key success factors of total quality management (tqm) – an empirical study in vietnamese paint and coating industry

The objectives of the research are to provide the key success factors KSF and measure their relationship to the quality implementation as Top management responsibility, Process design,

This study is an empirical examines key success factors of total quality management (TQM) to the result of quality implementation in paint & coating industry in Vietnam TQM system helps the enterprise to identify the relationships between TQM factors and the enterprise performances (Sebastianelli, 2003)

The quantitative data were obtained through a survey from 260 quality managers, top management managers, factory managers and purchasing managers of Paint

& coating manufacturing industry in Vietnam The objectives of the research are

to provide the key success factors (KSF) and measure their relationship to the quality implementation as Top management responsibility, Process design, Employee training, Employee involvement, Benchmarking, and customer focus Then, the key findings will be provided and recommendations to enhance the level of TQM in paint and coating enterprises.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgement i

Commitment ii

Abstract iii

List of table vii

List of figure vii

Chapter 1: Introduction 1

1.1.Introduction 1

1.2.Backgrounds to the research 1

1.3 Research issues, objectives and questions 4

1.3.1 Research issues 4

1.3.2 Research objectives 6

1.3.3 Research questions 6

1.4.Research methodology and scope 6

1.5 Thesis structure 7

1.6 Conclusion 8

Chapter 2: Literature Reviews 9

2.1 Introduction 9

2.2 Total quality management 9

2.2.1 Definitions total quality management 9

2.2.2 Key success factors of TQM 10

2.3 Development of research model and hypothesis 14

2.3.1 Top management responsibility 14

2.3.2 Process design 14

2.3.3 Employee training 15

2.3.4 Employee involvement 16

2.3.5 Benchmarking 17

2.3.6 Customer focus 18

2.3.7 Result of implementing quality management 18

2.4 Proposed research hypotheses and research model 20

2.4.1 Research Hypotheses 20

2.4.2 Research Model 20

2.5 Conclusions 21

Chapter 3: Research Methodology 23

3.1 Introduction 23

3.2 Research design 23

3.3 Questionnaire development 24

3.3.1 Operationalization of measurement scales 24

3.3.2 Preparation of draft questionnaire 26

3.3.3 Questionnaire design 27

3.4 Pilot study 28

3.5 Main survey 28

3.5.1 Population and sampling 28

3.5.2 Questionnaires administration 30

3.5 Data analysis techniques 30

3.5.1 Data cleaning 30

3.5.2 31

3.5.3 Exploratory factor analysis (EFA) 31

3.5.4 Correlation analysis 33

3.5.5 Multiple linear regression (MLR) analyses 33

3.6 Conclusion 34

Chapter 4: Data analysis and result 35

4.1 Introduction 35

4.2 Data cleaning, Data filer and Sample description 35

4.1.1 Data cleaning and data filter 35

4.2.2 Sample description 36

4.3 Reliability test of measurement 38

4.4 Exploratory factor analysis (EFA) 41

4.5 Testing the research model and the hypothesis 45

4.5.1 Testing the correlations of the constructs 45

4.5.2 Testing assumptions of Linear Regression 46

4.6 Multiple Linear Regression Analysis 47

4.7 Conclusion 51

Chapter 5: Conclusions and implications 52

5.1 Introduction 52

5.2 Discussion of findings 52

5.3 Implications 54

5.3.1 Theoretical implications 54

5.3.2 Practical implications 55

5.4 Limitation of the research 56

5.5 Conclusion 57

Bibliography 58

Appendix 1: Survey of Questionnaires English version 61

Appendix 2: B ng kh n ti ng Vi t 64

Appendix 3: Descriptive statistics of variables 67

Appendix 4: Measurement scales reliability of variables 67

Appendix 5: Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA) 71

Appendix 6: Correlations 74

Appendix 7: Graphic analysis of regression assumptions 75

Appendix 8: Regression 77

Appendix 9: Responders interview list 78

List of table

Table 1: Key success factors of TQM 10

Table 2: Key success factors of TQM in some previous studies 12

Table 3: Research hypotheses 20

Table 4: Measurement scale of variables 25

Table 5: Descriptive statistics on all factors 36

38

Table 7: Cronchbach's alpha values 39

Table 8: KMO and Barlett's Test 41

Table 9: Total variance explained 43

Table 10: Rotated Component Matrix 44

Table 11: Pearson Correlations 46

Table 12: Regression when RIQ (Y) is dependent variable 48

Table 13: Results of testing hypothesis 50

List of figure Figure 1: The market share in Vietnamese paint and coating industry 4

Figure 2: Research Model 21

Figure 3: Research process 23

Figure 4: The updated research model 51

Figure 5: The process of benchmarking 55

Chapter 1: Introduction 1.1 Introduction

This chapter explains the reason of choosing the title, and briefly explains the problem and objectives of the research The scope and data collection methods of the research are also presented in this part It is necessary to overview about the Vietnamese paint and coating industry in order to illustrate to the readers about the weaknesses in the quality management of local companies in comparison with foreign companies that have the competitive advantages in higher service quality and technology The author also addresses the fact that there were not so many previous researches were written about the total quality management (TQM) and finding key factor success to result of implementing quality management in paint and coating industry in term of Vietnamese market characteristics.

1.2 Backgrounds to the research

Scott Detiveaux and Allen Tsaur (2011) reported that the global paint and coating industry has been affected by the global economic downturn since 2008 They provided the growth rate before and after the global economic downturn which are 30% and 3% respectively, showing the negative impacts of the global economy to the paint and coating industry However, Scott Detiveaux and Allen Tsaur (2011) also said that Asia Pacific was only one bright spot in the gray picture of global paint and coating industry From 2004 to 2009, the growth rate of this industry in Asia Pacific was amazing, 60%, outperforming the global economic downturn

From 2010 to 2011, the growth rate of paint and coating industry has not remained

at high speed and reduced to 30% but still higher than the growth rates of any other areas in the world market During the economic downturn, the production volume

of this area took 41% of the 27 billion liter of the global coating volume (Scott Detiveaux and Allen Tsaur, 2011).

In the Asia Pacific market of paint and coating industry, China is the strongest market in term of production and consummation During the period of 2009 to 2011, the annual growth rate of China was more than 16% India was the second place with the annual growth rate stood at 9% Japan and Australia were two markets in the Asia Pacific has been affected by the economic downturn with the annual growth rate during the period of 2009 to 2011 were 0.7% and 1.5% respectively (International Paint and Printing Ink Council, 2010)

With the high growth rate of Asia Pacific, the global structure of paint and coating industry has been changed with the more focus on the Asia Pacific due to the slow growth of Western countries and the high public debt in the Euro zone Scott Detiveaux and Allen Tsaur (2011) said that more and more formulators and suppliers are coming to Asia Pacific for future growth For example, the construction spending

in China and India have increased by 10% from 2009 to 2011 while the same figure

in US has decreased by 4%

In Vietnam, the author has recognized that the paint and coating industry is targeted

as the top potential market in Asia Pacific with the annual growth rate was 21% in the period of 2003 to 2009 (http://nhipcaudautu.vn) Tran Van Chau (2012) estimated that Vietnamese paint and coating industry will be valued at US$2.5 billion in 2022 in despite of the fact that the 2009 value of this industry was only US$ 620 million

The reason is that Vietnam is on the way of modernization with a lot of new construction, hydropower plants and road are being built, leading to the increase of demand for paint and coating products In term of sustainable development, Vietnam Government has established the chemical regulation for the companies operating in paint and coating since 2008 This law suit requires the paint and coating companies have to comply with the safety and quality in manufacturing products.

With the more focus and supports from the Government, Vietnamese paint and coating industry has been increasing during the time The highest achievement of Vietnam paint and coating development is to join the Asian Paint Industry Council (APIC) in 2008

Up to now, there are around 400 companies operating in paint and coating industry

in Vietnam, according to Vietnam Paint and Printing Ink Association (VPPIA) The market is constructed by two main products that support for two distinct purposes, decoration and industrial usage In term of product volume, the decorative paint and coating product consumes the largest market share with more than 70% in the total production volume of Vietnamese paint and coating industry

The Vietnamese paint and coating is also classified into four market levels The high-end market includes the products from famous international companies coming from US, Japan or England such as Azko Nobel, Nippon, Jotun with the total market share is about 35% These companies have the advantage of better distribution network compared to other companies The second one is the medium market with the participation of several companies coming from Asia such as 4 Oranges, TOA, Sea Master, etc They are selling their products for around 25% of the market share The medium-low market includes the Vietnamese companies such

as Joton, Kova, Tison, Nero etc consuming for 15% of the market share The last one is the non-brand name products which are distributed unsystematically in Vietnam with the market share is around 25% ( http://nhipcaudautu.vn )

Figure 1: The market share in Vietnamese paint and coating industry

The author also addresses that the WTO accession has been affecting more on the competition in the Vietnamese paint and coating industry in the years to come as Vietnamese Government has to open the domestic market for the foreign companies

For locals companies the openness of domestic market is a real challenge, as they now have to face older, more developed, international companies The government

is still reluctant and preserves an environment that helps domestic companies However, the Vietnamese Government cannot support the domestic companies forever as the rising of the foreign enterprises that have better manufacturing technology and product and service quality

The foreign paint and coating enterprises also have higher Research & Development (R&D) capacity in studying new products and higher technology in manufacturing that help the foreign companies to achieve the higher efficiency and cost saving The foreign companies also have higher quality of materials for manufacturing paint and coating products as they have stronger supply network Currently, the foreign companies, with the higher technology production chain and better distribution network, have been providing their diversified products to different types of customers with the reasonable prices compared to the domestic companies More and more foreign products have the same price as the domestic products ( http://nhipcaudautu.vn )

focus on quality management in order to compete with foreign rivals in the future The paint & coating companies should built up their own quality management which is based on the philosophy of Total Quality Management (TQM) originated from Japanese, According to Karuppusami and Gandinathan (2006), TQM can be the best way that helps the enterprises continuously improving quality and process

to achieve business performance

However, there are not so many researches written about the role of total quality management and in the Vietnamese paint and coating industry With the strong estimated growth rate of this industry, the quality management is one of the critical

success factors, leading to the higher competitive capacity of local paint and coating companies in Vietnam

1.3.2 Research objectives

To examine key success factors of TQM in the result of implementing total quality management in paint and coating industry

1.3.3 Research questions

are set to answer in the Chapter 3

What are key success factors of TQM impact the result of implementing total quality management in Vietnamese paint and coating industry?

How do these key success factors of TQM impact the result of implementing total quality management in Vietnamese paint and coating industry?

1.4 Research methodology and scope

In this study, the author uses 06 key success factors of total management quality to result of implementing total quality management in Vietnamese paint & coating and then, through the survey of questionnaires that are being sent to 260 samples to coating & paint manufacturer in Vietnam.

The research was also done by using both of qualitative and quantitative methods According to Malhotra and Birks (2000) a qualitative research method is fit when activities and behavioral of human will be investigated The author used the qualitative method by carrying out group discussions and deep interviews made with

5 customers working in the paint & coating enterprises that have experience and reputation in paint & coating industry.

A quantitative method is an importance approach and it evaluates phenomena This purpose of this approach is collecting and analyzing data and then applying the data

to statistical testing Quantitative study would be approach on the customer data base in CBC Company (CBC is the chemical raw material distribution for paint & coating manufacturers) by questionnaire and the data was collected for analysis

factor analysis (EFA) Correlation analysis and multiple linear regression analysis (MLR) would be used to test the research model and hypotheses SPSS 20.0 software was used for data analysis.

1.5 Thesis structure

The thesis is structured into five chapters as:

Chapter 1: This chapter is highlighted the background to the research as well as research issue, objective and research question.

Chapter 2: It is presented some review of literature to relate with issue of the research and previous studies Based on that, author provides research hypotheses and then propose research model which will be used for Vietnamese paint & coating industry

Chapter 3: Three is to illustrate the research methodology as well as procedures that will be used in the study This chapter starts with a research design, pilot study, a detail explanation was provided on questionnaire development, population and sampling and data analysis techniques

Chapter 4: It

descriptive statistics, using reliability test, EFA and multiple regression analysis

Chapter 5: It provides conclusion and recommendation as well as limitation of the research

1.6 Conclusion

Base on the overviews of current status of the Vietnamese paint and coating industry, this research explains firstly the reason of choosing the title, and briefly explains the problem and objectives of the research The scope and data collection methods of the research are also presented in this part Then, this research will present the relevant concepts used as foundation for analysis, suggestions and solutions in this research It includes literature review on various management fields such as Total Quality Management and model to measure base on the key success factors to the result of implementing total quality management.

The purpose is to measure, analyze the problems, and to come up with lessons learnt and solutions for implementing total quality management in term of paint and coating industry Finally, the research will provide recommendation as the most suitable solutions and conclusion conducted from the survey.

Chapter 2: Literature Reviews 2.1 Introduction

In this chapter, the author examines the relevant studies about the total quality management dimensions and result of implementing The quality management can

be found in the theory of Total Quality Management which was invented by the Union of Japanese Scientists and Engineers in 1949 and now become one of the most effective improvement programmers This chapter also reviews the key success factors that affecting to the result of implementing total quality management

In this study, the author adopts the key success factors proposed by Rao et al (1999) Awan (2008) and Hoang et al (2010) including: Top management responsibility, process design, Employee training, Employee involvement, Benchmarking and customer focus.

2.2 Total quality management

2.2.1 Definitions total quality management

Total Quality Management (TQM) was firstly introduced in Japan by Union of Japanese Scientists and Engineers in 1949 This is the committees of scholar, engineers and government bodies with the objective is to improve the product quality and life standard after World War II in Japan The TQM philosophy then expanded to American and became one of recognized improvement program in the world (Kaynak, 2003)

an organization centered on quality, based on the participation of all its members and aiming at long-term success through customer satisfaction and benefits to all

definition of TQM (Reed, 1996)

In term of the structure of TQM, (Khan, 2001) states that the TQM considers the customer as the core factors while other factors (i.e employee empowerment,

involvement and development, continuous improvement and use of systematic approach to management) are the three most important components that support for the customers focus strategy of the company

2.2.2 Key success factors of TQM

In this section, the author examines some key success factor (KSF) of the TQM through the previous studies such as (Tari, 2005) and (Claver, 2003) identifies three KSF for the TQM as management leadership, formal evaluation model and empirical research Dale (1999) identifies management leadership, training,

continuous improvement as consistent findings in the work of quality leaders such

as Crosby, Deming, Juran, Ishikawa and Feigenbaum The Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award (MBNQA), European Quality Award (EQA) and Deming application prize are common formal TQM evaluation models used in the United States of America, Europe and Japan respectively

Table 1: Key success factors of TQM

Malcolm Baldrige

National Quality Award

(MBNQA)

European Quality Award (EQA)

Deming application prize

and data analysis

6 Customer and market

7 Business outcome

1 Leadership

2 Employee management

3 Policy and strategy

4 Alliances and resources

6 Activities ensuring

8 Activities for improvement, results and future plans

(Source: Tari, 2005)

Flyyn et al (1994) provided seven quality practices of TQM (i) top management support, (ii) product design, (iii) process management, (iv) quality information, (v) supplier involvement, (vi) workforce management and (vii) customer involvement TQM is closely resembled to the preceding instrument developed by Saraph et al (1989) Powell (1995) comprehended the dimensions of quality management and identified 12 factors from a thorough review of literature (Deming, 1986; Juran, 1986; Crosby, 1979; Flynn et al; 1995 and Saraph et al., 1989) These factors are (i) Committed leadership or executive commitment, (ii) Employees empowerment, (iii) Adoption and communication of TQM or adopting the philosophy, (iv) Closer supplier relationships, (v) Training, (vi) Open organization, (vii) Closer customer relationships, (viii) Benchmarking (ix) Process improvement, (x) Zero-defects mentality, (xi) Measurements and (xii) Flexible manufacturing

Hoang et al., (2010) provided six key success factors for TQM in manufacturing and service companies in Vietnam as (i) customer focus, (ii) top management commitment, (iii) information and analysis system, (iv) education and training (v) employee empowerment, (vi) and process management.

Recently decade, many authors are finding key success factors of TQM as described

in the table 2.

Table 2: Key success factors of TQM in some previous studies

Note: (1) Leadership/Top Management (2) Customers Focus (3) Teamwork (4) Process Management (5) Supplier Quality Management (6) Training (7) Strategic Planning (8) People Management (9) Employee Involvement (10) Information and Analysis (11) Incentive and Recognition (12) Continuous Improvement

Source: Masood ul Hassan et al (2012)

In this context, the author will choose the research study of Rao et al (1999) is the key paper Rao (1999) provided 13 constructs which was the highest one compared

to Saraph et al.(1989), Flynn et al.(1994), Ahire et al (1996) and Grandzol Rao et

al (1999) research did not include so many factors compared to Karuppusami and Gandhinathan (2006) and Sila and Ebrahimpour (2002)

Furthermore, the author believes that the research model of Rao et (1999) has better than other research model of Saraph et al.(1989), Flynn et al.(1994), Ahire et al (1996) and Grandzol and Gerhson (1998) as their researches only focused on the United State market while Rao et al (1999) focused on both of developing and developed countries, including India, china, Mexico

Hence, the author decided using model of Rao et al (1999) for this research However, the model of Rao et al (1999) should be refined before applying for the survey of total quality management for Vietnamese paint and coating industry This refinement process was taken from the research of Awan (2008) and Hoang et al., (2010) which highlights the importance of six factors:

(1) Top management responsibility

2.3 Development of research model and hypothesis

2.3.1 Top management responsibility

Top management affects positively and negatively to the quality management Bersin (2011) in the research on measuring the impact of top management responsibility and the quality management of the company identified that top manager must set the elements of corporate culture such as values, belief, measure, and taking appropriate actions to improve the efficiency of corporate culture management, ensuring that the corporate culture is managed and carried out by actions and learning rather than words Bersin (2011) also stated that the company should incorporate the service quality dimensions to the key performance indicator of top management in order to gain the commitment of top management responsibility on the quality management.

Puffer & Waldman (1996) said that, the role of top management to formalize the company quality value and vision and project them in a clear, visible and consistent manner Rao (1999) has confirmed active and visible participation by top management in quality management implementation is decisive in supporting the action and behavior that steer the company to success in internal and external quality performance

H1: Top management responsibility affects to the results of implementing total quality management in Vietnamese paint & coating industry.

Process design stresses the value adding to a process, increasing the productivity of every employee and enhancing the quality of the company (Motwani, 2001) Ju et al (2006) showed that the basic requirements of process design are to lower down costs, boost efficiency and reducing cycle-time

According Lee et al (2001) was that an effective process design will have an effect

on quality performance Molina et al., (2007) concluded that the most significant matter in the link between TQM processes control and the internal knowledge transfer is the systematic use of control processes in a firm, which has an important part to play on the search for and transfer of knowledge to which they are applied For firms that have put TQM into practice, it is widely known that TQM helps in the continuous improvement of processes, and this will direct such firms to seek and use the knowledge they need

H2: Process design affects to the results of implementing total quality management

in Vietnamese paint & coating industry

2.3.3 Employee training

Employee training is the process of continuous learning that helps the employees to improve their working abilities (Robbins, 1992) In the world today, employee training is important to every companies due to it helps to shape up and enhance the knowledge, working skills and solving the daily problems (Nadler, 1984;Buckley & Caple, 1990) Employee training is carried out by internal and external sources According to Chang (1999), the internal training is cost saving but it is not up-to- date with the new trend in the market In this context, the external training helps the company updating the new trend in the market Wang (2012), furthermore, states

ntials and

to adapt the current skills of the employees for future developments

In term of the quality improvements, employees training are also adopted by many organizations Zeithaml & Binter (2003) identified that the effective employee training will increase the product and service quality and therefore, increasing the customer satisfaction Wang (2012) and Chou (2010) state that companies should lay their focuses on training system in order to educate the professional skills to their employees The professional skills training include the working mentality, working attitude and working behaviors.

The research of Rees (1999) about team working and service quality identified that the higher quality of service can be achieved through the higher employee involvement in the quality management process The team working gives the credit

to the employees of which they will have the stronger sense of teamwork Rees (1999) also highlighted the importance of the employee empowerment as the useful tool for enhancing the employee involvement In this context, the managers of the company have to implement suitable mechanism to manage the employee empowerment For example, the managers can assign the extent duties to their employees when the employees can do well the current task The benefit of assigning more duties helps the employees improving their working skills The research of Baptiste (2007) extended the studies of Pfeffer (2005), Gould-Williams (2004) and Wilkinson (2005) of which the managers can increase the employee involvement through the selection practices and internal promotion, employee voice, and the sharing of employee involvement information respectively

H4: Employee involvement affects to the results of implementing total quality management in Vietnamese paint & coating industry.

2.3.5 Benchmarking

David Kearns (2002) defined the benchmarking as the way of measuring its product and quality management with other competitors, especially to the market leaders Geson (1993) stated that the company should incorporate the quality management and customer satisfaction as one of the benchmark for assessing business performance of the company Sisson et al (2008) highlighted that there are three main types of benchmarking, including performance benchmarking, process benchmarking and strategic benchmarking The performance benchmarking means the company compares its service and production quantity with other competitors Process benchmarking is the comparison between the internal processes of company with other competitors Strategic benchmarking is the way of which the company

compares its business strategies with other competitors and identifies the alternative strategies for the future development

H5: Benchmarking affects to the results of implementing total quality management

in Vietnamese paint & coating industry

Hoang et al (2010), customer focus is one of the most significations of key success

of TQM implementation in the industry in Vietnam.

Siddiqui and Rahman (2007) suggested that customer was a vital factor in achieving

control, improved quality of products and services, greater customer satisfaction, enhanced productivity, slashed time consumption on production, optimization of human resource use and flexibility

H6: Customer focus affects to the results of implementing total quality management

in Vietnamese paint & coating industry

2.3.7 Result of implementing quality management

Many researches have study the impact of total quality management practices on quality management manufacturing industries Hoang et al (2010) has confirmed TQM an effective to implementing quality management in service and manufacturer companies in Vietnam Ingram and Chung (1997) explained that total quality management practices could increase customer satisfaction in health care industry Moreover, Haisin (2001) added that total quality management can improved the

competitive of the hospital in Thailand Aghazadeh (2002) also agreed that a total quality management practice is absolutely important for business.

Al-Saggarf (1997) revealed that total quality management practice can improved customer satisfaction in electrical industry in Saudi Arabia Moreover, Kanji et al (1999) reported that total quality management can increased customer satisfaction

in UK Universities

Parzinger and Nath (2000) studied the relationship between TQM and software quality and found that TQM implementation improves the software quality and performance, and thus, increases customer satisfaction Hasan and Kerr (2003) examined the link between TQM practices and organization performance in service organizations and discovered that TQM practices like top-management commitment; employee involvement; training; supplier quality; quality costs; service design; quality techniques, benchmarking; and customer satisfaction leads to higher productivity and quality performance

According Prajogo and Brown (2004), an empirical study within Australian organizations to investigate the relationship between TQM practices and quality performance, and the results indicated a strong and positive

Brah and Tee (2002) showed the relationship between TQM constructs and organization performance by measuring quality performance of Singapore companies They found that implementation of TQM leads to quality performance and have positive correlation.

An empirical study conducted by Arumugam et al (2008) explored the relationship

between TQM practices and quality performance on ISO9001:2000 certified manufacturing organizations in Malaysia, they were finding revealed that TQM practices were found to be partially correlated with quality performance

2.4 Proposed research hypotheses and research model

2.4.1 Research Hypotheses

Base on the research analysis in above, the author proposed six hypotheses to test the relationship between six independent variables to the results of implementing total quality management in Vietnamese paint & coating industry

Table 3: Research hypotheses

These variables are included in the research model that is illustrated as in the figure below:

Figure 2: Research Model

2.5 Conclusions

In this chapter, the author has overviewed about theory of quality management which is explained through the Total Quality Management is philosophy Total Quality Management was invented by Japanese people in 1949 and now is becoming one of the most favorable philosophies in term of quality management Then, the author has examined key success factors of quality management system through some previous research of Rao et al (1999), Karuppusami and Gandhinathan (2006), Sila and Ebrahimpour (2002), Tari (2005), Awan (2008) and Hoang et al., (2010) The author has chosen the model of Rao et al (1999) the

Top management responsibility

H1 H2

H3

H4

H5

H6

refinement from Awan (2008), Hoang et al., (2010) as it has the advantage of not so many factors included in the research model

Base on the research model, the author designed six research hypotheses in order to identify the impact of each factor to the results of implementing total quality management in Vietnamese paint and coating industry.

Chapter 3: Research Methodology 3.1 Introduction

In this section, the author present the methodology used in this study including research design, questionnaire development, pilot study, population and sampling as well as data analysis techniques is tool to analyze and test the hypotheses

3.2 Research design

The research was conducted through two main phases of qualitative research to develop questionnaires and quantitative research to collect and analyze survey data,

as well as to estimate and test the model

Figure 3: Research process

Research

objectives

Literature reviews Research model

3.3 Questionnaire development

3.3.1 Operationalization of measurement scales

The author adopted the research model from key paper of Rao et al, (1999) Awan (2008) and Hoang et al (2010) because Rao et al (1999) model was used to test in many countries as USA, India, China, Taiwan and Awan has designed and research

to B2B customers in pharmacy distributors in Pakistan market It is the same purpose of author research in Vietnamese coating and paint industry Moreover, Hoang et al (2010) has studied that TQM can be considered as set of practices in industrial in Vietnam.

e author variables coding: (i) Top management responsibility, (ii) Process design, (iii) Employee training, (iv) Employee involvement, (v) Benchmarking, (vi) customer focus and (vii) result of quality implementation.

Table 4: Measurement scale of variables

Variable

TMR Top Management Responsibility

TMR1 Level to which the top management assumes responsibility for quality

performance TMR2 Degree of participation by top management in the quality improvement

process

TMR3

Level to which quality goals are made specific within the company importance attached to quality by the top management in relation to cost and schedule objectives

TMR4 Frequency of analysis of quality issues by the top management

PDE Process design

PDE1 Level to which new service design is reviewed before the service is

provided PDE2 Level to which implementation is considered in the service design

process PDE3 Level to which process design minimizes the chances of employee errors

ETR Employee Training

ETR1 Level to which quality-related training is given to employees

ETR2 Availability of adequate resources for employee training

ETR3 Level to which training in specific work skills (technological and

professional) is given to employees

EIN Employee Involvement

EIN1 Effectiveness of employee involvement program in the company

EIN2 Level to which workers participate in quality decisions

EIN3

Level to which employee are held responsible for the output of their process

BEN Benchmarking

BEN1 Level to which company studies the best practices of other companies to

about how to do things better BEN2 Level to which your company compares the current quality levels with

those of competitors

CFO Customer focus

CFO1 Level to which your company/division is totally committed to create

satisfied customers CFO2 Level to which employees know which attributes of the services your

CFO3 Level to which information from customers is used is designing

icy.

CFO4

CFO5 Level to which employees are encouraged to satisfy customers

RIQ Results of Implementing Quality Management

RIQ1 Level to which costs of your company have been reduced by quality

management RIQ2 Level to which customer complaints have been reduced by quality

management implementation RIQ3 Level to which the competitive position of company has been enhanced

by quality management RIQ4 Level to which profits of your company/division have been increased by

quality management

3.3.2 Preparation of draft questionnaire

The objective of preparation of draft questionnaire is to avoid the bias in the answers of the respondents during the survey process Craig and Douglas (2000) and Bourque and Fielder (1995), the preparation of draft questionnaire helps to reduce the misunderstanding due to the working and languages issues and to enhance the transparency

Craig and Douglas (2000) stated that the original and back-translation should be compared with each other in order to ensure the meaningful of the questionnaires Bourque and Fielder (1995), furthermore, highlighted that the clear structure in the questionnaires should be as high as possible

3.3.3 Questionnaire design

sections:

Section 1: Business information of the paint and coating manufacturer

Section 2: The key success factors of TQM refer to the result of implementing total quality management contains 24 statements that are grouped to the seven variables: (i) Top management responsibility, (ii) Process design (iii) Employee training, (iv) Employee involvement, (v) Benchmarking, (vi) Customer focus and (vii) results of implementing total quality management.

quality management The survey utilizes the Likert scale with 05 ordinal scales, including: [1] Very Low [2] Low [3] Medium [4] High [5] Very High

According to Dane Bertram, Likert scale is a psychometric response scale which is often used in social survey in order to identify the level of agreement and disagreement of the respondents to the given statements The advantage of using Likert scale is to simplify the questionnaire constructs compared to open questionnaires, so the author can conduct the analyses easily Likert scale, according to Dane Bertram, is also easy to read and fill up for the respondents

However, Likert scale has some disadvantages As the Likert scale has five options

Dane Bertram also stated that Liker scale is often lack of reproducibility and validity may be difficult to demonstrate.

Detailed content of the questionnaire is presented in Appendix 1

3.4 Pilot study

During the questionnaire designs, the author also took into account the wording and language issues Although this study of the author is written for MBA program, the author recognized that the questionnaires should be translated into Vietnamese because the responders maybe confuse to read and write English

Furthermore, the Vietnamese questionnaires avoid the misunderstanding in each

as implementation of quality management in paint and

the Vietnamese version was reviewed by a Vietnamese methodology expert as pilot study

Consultation of expert is useful tool as pilot study of which the author carries out the preliminary analysis on small sample before conducting the full-survey on the larger sample size In this research, the author consulted with five managers, who are working in paint & coating manufacturers for contribution the contents of the questionnaire; it was confused by form, content, translation to edit before survey in large sample

3.5 Main survey

3.5.1 Population and sampling

To perform the above analyses, the author has to collect the necessary data from the survey with relevant paint and coating enterprises The survey objective is to collect

necessary data in order to derive subjective assessment factors affecting to the result

of implementing total quality management in the paint and coating companies.

The author uses multiple linear regressions to test independent variable & dependent variable so the population is very importance (Nguyen Dinh Tho, 2011, p 499) The sample size for the survey is calculated equation as:

Where:

n is the minimum sample size of the survey

p is the number of independent in the model Green (1991) said that, the suitable formula if p <7

With the formula as above, the sample size is higher 98 ( 98)

According to Vietnam paint & printing ink association (VPPIA), there are around

400 companies operating in paint & coating industry Moreover, the author is working in raw material chemical company is supplying it for more than 260 paint

& coating enterprises With available in list customers, the author decision sample size is 260 for this research

The author noted that the sample size for the analysis has to be sufficient to make the analysis represent for whole population With advantage, the author is working

in the chemical raw material for paint & coating manufacturers so the author approached to top management managers, quality managers, purchasing managers very easy Samples were selected based on non-probability and convenience sampling method The author will send the survey of questionnaire in the Vietnamese version to 260 accounts via emails, face to face and asks them to fill up their answers in the questionnaires Finally, the author got 245/260 sample return more than 40 days

3.5.2 Questionnaires administration

Mellenbergh, G.J (2008) stated that the questionnaires administration includes four main modes The first mode is face-to-face questionnaire administration which the interviewees answer the questions through the oral way The second mode is paper- and-pencil which the interviewees write their answers to the paper The third mode

is computerized questionnaire administration which the interviews provide their answers through typing on the computer The last mode is adaptive computerized questionnaire administration, where a selection of items is presented on the computer, and based on the answers on those items, the computer selects following

In this research, the questionnaire administration mode is through the computerized questionnaire administration The author sent the invitation and the questionnaires

to the top managements, quality managers, and factory managers purchasing managers who are working in the Vietnamese paint and coating manufacturers and

to face and fax.

3.5 Data analysis techniques

Lee Cronbach in 1951 and is widely used the social science, business, and other fields.

2 1 21

Where K is the number of components or variables, 2X is the variance of the observed total test scores, and

< 0.5 then the reliability of scales is unacceptable

3.5.3 Exploratory factor analysis (EFA)

Exploratory factor analysis is a statistical tool which is often used identifying the underlying relationship between measured variables (Norris et al, 2009) Maccallum (1990) stated that EFA is more useful when applying when each factors used in the research is measured by multiple sub-factors Maccallum also suggested each factor should contain at least 02-05 sub-factors in order to produce the proper outputs

According to DeCoster (1998), there are six steps of conducting EFA The first step

is to set up the same format of measurement for the factors used in the research Then, the second step lays its focus on the correlation matrix between factors

The third step is to determine the appropriate number of factors for inclusions DeCoster (1998) stated that the number of factors should be based on the eigenvalues of the correlation matrix which that are higher than 1.0 Other method

to determine the number of factor is through the Scree plot which is illustrated through the eigenvalues of correlation matrix in descending order and find the point where the Scree line drop in eigenvalue magnitude

The fourth step is to extract initial set of factors The extraction procedure, normally,

is done by computerized software such as SPSS There are many methods to extract initial set of factors in EFA as: principal components analysis (PCA), principal axis factoring (PAF) and maximum likelihood estimation (MLE) According Nguyen Dinh Tho (2011), the extraction factor can divide two main groups as Common Factor Model (CFM) and principal components analysis (PCA) In this thesis, the author chose PCA method and Varimax because that can extract the most of the variance from variables to serve for next analysis

The fifth step is to apply the factor rotation technique to achieve the final extraction There are two major categories of rotations, orthogonal rotations, which produce uncorrelated factors, and oblique rotations, which produce correlated factors The best orthogonal rotation is widely believed to be Varimax Oblique rotations are less distinguishable, with the three most commonly used being Direct Quartimin, Promax, and Harris-Kaiser Orthoblique

The sixth step is to determine the factor loadings which are extracted from the factor rotation stage This loading can be interpreted as a standardized regression coefficient which is determined by the regression procedure for the factors on the measures.

3.5.5 Multiple linear regression (MLR) analyses

Multiple linear regression (MLR) is the statistical analysis that helps to identify the fact that there is a statistical significant correlation between two or more dependent variables and quantitative dependent variables The multiple linear regression between dependent and independent variables are illustrated in the following equation:

This analysis enables making estimations about dependent variable (RIQ) based on the understanding of independent variables (TMR, PDE, ETR, EIN, BEN, and CFO) The convention of p value has been set 5% The model of MLR is formula:

RIQ = 0 1 TMR + 2PDE + 3ETR + 4EIN + 5BEN + 6 CFO +

3.6 Conclusion

In this chapter, the author has summarized the way of which the research is conducted, including the research methodology, data for the research and tools used

of the scale used in the table of questionnaire It is noted that the author utilizes the explanatory factor analysis (EFA) to test the relationship between independent variables and dependent variable in this research Then, the author carries out the multiple linear regression analysis to test the research hypotheses.

Chapter 4: Data analysis and result

4.1 Introduction

This chapter is presented the demographic and statistical analysis of the sample The

coefficients, exploratory factor analysis (EFA), correlation of research hypotheses and multiple linear regression analysis Tools to be used for analysis are Microsoft excel, SPSS version 20.

4.2 Data cleaning, Data filer and Sample description

4.1.1 Data cleaning and data filter

Totally 260 questionnaires were sent to Paint & coating enterprises there were 245 copies were received The data was collected and check to be qualified samples The remaining of 234 qualified samples was used for analysis.