The mediating role of relationship quality in the relation between relationship benefits and word of mouth: A study of the airlines ticket service

MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING UNIVERSITY OF ECONOMICS HO CHI MINH CITY  PHAM VO THANH DIEP THE MEDIATING ROLE OF RELATIONSHIP QUALITY IN THE RELATION BETWEEN RELATIONSHIP BENEFITS AND WORD OF MOUTH: A STUDY OF THE AIRLINES TICKET SERVICE THESIS OF MASTER OF BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION HO CHI MINH CITY – 2012 MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING UNIVERSITY OF ECONOMICS HO CHI MINH CITY  PHAM VO THANH DIEP THE MEDIATING ROLE OF RELATIONSHIP QUALITY IN THE RELATION BETWEEN RELATIONSHIP BENEFITS AND WORD OF MOUTH: A STUDY OF THE AIRLINES TICKET SERVICE Subject: Master of Business Administration Code: 60340102 THESIS OF MASTER OF BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION SUPERVISOR: Assoc Prof Dr Nguyen Dinh Tho HO CHI MINH CITY – 2012 I ACKNOWLEDGEMENT First of all, I would like to express my most sincere gratitude to Assoc Prof Dr Nguyen Dinh Tho, my thesis supervisor Without his invaluable advice, patience and guidance, I would not have reached my final results Secondly, thanks to respectful lecturers of University of Economics Ho Chi Minh City and all members of eMBA class course 19 have supported me in enhancing knowledge during the master of business administration course Thirdly, I would like to thank the participants who had taken their precious time to answer the questionnaires This thesis would not have been feasible without their valuable and honest feedback Last but not least, special thanks and love to my husband who is also my eMBA classmate, Nguyen Van Thanh, for his useful discussions and advices while implementing this thesis At the same time, deepest thanks to other eMBA classmates and my two close friends for their voluntary and enthusiastic supports and kindnesses Pham Vo Thanh Diep Ho Chi Minh City, October 2012 II COMMITMENT I would like to commit that this study, “The mediating role of relationship quality in the relation between relationship benefits and word of mouth: a case study of Vietnamese airlines ticket service”, has been implemented based on my independent and serious studies and scientific researches The data were collected from reality and they had credible origins The thesis supported the rule of antiplagiarism Pham Vo Thanh Diep III TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGEMENT I COMMITMENT II COMMITMENT II TABLE OF CONTENTS III LIST OF ABRREVIATIONS VI LIST OF TABLES VII LIST OF FIGURES VIII ABTRAST CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 1.1 Research background: 1.2 Vietnamese aviation market: 1.3 Problem statement: 1.4 Research Objectives: 1.5 Research question: 1.6 Scope and methodology of study: 1.7 Practical significances of the study: 1.8 Structure of the thesis CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW 10 2.1 Relationship quality & relationship benefits: 10 2.2 Relationship quality and word of mouth: 14 2.3 Proposed conceptual model: 17 2.4 Summary 18 CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY 20 3.1 Research design: 20 3.1.1 Qualitative research: 20 3.1.2 Quantitative research: 21 3.2 Questionnaire design: 21 3.2.1 Measurement scales: 21 IV 3.2.2 Questionnaire development: 23 3.3 Sample Design: 24 3.4 Methods of data analysis: 25 3.5 Research Process: 25 3.6 Summary: 27 CHAPTER 4: DATA ANALYSIS AND FINDINGS 28 4.1 Descriptions of sample 28 4.2 Reliability and validity of the measurement scale 29 4.2.1 Reliability (Cronbach alpha) 29 4.2.2 Exploratory factor analysis (EFA) 32 4.3 Testing the research model and the hypotheses 36 4.3.1 Testing correlations of constructs: 36 4.3.2 Multiple linear regression analysis of relationship quality scale: 37 4.3.3 Simple liner regression analysis: 41 4.3.3 Summary of Liner regression analysis: 42 4.4 Summary 44 CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSION AND IMPLICATIONS 45 5.1 Discussion 45 5.2 Practical implications 46 5.3 Limitations and further research 47 REFERENCES 49 APPENDIX 1: INITIAL MEASUREMENT SCALE 53 APPENDIX 2: QUALITATIVE RESEARCH 55 APPENDIX 3: VIETNAMESE QUESTIONNAIRE 58 APPENDIX 4: CRONBACH ALPHA ANALYSIS 62 Appendix 4.1: Confidence Benefits (CB) factor: 62 Appendix 4.2: Special Treatment Benefits (ST) factor: 63 Appendix 4.3: Social Benefits (SB) factor: 64 Appendix 4.4: Relationship Quality (RQ) factor: 65 V Appendix 4.5: Word of Mouth (WOM) factor: 66 APPENDIX 5: EXPLORATORY FACTOR ANALYSIS (EFA) 67 Appendix 5.1: The EFA implementation of relationship quality scale: 67 Appendix 5.2: The EFA implementation of word of mouth scale: 71 APPENDIX 6: CORRELATIONS 72 APPENDIX 7: MULTIPLE LINER REGRESSION ANALYSIS 73 Appendix 7.1: The result of multiple liner regression analysis: 73 Appendix 7.2: Testing assumptions 74 APPENDIX 8: SIMPLE LINEAR REGRESSION ANALYSIS 76 Appendix 8.1: The result of simple liner regression analysis: 76 Appendix 8.2: Testing assumptions 77 VI LIST OF ABRREVIATIONS CB: Confidence benefits EFA: Explore factor analysis IATA: International Air Transport Association ICAO: International Civil Aviation Organization MLR: Multiple linear regression RQ: Relationship quality SB: Social benefits SLR: Simple linear regression ST: Special treatment benefits WOM: Word of mouth VII LIST OF TABLES Table 3.1 The measurement scale of relationship benefits 22 Table 3.2: The measurement scale of relationship quality 23 Table 3.3: The measurement scale of word of mouth 23 Table 4.1 Statistical report of demographic variables 29 Table 4.2 Cronbach alpha coefficients 31 Table 4.3 EFA results of relationship quality scale: 34 Table 4.4 EFA results of word of mouth scale: 35 Table 4.5 Correlation matrix 36 Table 4.6: ANOVA of MLR 38 Table 4.7: MLR Model Summary 38 Table 4.8: Coefficients of MLR 39 Table 4.9: ANOVA of SLR 41 Table 4.10: SLR Model Summary 42 Table 4.11: Coefficients of SLR 42 Table 4.11: Results of linear regression analysis 42 VIII LIST OF FIGURES Figure 1.1 Degree of trust in forms of advertising Figure 2.1 Proposed conceptual model 18 Figure 3.1 Research process 26 Figure 4.1 The revised research model 43 64 Appendix 4.3: Social Benefits (SB) factor: ****** Method (space saver) will be used for this analysis ****** _ R E L I A B I L I T Y SB1 SB2 SB3 SB4 Statistics for SCALE Mean 14.3364 A N A L Y S I S - S C A L E (A L P H A) Mean Std Dev Cases 3.5773 3.3545 4.0682 3.3364 1.4676 1.4530 1.4711 1.5217 220.0 220.0 220.0 220.0 N of Variables Variance 27.1101 Std Dev 5.2067 Scale Mean if Item Deleted Scale Variance if Item Deleted Corrected ItemTotal Correlation 10.7591 10.9818 10.2682 11.0000 16.0102 15.2965 16.4346 15.2237 Item-total Statistics SB1 SB2 SB3 SB4 Alpha if Item Deleted 7617 8537 7136 8060 8825 8495 8994 8665 Reliability Coefficients N of Cases = Alpha = 220.0 9032 N of Items = 65 Appendix 4.4: Relationship Quality (RQ) factor: ****** Method (space saver) will be used for this analysis ****** _ R E L I A B I L I T Y RQ1 RQ2 RQ3 RQ4 RQ5 RQ6 Statistics for SCALE Mean 28.8364 A N A L Y S I S - S C A L E (A L P H A) Mean Std Dev Cases 4.9091 4.7864 4.9591 4.9545 4.7000 4.5273 1.1148 9999 9082 9155 9844 1.0443 220.0 220.0 220.0 220.0 220.0 220.0 N of Variables Variance 21.7448 Std Dev 4.6631 Scale Mean if Item Deleted Scale Variance if Item Deleted Corrected ItemTotal Correlation 23.9273 24.0500 23.8773 23.8818 24.1364 24.3091 15.1636 15.0705 15.5328 15.8581 15.4882 15.8310 Item-total Statistics RQ1 RQ2 RQ3 RQ4 RQ5 RQ6 Alpha if Item Deleted 6148 7309 7525 6924 6825 5804 8607 8382 8363 8459 8468 8651 Reliability Coefficients N of Cases = Alpha = 220.0 8708 N of Items = 66 Appendix 4.5: Word of Mouth (WOM) factor: ****** Method (space saver) will be used for this analysis ****** _ R E L I A B I L I T Y WOM1 WOM2 WOM3 Statistics for SCALE Mean 14.2182 A N A L Y S I S - S C A L E (A L P H A) Mean Std Dev Cases 4.6136 4.7545 4.8500 1.1229 1.0658 1.0069 220.0 220.0 220.0 N of Variables Variance 8.1896 Std Dev 2.8618 Scale Mean if Item Deleted Scale Variance if Item Deleted Corrected ItemTotal Correlation 9.6045 9.4636 9.3682 3.6648 3.8023 4.1332 Item-total Statistics WOM1 WOM2 WOM3 Alpha if Item Deleted 7591 7823 7431 8268 8034 8402 Reliability Coefficients N of Cases = Alpha = 220.0 8753 N of Items = 67 APPENDIX 5: EXPLORATORY FACTOR ANALYSIS (EFA) Appendix 5.1: The EFA implementation of relationship quality scale: KMO and Bartlett's Test Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin Measure of Sampling Adequacy Bartlett's Test of Approx Chi-Square Sphericity df Sig Communalities CB1 CB2 CB3 CB4 SB1 SB2 SB3 SB4 ST1 ST2 ST3 ST4 ST5 RQ1 RQ2 RQ3 RQ4 RQ5 RQ6 Initial 1.000 1.000 1.000 1.000 1.000 1.000 1.000 1.000 1.000 1.000 1.000 1.000 1.000 1.000 1.000 1.000 1.000 1.000 1.000 Extraction 794 798 557 447 749 837 656 809 824 803 817 742 713 576 700 737 690 663 575 Extraction Method: Principal Component Analysis .847 3180.693 171 000 68 Total Variance Explained Comp -onent Initial Eigenvalues Total % of Variance Cumulative % Extraction Sums of Squared Loadings Total % of Variance Cumulative % Rotation Sums of Squared Loadings Total % of Variance Cumulative % 7.037 37.038 37.038 7.037 37.038 37.038 4.246 22.347 22.347 3.780 19.897 56.935 3.780 19.897 56.935 3.784 19.914 42.261 1.548 8.149 65.084 1.548 8.149 65.084 2.941 15.480 57.741 1.123 5.908 70.992 1.123 5.908 70.992 2.518 13.252 70.992 928 4.885 75.878 799 4.207 80.084 582 3.061 83.145 537 2.827 85.972 478 2.516 88.488 10 410 2.158 90.646 11 390 2.053 92.699 12 267 1.407 94.106 13 231 1.215 95.322 14 225 1.182 96.503 15 188 991 97.495 16 162 850 98.345 17 145 765 99.110 18 118 623 99.733 19 051 267 100.000 Extraction Method: Principal Component Analysis 69 Component Matrix(a) Component ST1 768 SB2 763 747 ST2 ST3 ST5 SB4 SB3 SB1 ST4 RQ2 RQ5 RQ3 RQ1 RQ6 CB4 RQ4 CB3 CB2 CB1 736 723 720 715 704 696 616 596 577 562 572 660 625 616 586 584 579 Extraction Method: Principal Component Analysis a components extracted 70 Rotated Component Matrix(a) Component ST1 ST2 ST3 ST4 ST5 RQ3 RQ2 RQ4 RQ5 RQ6 RQ1 SB4 SB2 SB1 SB3 CB1 CB2 CB3 CB4 860 852 847 796 796 799 789 765 730 689 688 817 768 762 675 882 877 668 511 Extraction Method: Principal Component Analysis Rotation Method: Varimax with Kaiser Normalization a Rotation converged in iterations 71 Appendix 5.2: The EFA implementation of word of mouth scale: KMO and Bartlett's Test Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin Adequacy Bartlett's Sphericity Test Measure of Sampling 740 of Approx Chi-Square df 337.889 Sig .000 Communalities Initial 1.000 1.000 WOM1 WOM2 WOM3 Extraction 799 822 1.000 784 Extraction Method: Principal Component Analysis Total Variance Explained Initial Eigenvalues Component Total 2.405 % of Variance 80.157 327 10.894 268 8.950 Extraction Method: Principal Component Analysis Component Matrix(a) Componen t WOM2 WOM1 WOM3 Extraction Sums of Squared Loadings Cumulative % 80.157 907 894 885 Extraction Method: Principal Component Analysis a components extracted 91.050 100.000 Total 2.405 % of Variance 80.157 Cumulative % 80.157 72 APPENDIX 6: CORRELATIONS Descriptive Statistics CB SB ST RQ WOM Mean 5.0034 Std Deviation 80611 N 3.5841 3.3364 1.30168 1.28906 220 220 4.8061 4.7394 77719 95392 220 220 220 Correlations CB CB Pearson Correlation Sig (2-tailed) N SB Pearson Correlation Sig (2-tailed) N ST Pearson Correlation Sig (2-tailed) N RQ Pearson Correlation Sig (2-tailed) N WOM Pearson Correlation Sig (2-tailed) N SB ST RQ WOM 100 101 502(**) 378(**) 141 136 000 000 220 220 220 220 220 100 670(**) 358(**) 194(**) 141 000 000 004 220 220 220 220 220 101 670(**) 292(**) 185(**) 136 000 000 006 220 220 220 220 220 502(**) 358(**) 292(**) 695(**) 000 000 000 000 220 220 220 220 220 378(**) 194(**) 185(**) 695(**) 000 004 006 000 220 220 220 220 220 ** Correlation is significant at the 0.01 level (2-tailed) 73 APPENDIX 7: MULTIPLE LINER REGRESSION ANALYSIS Appendix 7.1: The result of multiple liner regression analysis: Variables Entered/Removed(b) Variables Variables Entered Removed ST, CB, SB(a) a All requested variables entered b Dependent Variable: RQ Model Method Enter Model Summary Model R R Square 592(a) 350 a Predictors: (Constant), ST, CB, SB Adjusted R Square 341 Std Error of the Estimate 63084 ANOVA(b) Sum of Squares Model Regressio n Residual Total df Mean Square 46.321 15.440 85.960 216 398 132.281 a Predictors: (Constant), ST, CB, SB b Dependent Variable: RQ 219 F Sig 38.798 000(a) Coefficients(a) Unstandardized Coefficients Model B (Constant) CB SB ST Standardized Coefficients 1.840 Std Error 285 452 159 053 044 040 045 t Sig Beta Collinearity Statistics Tolerance VIF 6.461 000 469 267 8.498 3.610 000 000 988 550 1.012 1.819 066 888 376 550 1.819 a Dependent Variable: RQ Collinearity Diagnostics(a) Dimension 1 3.840 1.000 (Constant) 00 107 5.993 040 012 9.766 17.564 a Dependent Variable: RQ Eigenvalue Condition Index Model Variance Proportions CB SB ST 00 00 00 04 07 12 20 00 95 00 93 87 01 79 00 74 Appendix 7.2: Testing assumptions Histogram Dependent Variable: RQ 40 30 Frequency 20 10 Std Dev = 99 Mean = 0.00 N = 220.00 50 00 50 00 00 0 - 0 -1 -1 0 -2 -2 0 -3 -3 0 -4 -4 0 -5 Regression Standardized Residual 75 Scatterplot Dependent Variable: RQ Regression Standardized Residual -2 -4 -6 -6 -4 -2 Regression Standardized Predicted Value 76 APPENDIX 8: SIMPLE LINEAR REGRESSION ANALYSIS Appendix 8.1: The result of simple liner regression analysis: Variables Entered/Removed(b) Model Variables Entered RQ(a) Variables Removed Method Enter a All requested variables entered b Dependent Variable: WOM Model Summary Model R R Square Adjusted R Square 695(a) 482 a Predictors: (Constant), RQ Std Error of the Estimate 480 68785 ANOVA(b) Model Regression Residual Sum of Squares 96.136 Total df Mean Square 96.136 103.144 218 473 199.281 219 F 203.188 Sig .000(a) a Predictors: (Constant), RQ b Dependent Variable: WOM Coefficients(a) Unstandardized Coefficients Model B (Constant) RQ a Dependent Variable: WOM 642 853 Std Error 291 060 Standardized Coefficients t Sig Beta 695 2.206 14.254 028 000 77 Appendix 8.2: Testing assumptions Histogram Dependent Variable: WOM 60 50 40 Frequency 30 20 Std Dev = 1.00 10 Mean = 0.00 N = 220.00 -3.50 -2.50 -3.00 -1.50 -2.00 -.50 -1.00 50 0.00 1.50 1.00 2.50 2.00 Regression Standardized Residual 3.50 3.00 78 Scatterplot Dependent Variable: WOM Regression Standardized Residual -1 -2 -3 -4 -5 -4 -3 -2 -1 Regression Standardized Predicted Value