific testing step To test the suitability of data and the model, the author uses F-statistics, t-statistics, and R-square In addition, to assess the importance of factors, the author tests the Beta coefficient of the regression function.

This chapter will present research results from actual data through steps of:descriptive statistics, testing the scales, factor analysis, correlation analysis, regression analysis, and testing research hypotheses The contents in detail are as follows:

Descriptive statistics

The expected sample size was 200, to ensure this, 250 questionnaires were distributed From these 250 questionnaires, the author got back 211 answered questionnaires and in which there were 191 valid ones The rest are not fulfilled information, so would be removed from the data to analysis According to the 5 - Power Rule of sample size, this result can be used to analyze, so it wasn’t needed to distribute more questionnaires to get the size of samples as expected The sample structures according to classification criteria are as follows:

4.1.1 Sample structure classified by business scale

In the 191 valid questionnaires, there are 62 ones from the businesses with less than 100 employees (32%), 42 ones from the businesses having from 100 to 200 employees (22%), 38 businesses having from 200 to 500 employees (20%) and 49 businesses with more than 500 employees (26%).

Figure 4.1.1 The sample structure by business scale

4.1.2 Sample structure classified by business type

In 191 valid answered questionnaire, there are 118 private enterprises (61%), 24 State enterprises (13%) and 49 foreign-invested enterprises (26%).

Figure 4.1.2 The sample structure by business type

4.1.3 Sample structure classified by business field

In these 191 valid questionnaires, there are 61 businesses operating in the field of services (32%), 26 consumer goods production enterprises (14%), 78 industrial production enterprises (40%) and 26 businesses operating in other fields (14%).

Hàng TD Hàng CN Dịch vụ Khác

Figure 4.1.3 The sample structure by business field

The results from questionnaire

N Minimum Maximum Mean Std Deviation

The results show that the assessment level of customers varies from level 1(strongly disagree) to level 5 (strongly agree), the average values are greater than 3, and the standard deviations of variables are quite small (less than 1) This shows the homogeneity of the samples And they are initial signals reflecting the quite good assessement level of customers on the advertising services of Hung Yen Newspaper.

Testing the reliability of the scales

Before testing explore factor analysis, the observed items of factors in the theoretical research model will be tested their reliability Each scale is considered appropriate if its Cronbach`s Alpha coefficient is at least 0.6 (Hair, 2006) and the total correlation coefficient is at least 0.3 (Nunally and Burstein, 1994) The items which do not ensure these standards will be deleted from the model and are not processed in the step of doing EFA The results from scale verification for each factor are as follows:

Table 4 Results of testing Cronbach`s Alpha coefficient

Biến quan sát Scale Mean if Item Deleted

Scale Variance if Item Deleted

Cronbach's Alpha if Item Deleted

Factor "Ad layout": α = 0.620, N= 3 (deleted BC1)

From above results, we can see that only scales for the factor “ad layout” have observed item BC2 with the total correlation coefficient less than 0.3, other variables have Cronbach`s Alpha coefficient greater than 0.6 and the total correlation coefficient greater than 0.3 Therefore we will removed the item BC2 from the step of testing factor analysis.

Explore factor analysis

The observed variables after the reliability tested will be continuously processed with the Explore factor analysis As presented in chapter three, the testing standards used here are: KMO coefficient must be greater than 0.5, Bartlett-test has p-value equal to 0.000 < 0.05 the variance extracted must equal to at least 50% Theoretically, there are here already 6 factors in the model, so we will use the method of number of factors fixed = 6 The observed items of the independent variables will be analyzed concurrently and the dependent variable will be particularly analyzed The results from testing EFA with factors are as follows:

4.4.1 Explore factor analysis with the independent variables

The observed items of independent variables after the reliability tested will be continuously done with EFA, and the item BC1 was already removed from the model.The results of testing EFA with factors are as follows:

Table 5 KMO and Bartlett's Test bwith independent variables: the first time

Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin Measure of Sampling Adequacy .857

Table 6 Rotated Component Matrix: the first time

Extraction Method: Principal Component Analysis

Rotation Method: Varimax with Kaiser Normalization. a Rotation converged in 7 iterations.

These above results show that the observed variable NL1 has factor loading coefficient less than 0.5, so we will delete this variable from the research model and continuously test EFA at the second time, then get the following results:

Table 7 KMO and Bartlett's Test with independent variable: the second time

Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin Measure of Sampling

Table 8 Rotated Component Matrix: the second time

Extraction Method: Principal Component Analysis

Rotation Method: Varimax with Kaiser Normalization. a Rotation converged in 7 iterations.

The analysis results show that KMO coefficient = 0.853 > 0.5, Bartlett-test has p- value =0.000 < 0.05, factor loading coefficients are greater than 0.5, the variance extracted is 62.368% > 50%, and observed variables form 6 factors In conclusion, testing EFA with the independent variables is appropriate and the six new formed factors explain 62.368% of the variability of the data set.

4.4.2 Explore factor analysis with the dependent variable

From actual data, we test EFA with the dependent variable “general satisfaction” and get following results:

Table 9 KMO and Bartlett's Test with the dependent variable

Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin Measure of Sampling Adequacy .633

Bartlett's Test of Sphericity Approx Chi-Square 58.158 df 3

Table 10 Total Variance Explained with the dependent variable

Initial Eigenvalues Extraction Sums of Squared

Extraction Method: Principal Component Analysis.

Extraction Method: Principal Component Analysis. a 1 components extracted.

The research results show that KMO coefficient = 0.633 > 0.6, factor loading coefficient is less than 0.5, the variance extracted is 55.671%, Bartlett-test has p-value 0.000 < 0.05, and the observed items form only one factor So, testing EFA with the dependent variable is appropriate, and the dependent variable “general satisfaction” in the model is a unidirectional scale.

Naming new factors and adjusting the research model

After analyzing explore factor from actual data, the results show that the observed items in the data set form new factors We will consider the meaning of each new formed factor to rename them and adjust the research model and hypotheses The contents in detail are as follows:

The analysis results show that the first factor is formed by following observed items:

1 The newspaper office has modern facilities and equipments. (HH1)

2 The facilities in service activities of the newspaper office are attractive (HH2)

3 The staffs are neatly and politely dressed (HH3)

4 The facilities (tools, equipments, etc.) in the newspaper office are modern and sufficiently provided and serviced (HH4)

5 The newspaper office has convenient transaction time (HH5)

6 The newspaper office’s staffs always show their courtesy and politeness for customers (NL3).

7 The newspaper office’s staff have sufficient knowledge to answer all questions of customers (NL4)

If the meaning considered, these observed items belong to the meaning of the factor “tangibles” and the factor “assurance”, so we will name the first factor as

The second factor is formed by following items:

1 The price of advertising services of the newspaper office is competitive compared with other magazines, radio – television, and advertising printing companies (GIA1)

2 The price of advertising services is appropriate with the cost for advertising of organizations and individuals (GIA2).

3 The newspaper office has price discount policies for big advertisments (GIA3).

These observed variables are formed from items of the factor “competitiveness of price”, so we will still keep the old name “competitiveness of price” for this factor

The third factor is formed by following observed items:

1 The newspaper office always provides its services as promised (TC1).

2 The newspaper office always resolves adequately when customers enquire or complain (TC2).

3 The newspaper office performs services right at the first time you do the transaction (TC3).

4 Customers feel safe when using services of the newspapaer office (NL2) When the meaning of items considered, these observed variables reflect the reliability and the trust with advertising services, so we rename this factor as

The fourth factor is formed by following observed items:

1 The number of readers of the newspaper office is now very big (DG1)

2 The publishing scale of the office is currently large (DG2)

3 The newspaper attracts customer’s carings (diverse, update and accurate information, etc.) (DG3).

They are observed items belonging to the factor “attraction to readers” in the theoretical model, so we still keep the old name

“ attraction to readers ” for this factor

The fifth factor is formed by following observed items:

1 There are many spaces to put up advertisments in the newspaper (BC2).

2 The design of advertising space in the newspaper attracts the attention of readers (BC3)

3 The pictures bring out the information of the ads (BC4).

These all observed items belong to the the factor “ad layout” in the initial theoretical model, so we stillkeep the old name “ ad layout ” for this factor

The factor 6 is formed by following observed items:

1 The newspaper office provides services right at the fix time they promised (TC4)

2 The newspaper office notifies customers the time when services done (TC5).

If the meaning of observed items considered, these two items have meaning of the accuracy in the provision of services, so we rename this factor as “ accuracy ”.

4.5.7 Adjusting research model and hypotheses

From the results of testing EFA with factors, we adjust the research model to suit the actual data as follows:

Figure 4.5.7 The adjusted research model

Then the research hypotheses are also adjusted as follows:

H1: The factor “tangibles and assurance” positively affects general satisfaction H2: The factor “competitiveness of price” positively affects general satisfaction. H3: The factor “realiability” positively affects general satisfaction.

H4: The factor “attraction to readers” positively affects general satisfaction.

H5: The factor “ad layout” positively affects general satisfaction.

H6: The factor “accuracy” positively affects general satisfaction.

Correlation analysis

Theoretically, the independent variables have impact on the dependent variable in the model, however this was still not proven experimentally To test this, we use the single correlation analysis (Pearson correlation) The correlation coefficient is the number reflecting the relationship between factors in the model The bigger the correlation coefficient is, the closer the relationship between factor is After analyzing the correlation between factors in the model, we get following results:

** Correlation is significant at the 0.01 level (2-tailed).

From the table of Pearson correlation coeddicient, we see that the correlation coefficients of the independent variables with each other and with the dependent variable are positive, p-values when 2 –tailed testing are less than 0.01 So, there may be the correlation relationship between these factors (up to 99%) The correlation coefficients between independent variables with each other are also positive, so it is needed here to test the multi-collinear phenomenon in the model when testing regression function.

Building the regression function

To test the research hypotheses and exploring factor’s impact in the model, we build the multiple regression function of the dependent variable HL on the independent variables from F1 to F6 by the method of Ordinary Least Squares – OLS The analysis method used here is Stepwise The results are obtained as follows:

Std Error of the Estimate Durbin-Watson

3 634 c 402 392 47855 2.065 a Predictors: (Constant), F3 b Predictors: (Constant), F3, F2 c Predictors: (Constant), F3, F2, F5 d Dependent Variable: HL

Squares df Mean Square F Sig.

Total 71.578 190 a Predictors: (Constant), F3 b Predictors: (Constant), F3, F2 c Predictors: (Constant), F3, F2, F5 d Dependent Variable: HL

B Std Error Beta Tolerance VIF

The regression function is determined as: HL = 0.184F2 + 0.415F3 + 0.191F5

4.7.2 Testing the suitability of the model

Because the model is built by the estimate method of OLS, so we need to test if the violation of hypotheses of the method occurs or not in order to ensure the precision of conclusions from the model The contents in detail are as follows:

Testing the violation of the residual normal distribution: One important hypothesis which needs to consider when using the regression function by OLS is that the residuals must follow standard rules, if not, the method of linear estimation will be violated, the function form of the model may be wrong (the function form can be Ln function, the nonlinear function, etc.), then this may make the conclusions and predictations of the model wrong To test this phenomenon, we use Histogram and P- plot graph and get following results:

From the Histogram graph, the distribution of residuals is the near-normal distribution, the left deviation of average value of residuals is approximately 0, the normal deviation is approximately 1 (0.992, and the observed values in the P-plot are quite close to the expected curve, so we can conclude that the model does not violate the hypothesis of residual normal distribution

Testing the linear dependence between independent variables The hypothesis of OLS in the multi-regression function is that the independent variables have no relationship with each other, if not, it may affect the predictation results of the model.

To test this, we use Scatterplot graph to detect signals of the estimated function if it is appropriate or not The results from Scatterplot graph are as follows:

The results from Scatterplot graph show that the residuals of independent variables do not distribute according to any rules Thus, the hypothesis supposing that there is the linear dependence between independent variables in the model is not violated.

Testing the violation of error variance of the residuals: The phenomenon of error variance of the residuals is the phenonmenon of violation of the hypothesis of OLS supposing that there must be no phenomenon of error variance of the residuals (Ui) in the research model The change of error variance makes the estimations of Beta coefficient be not the best (Nguyen Quang Dong, 2003) To test the violation of error variance of the residuals, we use Spearman’s rank correlation and get following results:

** Correlation is significant at the 0.01 level (2-tailed).

The results show p-values are less than 0.05, so we can conclude that there is no phenomenon of changed error variance of the residuals in the model.

Testing the violation of multicollinearity: Multicollinearity is a statistical phenomenon in which two or more predictor variables in a multiple regression model are highly correlated In this case, an independent variable can bring information of other independent variables, and it makes the regression function can not exactly predict To test this phenomenon, we use variance inflation factor (VIF) According to Hoang Trong and Chu Nguyen Mong Ngoc (2008), if VIF < 10 we can conclude that the multicollinearity has no impact on regression results From the results of regression analysis, we see that observed VIF values are less than 10, so we can conclude that there is no multicollinearity in the model.

Testing the autocorrelation: The autocorrelation of a random process describes the correlation between series of observations This may make t- and F-statistics become no longer reliable and R-square coefficient also have no meaning (Nguyen Quang Dong, 2003) To test this, we use Durbin Watson-test With the sample size n 191, k=3, when checking Durbin Watson, we get dL = 1.738, dU =1.799, d-value is d 2.065 =>dU < d< 4-dU Therefore, we can conclude that there is no autocorrelation in the research model.

This study uses the estimate method of Stepwise, so in the process of estimation, the meaningless factors were removed from the model The results of this step are as follows:

The accepted hypotheses include the hypotheses H2, H3 and H5 (t-statistics has coressponding p-values are 0.001, 0.000 and 0.003) That means with the reliability coefficient = 95%, from actual data, we can suppose that the factors “competitiveness of price”, “reliability”, and “ad layout” have positive impact on general satisfaction of customers with services

The rejected hypotheses include H1, H4 and H6 That means, from actual data, with the reliability coefficient = 95% there are not enough basics to conclude that the factors “tangibles and assurance”, “attraction to readers” and “accuracy” have positive impact on general satisfaction of customers with services These variables may have been not meaningless, but we can understand here that they are default factors as the must-to-have factors in Kano’s model If these factors are lacked, the customers will not feel satisfied, but if they are improved, the customers do not also feel more satisfied

4.7.4 The importance of independent variables and the meaning of the model

The regression function is determined as : HL = 0.184F2 + 0.415F3 + 0.191F5, It proves that the impact intensity of the independent variables on the dependent variable HL are different Here, the variable F3 – reliability has the biggest influence on general satisfaction of customers The two left variables F2 – competitiveness of price, and F5 – ad layout have the nearly same impact level (Beta coefficients approximate with each other).

The R-square coefficient = 0.402, proves that three independent variables F2,F3, F5 explain 40.2% of the variability of the dependent variable HL F-statistics has p- value =0.000< 0.05 so we can conclude that the research model is appropriate and we may generalize the results to the overall.

Testing the differences betweeen different goups of customers

To test the differences between groups of customers according to classification variables, we use the method of One way ANOVA The contents in detail are as follows:

4.8.1 Testing the differences between customer groups of different business scale

The results of analysis of variance between customer groups of different business scale (advertisers are considered as institutional clients) are as follows:

Table 17 The average values between groups of different business scale

95% Confidence Interval for Mean Lower

Table 18 Variance analysis by business scale

The results of analysis of variance show that F-statistics of all independent variables and dependent variable have coressponding p-values greater than 0.05 This proves that there are no differences between groups of different business scale on general satisfaction This is also proven because the deviation of average value between these two groups is insignificant

4.8.2 Testing the differences between groups of different business type

Table 19 The average values between groups of different business type

Mean Lower Bound Upper Bound

Table 20 Variance analysis by business type

Squares df Mean Square F Sig.

The results show that for the variables F2, F3 and F5, F-statistics between customer groups has p-values < 0.05 So, for these variables, there are differences between customer groups of different business type In addition, the average values of groups also prove that the groups of private enteprises have higher satisfaction level than two other groups However, for general satisfaction level, there are no differences between these groups

4.8.3 Testing the differences between groups of different business field

The results are obtained as follows:

Table 21 The average values between groups of different business type

95% Confidence Interval for Mean Lower

Table 22 Variance analysis by business field

Squares df Mean Square F Sig.

The above results show that between customer groups of different business field,there are differences for the independent variable F3 and the dependent variale HL The variables F2 and F5 have no significant differences between groups.

Detections of the research

The reseach results prove that for the advertising services in the paper press inHung Yen Newspaper, the satisfaction level of customers is affected by three main factors including (1) competitiveness of price, (2) reliability, and (3) ad layout These variables have positive impact on the dependent variable “general satisfaction” (all Beta coefficients are positive).

Table 23 Result summary of testing research hypotheses

H1 The factor “tangibles and assurance” positively affects general satisfaction

H2 The factor “competitiveness of price” positively affects general satisfaction

H3 The factor “realiability” positively affects general satisfaction Accept

H4 The factor “attraction to readers” positively affects general satisfaction Reject

H5 The factor “ad layout” positively affects general satisfaction

H6 The factor “accuracy” positively affects general satisfaction

Figure 4.9.1 The relationship between factors in the research model

CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS

Conclusions

The purpose of this study is to explore the factors affecting the satisfaction of customers using advertising services of Hung Yen Newspaper Moreover, the study also aims to detect new factors influencing customer satisfaction besides the old factors in the traditional SERVQUAL model The research results answered two main questions posed in the part of research purposes, they are: (1) Which factors affect the satisfaction level of customers on the services, and (2) How does each factor influence the dependent variable – general satisfaction

For the first question “which factors affect the satisfaction level of customers on the services?”, the research results show that in the field of advertising services in paper press, the satisfaction level of customers is affected by three main factors including (1)Reliability, (2) Competitiveness of price, and (3) Ad layout The research also shows two new and specific factors that have impact on customer satisfaction in this field compared with old factors in the theoretical model, they are: “competitiveness of price” and “ad layout”.

For the second question “How does each factors influence the dependent variable – general satisfaction?”, the research results show that the factor “reliability” has biggest impact, next is the factor “ad layout” and the last is the factor

“competitiveness of price” These three factors have positive impact on general satisfaction of customers on the services

The results also prove that there are differences between customer groups of different business type However, between the groups of different business scale and business field, there are no significant differences.

Recommendations

From actual results, the author proposed some recommendations as follows:

1 For the factor “reliability”: This is assessed as the most important factor for customers Therefore, policies for improving customer satisfaction must focus on this factor first To improve the satisfaction level of customers on the factor “reliability”, the newspaper office can concentrate implementing some following recommendations:

Building a standard set of time to provide services for customers: Time of providing services must be informed customers exactly and clearly so that they can control the services This standard must specify the specified time point for each type of service, each service package and the conditions attached One thing needs to note here is that this standard should be clearly inform to customers right at the first time in order that customers can arrange their plans in collaboration with the newspaper office to fit the coordinate activities.

Building the unific regulations of complaint settlement and customer support: The prolems of customers when using the services must be received and resolved absolutely It is also needed here to clarify the provisions on attitudes of perception, codes of conduct and problem solving guidelines for employees

Building regulations of checking contents before posting advertising information of customers in order to minimize errors that may lead to communication errors The small errors may also become serious and affect the reputation of the business, and the newspaper office as well, so checking advertising messages and misspellings before putting up advertisements is very necessary.

2 For the factor “ad layout”, also an important factor in the customer’s opinions.

To have a good ad layout, the newspaper office needs to note some of the following things:

The newspaper pages should design more spaces to put advertisements in oder that customers have more chances to select an appropriate location for their ads In addition, it also helps the newspaper become flexible in the more suitable pricing for each advertising space.

The ad layouts in the newspaper need to put in the positions where customers noticed and be attracted and not to miss the advertising information and messages of the business Usually, the ad layout should be in the upper half and the right corner of the paper to attract the attention of the readers.

Coordinating with the ad units using prominent images and advertising messages by the appropriate designs for each advertised services.

3 For the factor “competitiveness of price”: This is also an important factor because customers always tend to reduce the cost of doing business To increase the competitiveness of price, the newspaper office can use and implement some following solutions:

Flexible pricing advertisements by ad spaces and by time In addition, the office also needs to pay attention to the advertising price of other main competitors, and always ensures an appropriate price for customers.

Organizating the promotional and discount activities wisely for each specific program.

Having discount policies for loyal customers and customers with big-value- contracts.

Contributions and the importance of the research

The first contribution of this study is to add new factors into the theoretical model in a new research field The results show that there are two new meaningful factors in the three ones in the model affecting customer satisfaction with the advertising services, including “competitiveness of price” and “ad layout”

The second main contribution of the study is to provide references and materials for furthur researchers in the future in order to build an appropriate model for each specific research field

5.3.2 The importance of the research

In the dormain of learning, the study explored and detected two new factors including “competitiveness of price” and “ad layout” to add them into the research model This contributed the learning community new and useful information when applying SERVQUAL for the advertising services in paper press, especially in the places which have similar conditions as Vietnam.

In the dormain of reality, the study answered questions posed in the part of research purposes and suggested solutions for the newspaper office to have more appropriate policies.

Limitations of the research

The first is the limitation of research scope The scopee of this study was still small, so the generality of the research results were limited.

The second is that the two new research scales for the factor “competitiveness of price” and the factor “ad layout” are scales used at the first time, so they are needed to more adjusted in furthur researches

The third is the limitation of research time, therefore, the study could not answer questions which may change in the long term The study was just done in a specific time point, so it is needed to have other studies in the same field to affirm the research results again

The fourth, due to the limitations of time and cost, the study has still not made the “deep interview” with customers after the quantitative research to detect more inside information to build more specific solutions Hence, suggested solutions of the study just oriented and lacked of specifics.

Directions for furthur researches

Continuously enlarging the research scope to better and more precisely predict the trends The sampling method should be the sampling statistical method to easily predict errors which may occur

Continuously adjusting and adding more scales for the new factor

“competitiveness of price” and factor “ad layout” in order that these scales will become more improved.

Doing other researches study on the same field to affirm the research results again and better predict trends in the long term

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I am a Master student at Shu-Te University, Kaohsiung, Taiwan At this time, I am doing a thesis under the title "Evaluate customers’ satisfaction with advertising on newspaper at Hung Yen newspaper office" under the direction Dr: Shu - Chen

Lee; Chin - Ann Yang; Nguyen Ngoc Dien

To implement the thesis, I would like to invite you, customers of Hung Yen Newspaper, to express your feelings about services of the company by answering the questions in this questionnaire I assure that your name and any of the information you provide will be kept strictly confidential and will not be attributed to the individual or organization All responses will be stored in a secure environment If you need to know about research results, please contact me via email address: lecongtuanbhy@gmail.com

Anh/ Please grade your level of agreement to the following statements of advertising services of Hung Yen Newspaper.

1 Strongly disagree 2- Disagree 3- Neutral 4- Agree 5- Strongly agree

No Code Contents of questions Agreement level

1 HH1 The newspaper office has modern facilities and equipments.

2 HH2 The facilities in service activities of the newspaper office are attractive.

3 HH3 The staffs are neatly and politely dressed 1 2 3 4 5

4 HH4 The facilities (tools, equipments, etc.) in the newspaper office are

1 2 3 4 5 modern and sufficiently provided and serviced.

5 HH5 The newspaper office has convenient transaction time.

6 TC1 The newspaper office always provides its services as promised.

7 TC2 The newspaper office always resolves adequately when customers enquire or complain.

8 TC3 The newspaper office performs services right at the first time you do the transaction.

9 TC4 The newspaper office provides services right at the fix time they promised.

10 TC5 The newspaper office notifies customers the time when services done.

11 DG1 The number of readers of the newspaper office is now very big.

12 DG2 The publishing scope of the office is currently large.

13 DG3 The newspaper attracts customer’s carings (diverse, update and accurate information, etc.).

14 NL1 The activities of the staffs create more and more trust with customers.

15 NL2 Customers feel safe when using services of the newspapaer office.

16 NL3 The newspaper office’s staffs always show their courtesy and politeness for customers.

17 NL4 The newspaper office’s staff have sufficient knowledge to answer all questions of customers.

18 BC1 The layout of advertising pages is designed scientificially (easy to see and recognizable, etc.).

19 BC2 There are many spaces to put up advertisments in the newspaper.

20 BC3 The designs of advertising space in the newspaper attract the attention of readers.

21 BC4 The pictures bring out the information of the ads.

22 GI1 The price of advertising services of the newspaper office is competitive compared with other magazines, radio – television, and advertising printing companies.

23 GI2 The price of advertising services is appropriate with the cost for advertising of organizations and individuals.

24 GI3 The newspaper office has price discount policies for big advertisments.

VII General satisfaction with services

27 HL1 Customers feel satisfied with the advertising services of the newspaper office.

29 HL2 Customers feel satisfied with the assurance of the newspaper office.

30 HL3 Customers continue using Hung Yen

Newspaper’s services for the next times.

1 Less than 100 employees 2 From 100 to 200 employees

3 From 200 to 500 employees 4 More than 500 employees

1 State enterprise 2 Private enterprise 3 Foreign-invested enterprise

1 consumer goods production enterprise 2 industrial goods production enterprise