Channel perormance enablers, channel conflict and channel member performance an investigation into vietnam airlines agencies

UNIVERSITY OF ECONOMICS HO CHI MINH CITY International School of Business NGUYEN THI TUYET OANH CHANNEL PERFORMANCE ENABLERS, CHANNEL CONFLICT AND CHANNEL MEMBER PERFORMANCE: AN INVESTIGATION INTO VIETNAM AIRLINES’ AGENCIES MASTER OF BUSINESS (Honours) Ho Chi Minh City – 2014 UNIVERSITY OF ECONOMICS HO CHI MINH CITY International School of Business NGUYEN THI TUYET OANH CHANNEL PERFORMANCE ENABLERS, CHANNEL CONFLICT AND CHANNEL MEMBER PERFORMANCE: AN INVESTIGATION INTO VIETNAM AIRLINES’ AGENCIES ID: 21110014 MASTER OF BUSINESS (Honours) SUPERVISOR: LUU TRONG TUAN PH.D Ho Chi Minh City – 2014 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This thesis could not have been possible without the help of many people First, I would like to take this opportunity to express my sincere gratitude to Dr Luu Trong Tuan for his clear and careful direction, his guidance and his corrections of my thesis I especially appreciate his continual and on-going enthusiasm in responding, reminding, and assisting in all aspects of this endeavor Secondly, I would like to express my sincere thanks to my company, Thien Hai Services Travel Trading Corporation, as well as my managers and supervisors for their patience, understanding and support of my thesis Thirdly, I would like to thank my dear colleagues, friends and classmates for their valuable encouragement during the many months that I was working on this thesis Special thanks are also sent to those individuals working for the Vietnam Airlines’ agencies who have volunteered their valuable time in meeting, speaking with and responding to my thesis survey Last, but not least, I would like to express my heartfelt thanks to my family for their support, their encouragement, and their faith while completing my thesis i ABSTRACT This study investigates the relationships between channel performance enablers which include trust, commitment and cooperation, as well as channel conflict, and channel member performance in service industries, especially in the area of logistics as found in the airlines industry The objective of this study is to determine the influence that both channel performance enablers and channel conflict has on channel member performance Our research questions were: “Are there positive relationships between channel performance enablers and channel member performance?” “Is there a negative relationship between channel conflict and channel member performance?” To test the hypotheses, we studied 208 respondents working in 18 various Vietnam Airlines’ agencies The data collection was based on the questionnaire adapted from previous studies and modified for the service industry as well as for the Vietnam context (Dwyer and Oh, 1987; Kumar et al, 1995; Lumineau and Oxley, 2007; Sezen and Yilmaz, 2007) As expected, the results of the study show the existence of positive relationships between channel performance enablers and channel member performance In these relationships, cooperation has the strongest positive relationship with channel member performance (ß = 0.284, p