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MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRANNING UNIVERSITY OF ECONOMICS, HO CHI MINH CITY  TRNG TH TUYT DUNG INFLUENTIAL FACTORS ON WORD OF MOUTH IN SERVICE INDUSTRIES (THE CASE OF HIGHER EDUCATION IN HOCHIMINH CITY, VIETNAM) MASTER THESIS IN BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION HO CHI MINH CITY – 2014 MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRANNING UNIVERSITY OF ECONOMICS HO CHI MINH CITY  TRNG TH TUYT DUNG INFLUENTIAL FACTORS ON WORD OF MOUTH IN SERVICE INDUSTRIES (THE CASE OF HIGHER EDUCATION IN HOCHIMINH CITY, VIETNAM) Subject: Master of Business Administrator Code: 60.34.05 MASTER THESIS IN BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION SUPERVISOR: Dr. TRN HÀ MINH QUÂN HO CHI MINH CITY – 2014 1 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT I would like to express my great gratitude to my supervisor, Dr. Trn Hà Minh Quân, for his wonderful knowledge, patient and kind guidance throughout this research. I would like to thank all of my respected lecturers of the eMBA19 course for their efforts and dedication in training us. I am appreciative my classmates for their kind support and encouragement. Finally, I would like to dedicate this study to my mom, my husband, and my sister, who always love and encourage me to pursue with my study. Ho Chi Minh City, January, 2014, Trng Th Tuyt Dung 2 COMMITMENT I would like to commit that this thesis, “Influential factors on word of mouth in service industries (the case of higher education in Hochiminh city, Vietnam)”, was accomplished based on my independent and serious study and scientific research. The data was collected in reality and it has clear origins. In addition to that, the data would be trust-worthily handled and it has never been released in any menu. Trng Th Tuyt Dung 3 TABLE OF CONTENT ABSTRACT 7 CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION 8 1.1. Introduction 8 1.2. Research Objectives 10 1.3. Research methodology and research scope 11 1.4. Significances of the research 11 1.5. Structure of the research 12 CHAPTER 2 LITERATURE REVIEW 12 2.1. Introduction 12 2.2. Higher education as a service 13 2.3. Word-of-Mouth (WOM) 13 2.3.1. Definition & characteristics 13 2.3.2. Role of WOM in decision of consumers 15 2.3.3. Effectiveness of WOM 17 2.4. Development of research model and hypothesis 18 2.4.1. Satisfaction 18 2.4.2. Loyalty 19 2.4.3. Service quality 20 2.4.4. The perceived value 21 2.4.5. Trust 22 2.4.6. Reference intention to enroll 23 2.4.7. Proposed conceptual model and hypotheses 23 2.5. Summary 24 CHAPTER 3 RESEARCH METHODOLOGY 25 3.1. Introduction 25 3.2. Research design 25 3.2.1. Research methodology 25 3.2.2. Research process 26 3.3. Measurement scales and questionnaire development 27 3.3.1. Measurement scales 27 3.3. 2. Questionnaire development 29 3.3.3. Questionnaire design 29 3.4. Pilot study 30 3.4.1. Qualitative pilot study 30 3.4.2. Quantitative pilot study 30 3.5. Quantitative main study 31 3.5.1. Research sampling 31 3.5.2. Collecting data 31 3.5.3. Methods of data analysis 31 3.5.4. Data cleaning 32 3.5.5. Reliability assessment of measurement scales (Cronbach's alpha) 32 3.5.6. Exploratory factor analysis (EFA) 32 3.5.7. Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) and SEM: 34 3.5.8. Bootstrap Method 36 3.6. Summary 36 CHAPTER 4 DATA ANALYSIS AND FINDINGS 37 4 4.1. Introduction 37 4.2. Descriptions of sample 37 4.3. Reliability and validity of the measurement scale 38 4.3.1. Reliability (Cronbach’s alpha) 39 4.3.2. Exploratory factor analysis (EFA) 41 4.3.2.1. EFA implementation for independent variables 41 4.3.2.2. EFA implementation for dependent variable 45 4.3.2.2.1. EFA for Word of Mouth (WOM): 45 4.3.2.2.2. EFA for Reference Intention (INT): 46 4.3.3 Confirmatory Factor Analysis: 47 4.4. Adjust the research model and the hypotheses 50 4.4.1. The adjusted research model 50 4.4.2. The adjusted research hypothesis 51 4.5. Testing the adjusted research model and the hypotheses 51 4.5.1. Testing the adjusted research model 51 4.5.2 Results of testing hypotheses 54 4.5.3. Boostrap test 56 4.6. Summary 57 CHAPTER 5 CONCLUSION AND IMPLICATION 58 5.1. Introduction 58 5.2. Findings 58 5.3 Recommendations 58 5.4. Limitation and future research 59 LIST OF REFERENCES 60 APPENDIX 1 QUESTIONNAIRE 71 APPENDIX 2 CRONBACH’S ALPHA ANALYSIS 79 APPENDIX 3 EXPLORATORY FACTOR ANALYSIS (EFA) 82 APPENDIX 4 CFA , SEM RESULTS 87 5 LIST OF TABLE Table 1.1: Definitions of Word-of-Mouth 13 Table 3.1. Measurement scales of variables 28 Table 4.1. Demographic characteristics of the respondents 38 Table 4.2. Cronbach‟s alpha of variables 39 Table 4.3. KMO and Bartlett's Test 41 Table 4.4. Total Variance Explained 42 Table 4.5. Rotated Component Matrix 43 Table 4.6. EFA results of independent variables 44 Table 4.7. EFA results of WOM variable 46 Table 4.8. EFA results of Reference Intention Variable 47 Table 4.9. Decriptive statistics, factor loads and Cronbach‟s alpha coefficients 48 Table 4.10. Pearson Correlation 49 Table 4.11. Results of testing hypothesis 55 Table 4.12. Square multiple Correlations (R 2 ) 56 Table 4.13 Boostrap results with N = 500 56 6 LIST OF FIGURE Figure 2.1. Proposed conceptual model of the research 24 Figure 3.1. Research process 26 Figure 4.1. Standardized measurement model of variables 50 Figure 4.2. The adjusted research model 51 Figure 4.3. Initial Structure Model 52 Figure 4.4. Nonstandard regression of the modified structural model 53 Figure 4.5. Standard regression of modified structural model 54 7 ABSTRACT This study aims to exam the factors effective in the formation of word-of- mouth about the services of higher education and their results among students in Ho Chi Minh City. A structural model with dimensions of factors affecting word-of-mouth, word-of-mouth and their results was tested with a sample of 223 students of higher educational institutions in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. The results of the study indicate that to Vietnamese consumers, perceived value, satisfaction and loyalty are factors effective in the formation of Word of mouth about higher educational institutions and Word of Mouth can affect on students‟ intention to refer to enroll at the institutions. These findings suggest that educational managers should make efforts to improve their mental image in students and to make students more satisfied in order to encourage them producing positive word-of-mouth about the organization. KEYWORDS: word of mouth, Hochiminh City, higher education, consumer‟s behavior 8 CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION 1.1. Introduction From marketer perspective, Word-of-mouth (WOM) is an important area and a key player for marketing research as this form of communication is regarded to have greater influences on other people‟s choices compared to other forms of communication (Murray, 1991; Day, 1971) and thus, more effective than other marketing tools and conventional advertising media (Engel et al., 1969; Katz and Lazarfeld, 1955). Although a WOM communication can be very influential in any purchase decision, previous researches suggest that its influence seems to be greater in services contexts (Ettenson and Turner, 1997; Murray, 1991). Even within the service sector, WOM seems to have different influences in different service contexts because risk is regarded higher in some service purchase situations than it is in others (Bansal and Voyer, 2000; Still et al., 1984). Education is a special service situation in which WOM seems to be significant (Cook and Zallocco, 1983; Mazzarol and Soutar, 2002). In Vietnam, education always plays a central role in culture and society. With a densely-populated country with a population of 86 million people and with more than 60% under the age of 35 (Source: General Department of Statistics of Vietnam, 2009), Vietnam‟s education emerges huge needs for this young population. Moreover, as a developing country with strong industrial growth, expanding foreign investment and a booming private sector, Vietnam need a variety of workplaces skills, including technology and management knowledge; therefore, high demand for good quality training is generated for education in Vietnam (Maine International Trade Center, 2010 ). The Higher Education Reform Agenda 2006-2020 has built to aim on changing education environment, resulting in a growth in the number of public, [...]... the service quality construct Parasuraman et al (1988) suggest service quality is a five-dimensional construct, with tangible (facilities, equipment and appearance of staff), reliability (ability to perform the promised service dependably and accurately), responsibility (willingness to help customers and provide prompt service), assurance (knowledge and courtesy of staff and their ability to convey trust... Moreover, according to data from MOET in 2007, higher education in Vietnam faces many challenges such as ratio of students to faculty is low at 1/30; quality of faculty is not as high as needed (for example, only 14% of faculty have a doctoral degree and 33% have a masters degree); quality assurance in education remains weak; enrollment is concentrated in a few academic disciplines (nearly 50% of all students... demands LOY Loyalty LOY1 I would enroll at X if I wanted to study LOY2 My future study will be by X LOY3 SER Service Quality SER1 The quality of the services of X are at high level SER2 The service quality of X is better than other universities SER3 The services of X have a high standard PER Perceived Value PER1 Compared to other universities, X charges better prices for the quality of services provided... generalizability (Carman, 1990), as the number of dimensions obtained seems to vary across 21 industries Studies conducted by Boulding et al (1993) indicates perceptions of service quality are importantly connected with their behavioral reactions beneficial to the service provider (e.g generate positive WOM, ty is a factor determining WOM (Bloemer et al., 1999) because in the context of the service quality field,... descending the level of anxiety, non-assurance and vulnerability and in turn, these benefits affect on customers satisfaction which have influences on the WOM, especially in the field of service which is more complex than the field of product Furthermore, in the service qual (Parasuraman et al., 1988) Studies have shown that trust, as one element of relationship quality (along with satisfaction and commitment),... conceptual model in figure 2 24 Satisfaction H1 Loyalty H2 H6 Service quality H3 Perceived Value H4 Positive WOM Reference Intention H5 Trust Figure 2.1 Proposed conceptual model of the research H1: Satisfaction has a positive influence on positive word-of-mouth - H2: Loyalty has a positive influence on positive word-of-mouth - H3: Service quality has a positive influence on positive word-of-mouth... (1996) 10 points out that these effects are enlarged by a higher degree of customer loyalty and profitability Researchers have found that WOM is strongly and positively at al, 2003), service quality (Parasuraman et al, 1988), satisfaction (Anderson, 1998), perceived value (Hartline & Jones, 1996), relationship quality (Boles et al., 1997), and with consumer intention to purchase (Crocker, 1986) Furthermore,... Based on the above discussion, within higher education context, the following hypothesis is proposed: The second hypothesis (H2): loyalty has a positive effect on the formation of positive word of mouth about higher education institutions 2.4.3 Service quality Service quality is defined as the level of service offered to meet customer expectations and hence, emerged as the result of the interaction between... factors - (1) satisfaction, (2) trust, (3) service quality, (4) the perceived value and, (5) loyalty are found to be effective on WOM and can affect on c using the service In this study, the author uses the model of Yasvari et al to test factors effective in the formation of WOM and their outcomes in context of higher education in Hochiminh City 1.2 Research Objectives As mentioned above, studies into... Minh city to explore whether the scales for measuring the construct sections are suitable or not After that, some necessary adjustments have been made In the main study, a quantitative approach was used Data analysis is conducted to test reliability of the measurement scales relied on coefficient and Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA) Then the Confirmatory Factor Analysis was used to test the validity of . students to faculty is low at 1/30; quality of faculty is not as high as needed (for example, only 14% of faculty have a doctoral degree and 33% have a masters degree); quality assurance in. IN BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION HO CHI MINH CITY – 2014 MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRANNING UNIVERSITY OF ECONOMICS HO CHI MINH CITY  TRNG TH TUYT DUNG INFLUENTIAL FACTORS. 4.1. Introduction 37 4.2. Descriptions of sample 37 4.3. Reliability and validity of the measurement scale 38 4.3.1. Reliability (Cronbach’s alpha) 39 4.3.2. Exploratory factor analysis (EFA)