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 anti-plagiarism 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 65 Appendix 4.4: Relationship Quality (RQ) factor: ****** Method (space saver) will be used for this analysis ****** _ RELIABILITY Statistics for SCALE Item-total Statistics RQ1 RQ2 RQ3 RQ4 RQ5 RQ6 Reliability Coefficients N of Cases = Alpha = ANALYSIS - SCALE RQ1 RQ2 RQ3 RQ4 RQ5 RQ6 (ALPHA) 66 Appendix 4.5: Word of Mouth (WOM) factor: ****** Method (space saver) will be used for this analysis ****** _ RELIABILITY Statistics for SCALE Item-total Statistics WOM1 WOM2 WOM3 Reliability Coefficients N of Cases = Alpha = ANALYSIS - SCALE WOM1 WOM2 WOM3 (ALPHA) 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 Sphericity Initial CB1 CB2 CB3 CB4 SB1 SB2 SB3 SB4 ST1 ST2 ST3 ST4 ST5 RQ1 RQ2 RQ3 RQ4 RQ5 RQ6 Extraction Method: Principal Component Analysis 68 Total Variance Explained Comp -onent Total 7.037 3.780 1.548 1.123 928 799 582 537 478 10 410 11 390 12 267 13 231 14 225 15 188 16 162 17 145 18 118 19 051 Extraction Method: Principal Component Analysis 69 Component Matrix(a) ST1 SB2 ST2 ST3 ST5 SB4 SB3 SB1 ST4 RQ2 RQ5 RQ3 RQ1 RQ6 CB4 RQ4 CB3 CB2 CB1 Extraction Method: Principal Component Analysis a components extracted 70 Rotated Component Matrix(a) ST1 ST2 ST3 ST4 ST5 RQ3 RQ2 RQ4 RQ5 RQ6 RQ1 SB4 SB2 SB1 SB3 CB1 CB2 CB3 CB4 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: Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin Measure of Sampling Adequacy Bartlett's Sphericity Test Initial WOM1 WOM2 WOM3 Extraction Method: Principal Component Analysis Component Extraction Method: Principal Component Analysis Component Matrix(a) Componen t WOM2 907 WOM1 894 WOM3 885 Extraction Method: Principal Component Analysis a components extracted 72 APPENDIX 6: CORRELATIONS Descriptive Statistics CB SB ST RQ WOM Correlations CB SB ST RQ WOM ** 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) Model a b All requested variables entered Dependent Variable: RQ Model R 592(a) a Predictors: (Constant), ST, CB, SB Model Regressio n Residual Total a b Predictors: (Constant), ST, CB, SB Dependent Variable: RQ Coefficients(a) Model (Constant) CB SB ST a Dependent Variable: RQ Collinearity Diagnostics(a) Model Dimension 1 a Dependent Variable: RQ 74 Appendix 7.2: Testing assumptions Histogram Frequency Dependent Variable: RQ 54 00 50 00 50 00 50 00 50 00 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 a b All requested variables entered Dependent Variable: WOM Model R a Predictors: (Constant), RQ 695(a) Model Regression Residual Total a b Predictors: (Constant), RQ Dependent Variable: WOM Coefficients(a) Model (Constant) RQ a Dependent Variable: WOM 77 Appendix 8.2: Testing assumptions Histogram Frequency Dependent Variable: WOM Regression Standardized Residual 78 Scatterplot Dependent Variable: WOM Regression Standardized Residual -1 -2 -3 -4 -5 -4 -3 -2 -1 Regression Standardized Predicted Value ... research model 43 ABTRAST This study examines the mediating role of relationship quality in the relations between relationship benefits and word of mouth in Vietnamese airlines ticket service. .. mouth in business Specifically, the study indicates the relations between relationship benefits constructs and relationship quality and between relationship quality and word of mouth The study also... Specifically: The relationship between confidence benefits and relationship quality The relationship between special treatment benefits and relationship quality The relationship between social benefits