Client perceived service and satisfaction in business to business professional tax consultant services

UNIVERSITY OF ECONOMICS HO CHI MINH CITY International School of Business Nguyen Thi Ngoc Phuong Client perceived service and satisfaction in business-to-business professional tax consultant services ID: 22110046 MASTER OF BUSINESS (Honours) SUPERVISOR: Dr Vo Thi Ngoc Thuy Ho Chi Minh City- 2014 Master thesis Acknowledgement I would like to express my gratitude to my supervisor, Dr Vo Thi Ngoc Thuy, for the patient guidance, encouragement and advices she has provided throughout the time preparing this thesis In addition, I would like to thank all the members of committee and professors at International School of Business and my colleagues for their great orientation, instructions and comments for my further improvement of my thesis Thanks to all participants in the research survey for their kind support and cooperation Finally, I also would like to thank family and friends who always support and encourage me a lot Nguyen Thi Ngoc Phuong March 2014 Master thesis Abstract This thesis attempts to empirically confirm the applicability of La et al.' s (2009) conceptual model regarding client perceived value in professional business-to-business service in professional tax services in the context of Vietnam It endeavors to expand the concept of value and satisfaction in business-to-business professional tax services in the context of Vietnam This is the first research representative in the context of Vietnam that is a theoretical contribution to the research on value and client satisfaction from an Asian behavior perspective The results show that in the context of professional tax consultant services m Vietnam, clients tend to perceived performance and value in the same stage called perceived service There are five factors which are empirically confirmed having positive effects to perceived service i.e technical skills, interpersonal skills, customer orientation, reputation and relationship with tax authorities In addition, perceived service is a key contributing factor to client satisfaction The results also indicate that the impacts of reputation and relationship with tax authorities on perceived service are not different in terms of firm's international experience and nature of engaged services, respectively In addition, the research aims to provide managerial implications Based on the finding, discussion and recommendations in the research, professional tax firms can have further actions to address client's need and more improve the level of customer satisfaction ii Master thesis CONTENTS Acknowledgement i Abstract ii Chapter 1: Introduction 1.1 Research background 1.2 Research problem 1.3 Research objectives 1.4 Scope ofthe research 1.5 Significance ofthe research 1.6 Structure of the thesis Chapter 2: Literature review 2.1 Literature review 2.2 Qualitative analysis 16 2.3 Hypothesis 22 Chapter 3: Methodology 26 2.1 Methodology 26 2.2 Measurement 27 Chapter 4: Data Analysis 32 3.1 Purifying data 3.2 Measurement analysis 32 3.3 Hypothesis testing 38 3.4 Moderator testing 45 Chapter 5: Discussion and Conclusion 48 4.1 Results Discussion 48 4.2 Managerial implication 52 4.3 Conclusion 53 4.4 Limitation and Further research directions .53 lll Master thesis REFERENCE 55 APPENDIX 57 • LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES Tables Table 1: Summary of qualitative analysis' results 20 Table 2: Summary of indicators of the constructs used in the research model 28 Table 3: The Cronbach alpha coefficients of components 33 Table 4: Exploratory Factor Analysis Table 5: Extracted Factors 34 37 Table 6: The Cronbach alpha coefficients of new components 38 Table 7: Summary of regression results: Factors having impacts on Perceived Service 41 Table 8: Relationship among independent variables (Technical Skills, Interpersonal Skills, Customer Orientation, Reputation, Relationship with Tax Authorities) and dependent variable (Perceived Service) 42 Table 9: Summary of regression results: Factor having impact on Client Satisfaction 44 Table 10: Relationship between independent variable (perceived service) and dependent variable (client satisfaction) 44 Table 11: Summary of Chow test results 46 Figures Figure 1: Summary of qualitative analysis' results 22 Figure 2: Proposed Conceptual Model of Client Perceived Value and Satisfaction in Business-to-Business Professional Tax Services in Vietnam 25 Figure 3: Conceptual Model of Client Perceived Value and Satisfaction in Business-toBusiness Professional Tax Services in Vietnam 39 Figure 4: Regression results: Factors having impacts on Perceived Service 43 Figure 5: Summary ofthesis results 47 lV Master thesis Chapter 1: Introduction 1.1 Research background In the intensively competetive landscape of the world's economy in general and Vietnamese' in specific, almost all industries have faced many challenges and difficulties The professional tax consultant service industry is not an exception In order to gain competitive advantage, service firms today are required to deliver superior client value (Flint, Woodruff and Gardial, 2002) Value has been linked to loyalty, increased profits, long term survival and competitive advantage (Khalifa 2004; Woofruff 1997; Hamel and Prahalad 1994; Day and Wensley 1988) However, the definition of value is often vague and the interpretation might be very different between the client and the service provider due to different perspectives This might be the reason why many scholars state that 'how" clients interpret value is more important than 'how' service providers believe what value is supposed to be (Blois, 2004) This concept is further complicated when studying professional services, which are more complex and intangible than regular services, meaning clients often have difficulty in confidently evaluating performance outcome (La, Patterson and Style, 2009) Understanding clients' view of value which links to the comprehension of clients' perceived performance is a one of critical success factors for almost of the firm especially professional firms La, Patterson and Style (2009) find significant strong positive relationship from performance that completely mediates the relationship to satisfaction through value to satisfaction in professional business-to-business services Professional tax services are professional services provided by professional tax firms whose staff- tax consultants- are experts in tax law Together with the growth of economy and the complex of many types of business and transactions, tax law become more complicated than ever, especially in emerging countries where there are frequent changes in tax regulations and practices Professional tax services advise or consult clients based on Master thesis interpretation of the most updated tax law and experience on current practices which many clients not have inside their organizations Therefore, except the company with extremely simple financial affairs, the others are about to seek to appoint a firm to provide tax services 1.2 Research problem In line with the difficult economic environment as well as the growth in both quality and quantity of many professional tax service firms in Vietnam, clients have more choices to satisfy their needs The competition in this industry becomes fiercer Thus, almost these firms more focus on how client perceives the firm's service performance and value which is proved having connections to client satisfaction that in turn should be the ultimate goal of all firms (Morgan et al, 2005) In recent years, substantial research has examined the client perceived performance, client perceived value (and its determinants) in business-to-business professional services Research has also found empirical support for the relationship between client perceived performance and client satisfaction through value (La, Patterson and Style, 2009) In addition, previous research show the evidence indicating that client satisfaction in turn connects to repurchase, loyalty, and willingness to maintain a long-term relationship with the service provider (Iacobucci et al., 1994; Athanassopoulos et al., 2001 ) Consequently, many researchers desire to examine the determinants of client perceived performance and to confirm the relationship between client perceived performance and client satisfaction through value in various professional services in particularly However, most of the research has focused on examine antecedents of value and what value means as well as what impacts on client satisfaction in business-to-consumer professional services using Parasurama (1985 and 1988) and Gronroos (1984)measurement model and its dimensions Little research has been devoted to examine client perceived value and client satisfaction in business-to-business professional services sector Currently, researchers have made some recent attempts to Master thesis investigate and develop alternative B2B specific scales in some specific industries such as engineering consultant, software, etc The most significant contribution to this era has been the conceptual model for client-perceived value and satisfaction in an international perspective in developing economies developed by La et al (2009) 1.3 Research objectives Given the unique characteristics of the professional tax services which are provided on a basis of tax regulations and current practices, a study focus on examining client perceived value and client satisfaction in professional tax services sector applying La et al.' s (2009) conceptual model would be useful for both practitioners and researchers Since the level of development of tax regulations and practices are different among countries, this study specifically focus on business-to-business professional tax services in Vietnam Further to the above discussion, this study aims to obtain following objectives: 1) To examine the antecedents of client perceived performance; 2) To test the effect of client perceived performance to client perceived value in professional tax services in Vietnam; 3) To test the effect of client perceived value to client satisfaction with professional tax services in Vietnam; and 4) To explore factors/ situations (moderators) leading to the different influence of these factors to client perceived service in the context of Vietnam 1.4 Scope of the research Initially, the qualitative analysis will be conducted to confirm whether the factors having significant effect to client perceived performance and client perceived value as well as the factors/ situations leading to the different influence of these factors to client perceived performance and value in La et al.'s (2009) conceptual model are applicable in professional tax services in the context of Vietnam Through this process, the analysis is expected to Master thesis identify factors that reflect the unique characteristics of the professional tax service in Vietnam Then, data for quantitative analysis are collected to confirm the identified factors and their moderators The sampling frame for this study was clients of tax consultant firms in Ho Chi Minh City where most of the largest tax consultant firms place their offices Their clients can spread from Da Nang to Ca Mau and are engaged in various industries 1.5 Significance ofthe research This thesis attempts to confirm the applicability of La et al.' s (2009) conceptual model are applicable in professional tax services in the context of Vietnam It is expected that this model will be further modified to reflect the reality of the professional tax services in Vietnam through qualitative analysis to confirm/ disconfirm the applicability of the factors/ relationship and/or introduce of new factors/ relationship relative to client perceived • performance, value and satisfaction Then quantitative analysis is conducted to provide empirical evidence to strengthen the results of qualitative analysis It endeavors to expand the concept of value and satisfaction in business-to-business professional tax services in the context of Vietnam This is the first research representative is in the context of Vietnam that is a theoretical contribution to the research on value and client satisfaction from an Asian behavior perspective In addition, the research aims to provide managerial implications This finding is expected to help professional tax firms understand deeply about the factors having significant effect to client perceived performance and value in a client's perspective such as technical skills, interpersonal skills, customer orientation, relationship with tax authority, and reputation Based on this understanding and finding, professional tax firms can have further actions to address client's need and more improve the level of customer satisfaction In addition, exploring the factor leads to different influence of factors having significant effect Master thesis to client perceived performance and value is extremely important for the firms in this sector to identify their relative competition in comparison with others Further to that, the firms can set up strategy in order to be more competent and successful 1.6 Structure of the thesis This thesis comprises chapters Chapter is the introduction which gives an overview of research background, problems, objectives, scope and significant ofthe research The next section is Chapter which provides a review of the literature on client perceived performance and its factors; client perceived value and satisfaction in service, qualitative study and hypotheses Then the thesis continues with Chapter - the discussion about methodology followed by empirical investigation and its results in Chapter The thesis ends with Chapter - discussion about the results, managerial implication and limitation PER21 PER22 7 Master thesis • C In which: PER- Perceived performance CLI.PER- Client perceived value CLI.SAT- Client satisfaction 78 Master thesis Appendix 7: Summary of results of regression testing (Regression analysis for factors affecting Perceived Service) Appendix A: 1st regression Model I a Predictors: (Constant), REP, REL, TEC, INT, CUS Model Residua Total a Dependent Variable: PER.SER b Predictors: (Constant), REP, REL, TEC, INT, CUS Coefficients" • 79 Master thesis • b Predictors: (Constant), REP, REL, 80 Master thesis Histogram D endent Variable: PER.SER • Mean = 44E-15 Std Dev = 0.976 N=105 Regression Standardized Residual Normal P-P Plot of Regression Standardized Residual 1.0-r- _Dependent :., _Variable:PER.SER ::_ 0.8 a .0 Q E 0.6 ::::J "CC Gl u Gl D )C 0.4 w 0.2 o.o-IS!~ r -, -,, , 0.0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 Observed Cum Prob Master thesis • iii :I 'iii Gl a: Gl N co c co c 'iii Ill Gl C) Gl a: • Regression Standardized Predicted Value • 82 Master thesis Appendix 8: Summary of results of regression testing (Regression analysis for factors affecting Client Satisfaction) ANOVA" Model a Dependent Variable: CLI.SAT b Predictors: (Constant), PER.SER Statistics N Std Deviation Skewness Std Error of Skewness Kurtosis Std Error of Kurtosis 83 Master thesis Histogram Dependent Variable: CLI.SAT Mean= -6.63E-15 Std Dev =0.995 N =105 Regression Standardized Residual Normal P-P Plot of Regression Standardized Residual Dependent Variable: CLI.SAT o ; _ 0.8 a Q, E 0.6 :I u - .a Gl u Gl D 0.4 :1< w 0.2 o.o-fB!: -,. , . 0.0 Master thesis • ii "'C 'iii Cll "'C Cll N "'C c "' c 'iii Ill Cll Q Cll Regression Standardized Predicted Value 85 Master thesis Appendix 9: Summary of results of moderator testing The Chow test statistic is F (Chow test) (Chow, 1960) calculated by following formula: F In which: Sc - sum of squares of residuals of combined data S1 -sum of squares of residuals of first group S2 - sum of squares of residuals of second group N -number of observations in combined data N - number of observations in first group N2 - number of observations in second group k - Degree of freedom In theory of probability and statistics, the F -distribution describes the continuous of probability distribution (Snedecor's F distribution or the Fisher-Snedecor distribution) The test statistic follows the F distribution with k and Nl + N2- 2k degrees of freedom In details, the rows represent denominator degrees of freedom (Nl + N2- 2k) and the columns represent numerator degrees of freedom (k) IfF - value calculated using Chow test's formulation is higher than Fcritical in F distribution table, the null hypothesis is rejected Moderator Nature of engaged services • Firm's international experience 86 ... of Client Perceived Value and Satisfaction in Business- to -Business Professional Tax Services in Vietnam 25 Figure 3: Conceptual Model of Client Perceived Value and Satisfaction in Business- toBusiness... relationship to satisfaction through value to satisfaction in professional business- to -business services Professional tax services are professional services provided by professional tax firms whose... performance to client perceived value in professional tax services in Vietnam; 3) To test the effect of client perceived value to client satisfaction with professional tax services in Vietnam; and 4) To