Service quality, customer satisfaction and behavioral intentions - a study of international flights with low-cost carriers in Viet Nam.pdf

MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING
UNIVERSITY OF ECONOMICS HO CHI MINH CITY
PHAN NGUYEN HOANG LY
SERVICE QUALITY, CUSTOMER SATISFACTION
AND BEHAVIORAL INTENTIONS:
A STUDY OF INTERNATIONAL FLIGHTS
WITH LOW-COST CARRIERS IN VIET NAM.
MASTER THESIS IN ECONOMICS
Ho Chi Minh City, 2019

MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING
UNIVERSITY OF ECONOMICS HO CHI MINH CITY
PHAN NGUYEN HOANG LY
SERVICE QUALITY, CUSTOMER SATISFACTION
AND BEHAVIORAL INTENTIONS:
A STUDY OF INTERNATIONAL FLIGHTS
WITH LOW-COST CARRIERS IN VIET NAM
Major: Business Administration
(Research)
Code: 8340101
MASTER THESIS IN ECONOMICS
Supervisor: Dr. Dinh Thai Hoang

DECLARATION
I commit that “Service quality, customer satisfaction and behavioral
intentions: a study of international flights with low-cost carriers in Viet Nam” is my
own research, which was based on the study and guidance of Dr. Dinh Thai Hoang.
This thesis includes accurate referencing cited from the vast majority of research
published on reputable journals in the world with detailed in-text citations. The
content and results of the analysis are honest and have not been published in any
form before, so the comments, evaluations and conclusions are reliable.
Phan Nguyen Hoang Ly

Table of Contents
Cover page
Declaration
Table of contents
List of tables
List of figures
Abstract
Chapter 1: INTRODUCTION....................................................................................1
1.1. Research background.......................................................................................2
1.2. Problem statement ...........................................................................................4
1.3. Research objectives .........................................................................................5
1.4. Subjects, implication and scope of research....................................................7
1.5. Assumptions ....................................................................................................8
1.6. Research structure ...........................................................................................9
Chapter 2: LITERATURE REVIEW AND CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK.......11
2.1. Literature review ...........................................................................................11
2.1.1. Low-cost carriers ....................................................................................11
2.1.2. Service quality.........................................................................................13
2.1.3. Customer satisfaction..............................................................................15
2.1.4. Behavioral intentions ..............................................................................16
2.1.5. The relationship between service quality and customer satisfaction......17
2.1.6. The relationship between customer satisfaction and behavioral intentions
...........................................................................................................................19
2.2. Conceptual framework and research hypotheses ..........................................21
Chapter 3: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY...........................................................23
3.1. Research strategy and design.........................................................................23
3.2. Qualitative research.......................................................................................26
3.3. Quantitative research.....................................................................................27

3.3.1. Variables and measures..........................................................................27
3.3.2. Population and sampling ........................................................................30
3.3.3. Data collection........................................................................................31
3.3.4. Data analysis...........................................................................................33
Chapter 4: DATA ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSION..............................................37
4.1. Respondent demographics.............................................................................37
4.2. Descriptive statistics......................................................................................39
4.3. Reliability and validity ..................................................................................41
4.3.1. Reliability test..........................................................................................41
4.3.2. Validity test..............................................................................................44
4.4. Hypotheses test..............................................................................................51
4.5. Summary of data analysis results ..................................................................52
4.6. Discussion......................................................................................................55
Chapter 5: CONCLUSION......................................................................................59
5.1. Summary of the research...............................................................................59
5.2. Theoretical implication of study....................................................................60
5.3. Managerial implication of study....................................................................61
5.4. Limitation and future recommendation.........................................................63
5.4.1. Limitation................................................................................................63
5.4.2. Recommendation.....................................................................................63
REFERENCES
APPENDIX

List of tables
Table 1.1: Introduction of the three low-cost carriers................................................3
Table 2.1: Comparison between low-cost carriers and full-service carriers ...........11
Table 3.1: Participants in a group discussion ..........................................................26
Table 3.2: Research variables and measures ...........................................................28
Table 4.1: Summary of respondent demographics ..................................................37
Table 4.2: A summary of variables‟ Mean and Standard deviation ........................40
Table 4.3: Cronbach‟s alpha test outcomes ............................................................42
Table 4.4: EFA results ............................................................................................45
Table 4.5: Factor structure based on factor analysis results ...................................46
Table 4.6: Summary of CR and AVE .....................................................................48
Table 4.7: The convergent coefficients of factors ...................................................48
Table 4.8: The discriminant coefficients of factors ................................................50
Table 4.9: Standardized regresion weights 1 ...........................................................51
Table 4.10:Standardized regresion weights 2 ..........................................................52
Table 4.11: Factor structure after hypotheses test ...................................................53
Table 4.12: Hypotheses test summary ....................................................................54

List of figures
Figure 2.1: Proposed research framework ..............................................................21
Figure 3.1: Research process ..................................................................................25
Figure 4.1: Direct effects of service quality on customer satisfaction
then behavioral intentions .....................................................................55

ABSTRACT
The main purpose of this research is to examine the relationships between
dimensions of service quality, customer satisfaction, word-of-mouth and repurchase
intentions from the customers‟ perspectives in case of international flights with low-
cost carriers (LCCs) in Viet Nam.
This research was undertaken with non-probability sampling. 240
questionnaires were delivered and collected, and 238 of them were useful for data
analysis. The survey participants were the passengers who have flown abroad with
LCCs at least 2 times within a year. The data collected from this survey were
utilized for statistical analysis to evaluate the seven hypotheses, the positive
associations of five dimensions of service quality and customer satisfaction, then
the positive linkage of customer satisfaction and two behavioral intentions (word-
of-mouth and repurchase intentions). Both qualitative (focus group) and quantitative
research (SPSS 22 and AMOS 20) were applied to find the results.
Regarding to the findings, reliability and assurance were the most
influencing on the customer satisfaction; responsiveness and empathy were also
seen as a significance. However, the performance of responsiveness is indeed not
that good like the other dimensions. Tangibles was the only factor that did not have
a great effect on customer satisfaction along with its not good performance. Word-
of-mouth was found to be more affected by customer satisfaction than repurchase
intentions.

TÓM TẮT
Mục tiêu chính của nghiên cứu này là xem xét mối quan hệ giữa các tiêu chí
chất lượng dịch vụ, sự hài lòng của khách hàng, lời truyền miệng và ý định mua lại
từ phương diện của khách hàng trong trường hợp những chuyến bay quốc tế với các
hãng hàng không giá rẻ tại Việt Nam.
Nghiên cứu này được lấy mẫu theo phương pháp chọn mẫu thuận tiện. Số
lượng mẫu khảo sát phát ra là 240, và 238 mẫu thu về đủ điều kiện để phân tích dữ
liệu. Đối tượng khảo sát là những hành khách đã bay đi nước ngoài với các hãng
hàng không giá rẻ ít nhất 2 lần trong vòng 1 năm. Dữ liệu thu được từ cuộc khảo sát
đã được sử dụng để phân tích thống kê để kiểm tra 7 giả thuyết, mối quan hệ thuận
chiều của 5 tiêu chí chất lượng dịch vụ và sự hài lòng của khách hàng, sự hài lòng
của khách hàng và lời truyền miệng, ý định mua lại. Nghiên cứu định tính (thảo
luận nhóm) và nghiên cứu định lượng (SPSS 22 và AMOS 20) đã được áp dụng để
tìm ra kết quả.
Theo kết quả tìm được, sự tin cậy và độ an toàn là 2 yếu tố có tầm ảnh hưởng
nhất đối với sự hài lòng của hành khách, sau đó là sự phản hồi và đồng cảm. Tuy
nhiên, trong thực tế thì việc phản hồi cho hành khách đang không được đánh giá cao
như những yếu tố khác. Yếu tố hữu hình là yếu tố duy nhất không có ảnh hưởng
đáng kể đến sự hài lòng của hành khách cùng với thực trạng chưa tốt của nó. Lời
truyền miệng được tìm thấy là bị ảnh hưởng bởi sự hài lòng của khách hàng nhiều
hơn là ý định mua lại.

1
Chapter 1: INTRODUCTION
Service industries are the largest contributors to employment and gross
domestic product in most countries (Looy et al., 2003). Among them, the growing
of airline industry has led to the government around the world to deregulate the
industry by enabling companies to form private airlines (Graham and Vowels,
2006). In addition to its technology development, the growing of airline industry
has played a role as supporting the world trade, international investment, and
tourism activities, which is said that the airline industry is the center of
globalization for other industries (Hanlon, 2000).
An increasing number of air travelers have become more demanding in the
expectation of service quality offered by the airlines. Hence, the delivery of high
service quality has become a marketing priority for service companies as strength to
get achievement (Hoffman & Bateson, 2002). It is especially true in the airline
industry which has become extremely competitive so far particularly due to the
emergence of Low-cost carriers (LCCs). The growing of the airline industry
provides opportunities along with challenges to the business entities operating in
this industry. The opportunities arise due to the increasing demand for the airline
service; however, air travelers are also increasingly demanding in terms of their
expectations of the service quality offered by the airline carriers (Graham and
Vowels, 2006). Meanwhile, the challenges arise not only because of the high level
of competition between the airlines, but also due to growing customer demands for
the better service. Therefore, managing quality of service has become the top
priority in the airline industry (Wells & Wensveen, 2004).
LCCs compete on their low cost, point-to-point short-haul travel, no extra in-
flight service, and direct sales etc., not using the service quality, but cost-conscious
market segments for their competitive advantages (Graham & Vowels, 2006).
However, airline managers need to know which factors affect customer satisfaction
from passengers‟ perspective. Airlines started to examine whether perceived service

2
quality is a prime driver for customer satisfaction and behavioral intentions (Ahn
and Lee, 2011) and to know which attributes really do matter to satisfaction and
behavioral intentions (Martin et al., 2008).
This research focused on examining how five dimensions of SEVRQUAL
representing for the service quality influence on customer satisfaction and checking
whether customer satisfaction can lead to customers‟ behavioral intentions in case
of international flights from Ho Chi Minh city with LCCs.
1.1. Research background
Southeast Asia is a region of rapid growth and huge potential, reaches one of
the world‟s highest LCC penetration rates. Overall capacity growth in this region
increased approximately by 7% in 2017 while passenger traffic here grew
approximately by 10% in 2017. At least half of the region‟s 11 countries recorded
double, or near double digit, passenger growth at least three years: Cambodia, Laos,
Myanmar, Thailand, the Philippines and Vietnam. From an economic and traffic
growth perspective, Southeast Asia has been a very attractive market in spite of its
intensifying competition and suffering from overcapacity. As a result, Southeast
Asia is a market of huge potential with rapid economic growth and a growing,
larger middle class providing an ideal environment for airline expansion,
particularly LCCs. (CAPA, 2019)
The LCC business model is one of the most recent changes in the general
business model of the airlines. A low-cost carrier, or a no-frill carrier, is an airline
that differentiates itself in the market through reducing ticket prices with their low
cost, short-haul travel, no extra in-flight service. These airlines do not use the
service quality for their competitive advantages, but cost-conscious market
segments (Graham & Vowels, 2006).
Vietnam was the fastest growing market in Southeast Asia in 2017, and has
even been one of the fastest growing markets in the world in recent years in spite of

3
the slow rate of growth from a staggering 28% in 2016. Domestic growth in
Vietnam slowed to the high single digits in 2017, compared to 25% growth in 2016,
but international growth remained very strong, at approximately 30%. Vietnam's
LCCs have focused on international routes rather than regional domestic market.
Among several LCCs in Southeast Asia, the three most well-known and huge LCCs
flying from Tan Son Nhat International Airport, Viet Nam are Vietjet Air, Air Asia,
and Jetstar. Therefore, passengers flying abroad with these three LCCs would be
aimed for the survey. Vietnam is well connected to other countries in Asia with the
support of a complex flight network. Among destinations in Southeast Asia,
Bangkok, Singapore and Kuala Lumpur are more attractive with most flight deals
from Viet Nam (CAPA, 2018).
Table 1.1: Introduction of the three low-cost carriers
Vietjet Air Air Asia Jetstar
From Viet Nam Malaysia Singapore
Flights
Over 20 stops
across Asia,
Southeast Asia
88 destinations
across Southeast
Asia, Australia,
North Asia, and
the Asia-Pacific
Over 20 stops
across Asia,
Australia,
Southeast Asia,
New Zealand
Booking
Official site, app,
Facebook and
Twitter pages
Official site, app,
Facebook and
Twitter pages
Official site, app,
Facebook and
Twitter pages,
price watch alert
Source: Tripsavvy, 2019.

4
Therefore, research in the airline industry in Viet Nam has become more and
more favorable due to its significant growth speed in this sector. Especially, this
solid association of service quality, customer service and behavioral intentions has
been more attractive to the scholars, but authors‟ research premises was just in
domestic market such as Saha and Theingi (2009) with domestic Thai market, Ahn
and Lee (2011) within Lon Don, U.K.. Therefore, the detection of relationships of
these three terms with international flights is a good choice.
1.2. Problem statement
This research studied the relationships between service quality applying
SERVQUAL instrument, customer satisfaction, and behavioral intentions.
Specifically, it aimed to assess service quality (reliability, assurance, tangibles,
empathy, and responsiveness) in the LCCs market from the customers‟ perspective,
leading to exploring how perceived service quality affects customer satisfaction
then behavioral intentions. The price was thought to be more concerned by LCCs‟
customers while FSAs are more preferable by service quality which was studied to
be the most focused competitive variable to affect customer satisfaction in FSAs
due to the increasing expectation of airline passengers. It raised a question that if
passengers of LCCs take consideration of flight fares rather than service quality all
the time. This study is meant to fulfil the understanding if passengers of LCCs
consider service quality as a factor affecting satisfaction, leading to behavioral
intentions. The research was sampled from the three most well-known and huge
LCCs (Vietjet Air, Air Asia, and Jetstar) flying from Tan Son Nhat International
Airport, Viet Nam.
Nowadays, LCCs have become more familiar with more people, bringing a
great chance for middle-income people who might have high demand in air travel.
However, a potential market always accompanies with big challenges when more
and more no-frill airlines have been established, which has made this case much
more competitive. The managers of these LCCs always have to do the task of cost

5
and service quality, how to minimize the operation expense and still to guarantee
probably the best service, reaching to profitability. On the basis of the theory and
previous researches, this study aimed to examining how five dimensions of
SEVRQUAL representing for the service quality influence on customer satisfaction
and checking whether customer satisfaction can lead to customers‟ behavioral
intentions in case of LCCs with international flights from Ho Chi Minh city. The
research used different research and analysis methods along with the theory as well
as findings of the previous related papers for the research procedure to attempt to
understand these relationships. As a result, the findings of this study would
somehow show an overview of passengers‟ expectations, satisfaction, and reactions
within Vietnamese LCC market, particularly in Ho Chi Minh city.
Apart from good signals of the airline industry, 2018 was marked as a fatal
year when plane crash deaths rose up to 556, compared to only 44 in the previous
year. It was reported a total of 15 fatal airline accidents in 2018, a half more
compared with 10 in 2017. For example, the LCC Lion Air crash of Indonesia was
highlighted with 189 dead people in October 2018, which was considered as the
deadliest incident for the year (Smith and Spark, 2019). It has raised a thought that
if passengers in general, and LCC customers in particular, would rise perceptions of
expectations from service quality for behavioral intentions.
1.3. Research objectives
Referring to previous prescriptions, the objectives of this study were to:
1. Investigate how five dimensions of SERVQUAL influence on customer
satisfaction.
2. Figure out which factors among reliability, assurance, tangibles, empathy,
and responsiveness are most significant on satisfaction.
3. Detect if satisfied customers will create more positive word-of-mouth.
4. Check if satisfied customers will engage to repurchase intentions.

6
This research aimed to examine how five dimensions of SERVQUAL
representing for service quality influence on customer satisfaction. Customers
would base on these five dimensions to evaluate their perceived service quality.
Then, figuring out which five factors among reliability, assurance, tangibles,
empathy, and responsiveness having more importance on satisfaction from the
customers‟ perspective was also expected in this study.
Customer satisfaction here was understood in 3 aspects: Overall satisfaction
of the airline service, perceived reliability from passengers, and extent of airline
customers' needs fulfilled. This would show how customers evaluate the airline
service through their perceptions if the airline meet or even extend their
expectations or acquire their reliability for the service, becoming an ultimate goal of
service operations (Ostrowski et al., 1993). Through this, people would be able to
somehow realize which passengers expect the most from the LCCs and those might
be the decisive reasons for customers to choose an airline to fly with.
Moreover, this study also aimed to consider if customer satisfaction would
consequently lead to behavioral intentions in two aspects: word-of-mouth and
repurchase intentions. They would show if there would be any positive reactions
after experiencing good services with LCCs and how they were affected by
customer satisfaction, showing the consequences of customer satisfaction.
These four research questions need to be answered in this study:
1. How do five dimensions of SERVQUAL influence on customer
satisfaction when passengers take international flights with LCCs?
2. Which factors among reliability, assurance, tangibles, empathy, and
responsiveness are the most significant on satisfaction?
3. Will satisfied customers create more word-of-mouth for LCCs after their
experience?

7
4. Will satisfied customers engage their repurchase intentions for LCCs after
their experience?
Answering the research questions was necessary to be performed. Without
this study, the airline service providers might not know the factors influencing their
customer satisfaction and how they relate each other. On the other hand, referring to
this study, they would know what was actually needed by the passengers and what
should be prioritized. This study would somehow help the airline service providers
reach to formulating appropriate strategies and policy for creating favorable airline
passengers.
1.4. Subjects, implication and scope of research
This study aimed to evaluate the dependent variables, behavioral intentions,
with two constructs: word-of-mouth to others for this good airline service,
repurchase intentions for the same LCCs next time if possible. Moreover, customer
satisfaction played a role as an intermediate variable; thus, it was also considered as
a subject of this research, which was observed through overall satisfaction of the
airline service, perceived reliability from passengers, and extent of airline
customers' needs fulfilled. And these subjects were examined by evaluations of
passengers who had straight international flights within Southeast Asia with the
three LCCs chosen.
LCC is a field catching the attention of the scholars, so some of its concerns
were examined by the authors. Specifically, the assumedly solid relationships
between five factors of service quality, customer satisfaction and two popular
factors of behavioral intentions (word-of-mouth and repurchase intentions) would
be considered in this thesis. These findings would help LCC operators with
perceptions of passengers about the service and their reactions. Therefore, their
managerial policies, marketing strategies as well as economic aspects would be
modified and adjusted to reach both profit and sustainability in business. In
addition, the managers would know which factors that they should give priorities to.

8
Tan Son Nhat International Airport was chosen for the survey due to its
biggest capacity. Three selected airlines were Vietjet Air, Air Asia and Jetstar due
to their frequent schedules to a variety of destinations. The number of samples from
each airline would be selected in correspondence with their number of flights per
day. This might be somehow more familiar with Vietnamese people thanks to its
popularity, especially for those who have usually travelled with LCCs. Definitely,
passengers flying with these three airlines were aimed for samples; the meeting took
place at the gates before boarding for more convenience.
1.5. Assumptions
There were a variety of assumptions that were discussed when conducting
this research. Firstly, SERVQUAL instrument (reliability, assurance, tangibles,
empathy, and responsiveness) is matching and suitable to consider the quality of the
airline service on the five concerned aspects. Thus, all of these five dimensions
were chosen to evaluate the service quality and to see how they affect customer
satisfaction.
Secondly, customer satisfaction was assumed not only the normal overall
satisfaction of the airline service but also perceived reliability from passengers and
extent of airline customers' needs fulfilled. To be more specific, with good service
quality, the passengers should show how they are satisfied, reliable and fulfilled by
the service offered.
Thirdly, customer satisfaction was assumed to be the antecedent of
behavioral intentions. Word-of-mouth and repurchase intentions were chosen to
evaluate this construct because they are thought to be the common reactions of the
customers after enjoying a good service.
Based on the academic and empirical review, all these there constructs and
30 indicators mentioned above were used to consider the relationships of service
quality on customer satisfaction then behavioral intentions. Moreover, another
assumption was that passengers in Viet Nam have similar expectations for the LCC

9
airline service to other countries in Southeast Asia like Thailand or Malaysia.
Therefore, this study was based on some assumptions of the relevant researches of
these countries. Currently, Tan Son Nhat International Airport is the biggest airport
in Viet Nam, so choosing this as an sample for the survey was a choice with the
most well-known and frequent airlines in South East Asia (e.g. Vietjet Air, Air
Asia, and Jetstar). In addition to mention above in the introduction, many
researchers chose Ho Chi Minh city for their study delimitation because of the busy
trade here, so this study is not exception, Tan Son Nhat was selected for this
research.
1.6. Research structure
This study was presented into five chapters:
Chapter 1: Introduction
An overview for the relationships of service quality, customer satisfaction
and behavioral intentions was briefly introduced. Moreover, the research
background was shown with the current status of LCCs in Southeast Asia in general
and in Viet Nam in particular. Lastly, statement, objectives, subjects, scope, and
assumptions of the research were also presented in this chapter.
Chapter 2: Literature review and conceptual framework
Literature review ranging from the theories to the previous studies related to
this research would be referred in this chapter to explain for the formulations of
seven hypotheses with eight constructs. Then, the research framework was proposed
to examine the seven relationships between five dimensions of service quality,
customer satisfaction and behavioral intentions.
Chapter 3: Research methodology
The research strategy and design would be performed with qualitative and
quantitative research in details. It would consist of the findings of qualitative

10
research, variables and measures, population and sampling, data collection and
specific methods of data analysis.
Chapter 4: Data analysis results
The results of data analysis would be shown into four separate parts,
including respondent demographics, descriptive statistics, reliability and validity
test, confirmatory factor analysis, and hypotheses test by SEM. Then, these results
would be discussed to detect and evaluate the associations of service quality,
customer satisfaction and behavioral intentions.
Chapter 5: Conclusion
A summary of the research would be presented in this chapter. Theoretical as
well as managerial implications would be then presented as contributions of this
study. Some limitations would be also mentioned, leading to recommendations for
the next research.

11
Chapter 2: LITERATURE REVIEW AND CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK
2.1. Literature review
2.1.1. Low-cost carriers
A low-cost carrier/airline is occasionally referred to budget or no-frills
carrier. Since the US airline deregulation (opened sky) in 1978, the cost of air travel
in US and Europe plunged and the size of the airline industry grew dramatically.
For a reason, the airlines started to have freedom both to make flights to where and
when they want, and to set up the fares (Graham and Vowels, 2006).
Indeed, a low-cost carrier has been defined rather ambiguously due to its
numerous product differentiations within this sector. They compete on their low
fares with no extra in-flight service, direct sales and point-to-point or short-haul
flights. Therefore, these airlines do not consider service quality as their competitive
advantages but appeal to cost sensitive market segments instead (Ahn and Lee,
2011).
Table 2.1 hereafter presents the comparison of full-service airlines and low-
cost carriers. While some elements appear to indicate the convergence of these two
business models, their strategies are fundamentally different.
Table 2.1: Comparison between low-cost carriers and full-service carriers
Full-service carriers Low-cost carriers
- Generally high fares - Generally low fares
- More inclusions: Expect the fare to
include luggage allowance and inflight
meals, seat selection and insurance
- Ancillary fees: Expect to pay for
„extras‟ like luggage, meals, seat
selection and insurance
- More extensive routes
- Hub-and-spoke network
- More popular leisure destinations
- Point-to-point short-haul flights

12
- Airport lounges: Corporate programs
often include lounge access which is
generally offered with premium fares
- No airport lounges: While the
airlines don‟t have airport lounges,
some travelers with memberships to
lounges may be able to use those
- Loyalty programs: Your travelers will
earn points for each trip, which is useful to
reinforce compliance, but can be a
distraction if they are members of
different programs
- No loyalty program: Your travelers
generally won‟t earn points for their
trips
- Multi-class cabins: Travelers will have a
choice between economy, premium
economy and business class. Some
airlines still have first class on some
routes
- Single-class cabins: While the
original LCCs had only economy
class seating, some airlines in this
category now have a few „business
class‟ seats or charge more for rows
with extra leg room, like exit rows
- Alliances: Most legacy carriers belong to
one of the global alliances or have
codeshare arrangements with other legacy
carriers, ensuring a more seamless
experience when travelling internationally
- Limited interline arrangements,
which make it less convenient when
doing multi-stop trips on different
carriers
- Special corporate deals, across the board
discounts and route deals, especially if
you can guarantee the airline the lion‟s
share of your bookings
- No corporate deals: not expect to
be able to negotiate incentives or
discounts on published fares
- A customer service department that will
generally help and compensate you for
inconvenience in case of delay or lost
baggage
- Very limited customer services
involving either expensive phone
lines or impersonal e-mails
- More leg space and comfortable seats - Narrower leg space and less
comfortable seats
- In-flight entertainment on board - No in-flight entertainment on board
Source: Inter VISTAS for the Istanbul Technical University, 2004

13
2.1.2. Service quality
In service quality research, the first model to measure the conceptualization
of service quality declared by Gronroos (1984) stated that a service is an activity or
a series of activities of more or less intangible nature taking place in interactions
between customers and service employees and/or systems of service providers,
which are provided as solutions to customers‟ problems. A two-dimensional model
was used to study the quality of service, technical-quality (outcome) and functional-
quality (process). The model of Gronroos compared the two dimensions of service
performance with expectations of consumers. It was generally concluded that each
single customer had their own single perception of the service quality.
Moreover, SERVQUAL is a multi-dimensional research instrument (i.e.
questionnaire or measurement scale) designed to capture consumer expectations and
perceptions of a service along with five dimensions that were believed to represent
service quality by Parasuraman et al. (1988). The model identified the principal
dimensions/components of the service quality, proposed a scale (SERVQUAL) to
measure service quality and suggested possible causes of service quality problems.
Those five factors were reliability, assurance, tangibles, empathy and
responsiveness, representing the dimensions of service quality ranging from
industries to settings. A breakthrough was represented in the measurement methods
used for service quality research. This instrument was widely applied in a variety of
contexts and cultural settings, becoming the dominant measurement scale in terms
of service quality. The five dimensions of SERVQUAL were defined as follows:
1. Tangibles: Physical facilities, equipment, and appearance of personnel
2. Reliability: Ability to perform the promised service dependably and
accurately
3. Responsiveness: Willingness to help customers and provide prompt
service
4. Assurance: Knowledge and courtesy of employees and their ability to
inspire trust and confidence

14
5. Empathy: Caring, individualized attention the firm provides its customers
Indeed, not all of these five dimensions are equally important to customers.
That why figuring out which factor has had a greater influence on customer
satisfaction would be of a great importance on strategies makers‟ decisions, which
would help the service providers to avoid majoring in minors. However, they have
to try to take all these five under consideration, not just focus on some and let the
others suffer.
Airline service quality
An increase in air passengers has resulted in more demanding in terms of the
service quality offered by airline carriers (Akpoyomare et al., 2016). For airline
industry, a delivery of high service quality has become a marketing tactic to survive
in such fiercely competitive pressures (Doganis, 2006). Therefore, airline operators
should create their own strategies to achieve the fulﬁlment of service expectation
along with the service quality dimensions, the most considerable to air passengers to
seize customer loyalty (Sultan and Simpson, 2000). Moreover, service quality is of
great importance in aviation‟s competitive advantages by enhancing customer
loyalty, coming to market share, creating profits (Morash & Ozment, 1994).
Among competitive factors of airline companies (Market presence, level of
service, service quality, frequent flyer program, travelers‟ perceptions)
(Proussaloglou and Koppelman, 1999) or (price, safety, frequent flyer, promotion,
alliances and service quality) (Thanasupsin et al., 2010), service quality is one of
the most focused competitive variables. Moreover, this term of quality is an
emphasized driver of customer engagement and loyalty to the airlines (Hapsari et
al., 2017). It is the service quality offered to customers would differentiate an airline
with its competitors, determining market share and ultimately profitability
(Anderson et al., 1994). Therefore, to enhance the service offered, airline service
suppliers pay to understand passengers‟ needs and expectations because they
themselves reflect a standard against which they judge the performance (Sultan and
Simpson, 2000).

15
2.1.3. Customer satisfaction
Customer satisfaction is one of the objectives of marketing activities
connecting the process of purchases and consumptions with post-purchase
phenomena. Satisfying customers must be seen as an important element in
marketing concept since it might affect consumers‟ purchase behaviors, profitability
and shareholder surplus in the future (Anderson et al., 1994). Especially, in the
global and fiercely competitive economy, it was fatal for an organization not to
emphasize on customers. Indeed, organizations to survive need to produce products
or services within very good quality, which highly yields satisfied and loyal
customers. Moreover, satisfied customers were less sensitive with prices and less
influenced by competitors, purchasing additional goods or services and staying
loyal (Thanasupsin et al., 2010).
There have been a variety of definitions given for the term of customer
satisfaction, but almost all of those stressed on cognitive process. For example,
Oliver (1980) defined customer satisfaction as overall affective response to a
perceived discrepancy between prior expectation and perceived performance after
consumption. Later, customer satisfaction was redefined as an emotional post-
consumption response for comparing expected and actual performance. In addition,
Rust and Oliver (1994) defined this satisfaction as customers‟ fulfillment responses
which are evaluations as well as emotion-based responses to products or services.
Theories like Expectation – Disconfirmation Theory (Oliver, 1980)
attempted to explain customer satisfaction. Then, Expectancy – Disconfirmation
Theory was argued as the most influential and received the widest acceptance
(Ekinci et al., 2008). Expectancy – Disconfirmation Theory examined the formation
of expectations and disconfirmations of these expectations through performance
comparison. Expectations reflect customers‟ pre-consumption perceptions of
products or services whereas performance is the basis of customers‟ perceptions of

16
those. Disconfirmations arise from the discrepancy between the prior expectations
and the actual performance of the goods or services.
2.1.4. Behavioral intentions
The concept of behavioral intentions was first introduced by Fishbein and
Ajzen (1975) to solve the contradictive relationship between attitudes and
behaviors. It was stated that attitudes affect behaviors through a mediator called
behavioral intentions. In marketing, the term of behavioral intentions has been
widely used to prove the main predictor of customer loyalty behavior (Widianti et
al., 2013).
Behavioral intentions could be seen as the customers‟ subjective probability
of performing a certain behavioral reaction. To this regard, Parasuraman et al.
(1988) detected that willingness to revisit reflected a reaction to repurchase,
recommend, and give positive feedback to others. Moreover, Saha and Theingi
(2009) suggested that three behaviors in particular have referred to profitability and
the market share of a company were word-of-mouth, repurchase intentions, and
feedback.
Word-of-mouth is known as a flow of a trustable external source of
information about products, services, or companies from one customer to another,
by which customers can show their personal evaluation on products or services
externally in positive or negative way (Saha and Theingi, 2009). Moreover, this
term was simply defined to be an activity generated when it came to an increase in
either satisfaction or dissatisfaction (Anderson, 1998). And it was believed to
perfectly increase due to the growth of electronic communication via the internet,
becoming a critically important factor (Babin et al., 2005).
Repurchase intention has been defined in different terms. For example, it was
implied as a process of a person to buy goods or services from the same suppliers
(Hellier et al., 2003). Moreover, it was explained as being loyal to a particular
product or service when it came to a demand in the future (Harris et al., 2010).

17
Customer feedback refers to the transmission of negative information
(complaints) or positive information (compliments) to providers about the services
or products they used. Such information might be useful for providers in identifying
areas where adjustments of performance would be required (Saha and Theingi,
2009). However, due to the lack of previous researches for reference, this factor of
behavioral intentions would not be mention in this study.
2.1.5. The relationship between service quality and customer satisfaction
The relationship between service quality and customer satisfaction has been
popularly researched in different sectors for a long time due to its importance of
recognition (ElBassiouni et al., 2012; Yuen and Thai, 2015; Tan et al., 2016).
Anderson et al. (1994) asserted a widespread belief into the relationship between
quality and customer satisfaction due to the fact that an increase in understanding
customer satisfaction would lead to superior economic return. Therefore, attempting
to improve quality of some factors was one of the broad strategic implications to
achieve the long-term economic returns through customer satisfaction.
Heskett et al. (1994) pioneered for a research into the relationship between
airline service quality, passenger satisfaction and profitability. Many of authors
perceived airline service quality as a multi-dimensional construct (Frost and Kumar,
2001; Ahn and Lee, 2011) in accordance with the conception of service quality
proposed by Parasuraman et al. (1988) in SERVQUAL, becoming well-known
service quality measuring instrument. This instrument, which measures service
quality with five dimensions (reliability, assurance, tangibles, empathy,
responsiveness), relied on the premises that customers‟ assessments of overall
service quality determined by the gap between their expectation for a service and
perception of its practical performance. Parasuraman et al. (1988); Cronin and
Taylor (1992); Oliver (1997) asserted that these two constructs were reciprocal.
According to this point, service quality was seen as a cognitive assessment of
service in every single occurrence while satisfaction was affected by the
accumulation of customers‟ evaluation for services (Saha and Theingi, 2009).

18
Many other researchers applied different measures for the concept of quality
service. For example, Saha and Theingi (2009) used tangibles, schedule, flight
attendants and ground staff decribing service quality to affect to customer service.
While Ali et al. (2014) investigated the relationships between five dimensions of
service quality (airlines tangibles, terminal tangibles, personnel quality, empathy
and airline image) and customer satisfaction. Or tangibility, information quality,
responsiveness, trust, and personalization were examined to have influence on E-
Satisfaction by Elias et al. (2015). In addition, Kos Koklic et al. (2017) simply
considered airline tangibles and quality of personnel affecting customer satisfaction.
Or Chaniotakis and Lymperopoulos (2009) inpected the relationship between
service quality and overall satisfaction; service quality was a multidimensional
variable using Servqual dimensions. Ahn and Lee (2011) also applied five
dimensions of Servqual to check the relationship of service quality and customer
satisfaction indirectly.
On the basis of the relationship between service quality and customer
satisfaction, the constructs in terms of service quality were different according to
other scholars‟ inference. In this research, it was assumed that five dimensions of
Servqual (reliability, assurance, tangibles, empathy, responsiveness) directly
positively influenced on customer satisfaction because the author thought that this
scale of Servqual could somehow fully describe the airline service offered. The five
hypotheses are hereafter proposed:
H1: Service quality dimension “Tangibles” has a positive influence on
customer satisfaction
H2: Service quality dimension “Reliability” has a positive influence on
H3: Service quality dimension “Responsiveness” has a positive influence on

19
H4: Service quality dimension “Assurance” has a positive influence on
H5: Service quality dimension “Empathy” has a positive influence on
2.1.6. The relationship between customer satisfaction and behavioral
intentions
Customer satisfaction has been become one of the most importance in
marketing; every company has set it an ultimate goal of service operations and
considered it as the top priority. High satisfaction is closely related to customer
attitudes which might directly influence cosumers‟ positive behavioral intentions
such as repurchase or word-of-mouth interactions (Jung and Seock, 2017). Many
scholars assumed that there existed to be a consistent association between customer
satisfaction and behavioral intentions (Soderlund, 1998; Saha and Theingi, 2009;
Ahn and Lee, 2011; Kos Koklic et al, 2017).
Soderlund (1998); Saha and Theingi (2009) considered the positive
relationships between customer satisfaction and all three behavioral intentions
(word-of-mouth, repurchase intentions and feedback). Meanwhile, Widianti et al.
(2013) examined the positive influence of satisfaction on repurchase intention and
word of mouth. Behavioral intentions were considered in two factors (reuse and
recommend) by Ahn and Lee (2011). Intention to repurchase and to recommend
was evaluated as subsequences of customer satisfaction by Kos Koklic et al. (2017).
Lastly, Chaniotakis and Lymperopoulos (2009) examined the direct positive
influence of word-of-mouth on overall satisfaction.
A variety of empirical researches investigated the association of customer
satisfaction and word-of-mouth did not detect consistent findings. Some scholars
found that dissatisfied customers were more likely to engage to word-of-mouth than
the others (Anderson, 1998). Meanwhile, many others proved that satisfied
customers would have more engagement with word-of-mouth after satisfaction
perceived (Soderlund, 1998; Saha and Theingi, 2009; Chaniotakis and

20
Lymperopoulos, 2009; Widianti et al., 2013; Kos Koklic et al., 2017). In addition,
the relationship between customer satisfaction and word-of-mouth was detected not
to be significant in the findings of Widianti et al. (2013). Moreover, Saha and
Theingi (2009) suggested that satisfaction was a necessary but not sufficient
condition for positive word-of-mouth; but it was agreed that positive review was
always driven by satisfaction. Overall, both the level and valence of word-of-mouth
were dependent on a range of other factors (culture, incentives, emotion and
perception of the fairness of the encounter) (Saha and Theingi, 2009).
With regard to the second behavior mentioned above, Hellier et al. (2003)
stated that the satisfaction level perceived by customers after experiencing a service
would influence their willingness to repurchase a product or service. Many
researchers found a positive association between satisfactions and repurchase
intention (Saha and Theingi, 2009, Kos Koklic et al, 2017). Specifically, customer
satisfaction was found to have influence on repurchase intentions in the researches
of Saha and Theingi (2009) and much more strongly from Kos Koklic et al. (2017).
However, the relationship between customer satisfaction and repurchase intentions
was detected not to be significant in the findings of Ahn and Lee (2011); Widianti et
al. (2013).
Most of researches which presented the significant positive relationships
between customer satisfaction and feedback were more concerned to other sectors
like healthcare (Yarris et al., 2009). Very few studies have evaluated this
association between satisfaction and feedback due to the fact that the samples of
review-giving customers were very small (Saha and Theingi, 2009). However, some
others had some findings about this relationship. For example, Saha and Theingi
(2009) detected that satisfied passengers provided positive feedback, and
dissatisfied customers were not like to give negative feedback. By contrast,
Soderlund (1998) concluded that dissatisfied customers were more likely to send
negative feedback rather than satisfied customers to provide positive feedback.
Nevertheless, due to a lack of the previous papers, the relationship between
customer satisfaction and feedback would not be addressed in this study.

21
On the basis of most literature review, the last two hypotheses related to the
influence of customer satisfaction on word-of-mouth and repurchase intentions were
formulated as follows:
H6: Customer satisfaction has a positive influence on word-of-mouth
H7: Customer satisfaction has a positive influence on repurchase intentions
2.2. Conceptual framework and research hypotheses
On the basis of the literature review and conceptual assumption, the
proposed research framework in Figure 2.1 depicts certain hypothesized
relationships among the constructs of five dimensions of service quality (Servqual),
customer satisfaction, word-of-mouth and repurchases intentions.
Figure 2.1: Proposed research framework
Source: Proposed by the author
Customer
satisfaction
Tangibles
Reliability
Responsiveness
Assurance
Empathy
Word-of-
mouth
Repurchase
intentions
H1
H2
H1
1
H3
H2
H1
H1
1
H4
H5
H1
1
H6
H2
H1
H1
1
H7
7

22
H1: Service quality dimension “Tangibles” has a positive influence on
H2: Service quality dimension “Reliability” has a positive influence on
H3: Service quality dimension “Responsiveness” has a positive influence on
H4: Service quality dimension “Assurance” has a positive influence on
H5: Service quality dimension “Empathy” has a positive influence on
H6: Customer satisfaction has a positive influence on word-of-mouth
H7: Customer satisfaction has a positive influence on repurchase intentions

23
Chapter 3: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
Based on the review of the research literature with regard to service quality
using SERVQUAL, customer satisfaction and behavioral intentions, a structural
equation model has been developed to study related to effects simultaneously in this
article. This research aims to apply existing theory and literature to a novel situation
(LCCs flying from Tan Son Nhat International Airport). According to the literature
review, a research framework existing would be able to be constructed and applied
to the research situation. The variables and measurements, sampling and data
analysis in this research are discussed below.
3.1. Research strategy and design
The research strategy is used as an approach to collect and analyze data. This
article aimed to investigate the relationships between service quality and customer
satisfaction, then on behavioral intentions. To test of hypothesized relationships, the
research strategy and design was formulated. The proposed research model
presented in Figure 2.1 was based on the conceptual frameworks of the previous
researches, and it would consider how independent variables, five service quality
dimensions of SERVQUAL have influenced on customer satisfaction then
behavioral intentions (word-of-mouth and repurchase intentions). As a result, the
formulated research hypotheses were addressed.
After a research model revealed, a qualitative research was conducted to
figure out suitable indicators or scales for the eight variables on the basis of the
available measurement scales of the previous researches (Parasuraman et al., 1988;
Molinari et al., 2008; Ahn and Lee, 2011; Taghizadeh et al., 2013; Narteh, 2017).
Adoptions, modifications and add-in would be made to select indicators and survey
questions. In conclusion, the design of the survey questionnaire would be
formulated on multiple item measurement scale (five-point Likert scale) for the
survey and data collection.

24
Then, this research used a quantitative research design, which was
appropriate for hypotheses testing that could not be completed qualitatively.
Quantitative research utilized data collection techniques, established statistical
analysis tools and standardized instrumentation for the test, including demographic
statistics, descriptive statistics, reliability and validity test by SPSS 22, confirmatory
factor analysis (CFA) and hypotheses testing with SEM by AMOS 20. Although the
choice of quantitative research design imposed some limitations, it would help to
ensure the research could be numerically completed.
Based on the found results, discussion, conclusion and recommendation
would be drawn.
To summarize the research strategy and design for this study, the research
process is presented in Figure 3.1:

25
Figure 3.1: Research process
Source: Proposed by the author
Statement of the problem
Literature review
Proposed hypotheses and research framework
(7 hypotheses with 8 constructs)
Draft questionnaire
questionnaire
Qualitative analysis (focus group)
questionnaire
Official questionnaire
(30 survey questions)
Survey and data collection
(Non-probability sampling)
Quantitative analysis
(Data analysis and discussion)
Conclusion and implications
Limitations and recommendations

26
3.2. Qualitative research
The qualitative research was conducted via phenomenological qualitative
research with a group of 8 travelers (shown in Table 3.1) aged from 25 to 42 who
have flown abroad with LCCs at least 6 times each year in 3 consecutive years,
included the author. This qualitative research was to discuss, modify and figure out
the measurement scales (indicators) of the eight constructs in the proposed research
framework to be more suitable with the LCCs market in Viet Nam.
Table 3.1: Participants in a group discussion
No. Name Birthyear From International flights
in 3 years
1 Author 1993 Nha Trang 22
2
Two men
1976 Vung Tau 42
3 1990 Vinh Long 34
4
Five girls
1977 Ho Chi Minh 32
5 1974 Binh Duong 24
6 1992 Vung Tau 28
7 1988 America 32
8 1994 South Korea 18
Source: Summarized by the author
Focus group (a group discussion) was chosen for 8 participants staying in Ho
Chi Minh city to share many common features with less structured interviews. On
the basis of the available indicators of the previous researches and the participants‟
perceptions and experiences, the modification of the indicators as well as questions
for the survey would be undertaken (Appendix 2). To be more specific, the
discussion took place in Ho Chi Minh city for two hours to consider scales of
SERVQUAL dimension scale (Parasuraman et al., 1988) and scales in the studies of

27
Molinari et al. (2008); Ahn and Lee (2011); Taghizadeh et al. (2013); Narteh (2017)
with contents:
- Firstly, author introduced about the reason of the discussion and what we
needed to discuss about.
- Four scales (Appendix 1) of the previous studies were performed as a
foundation to give everyone a structure to evaluate.
- Based on the shown scales, participants discussed if what they experienced
during their flights with LCCs met the items in those scales.
- An agreement of a proposed 30 item scale for this study was formulated by
all of the participants.
The group discussion was guided, monitored and recorded by the researcher,
and an ultimate measurement scale was completed. Modifications and adaptions
were made to select suitable questions and dimensions with airline service. In
conclusion, four, five, four, four and four indicators were agreed for respectively
tangibles, reliability, responsiveness, assurance, and empathy. Customer satisfaction
will be observed by three indicators and the same was for both word-of-mouth and
repurchase intentions. As a result, a refined 30-question questionnaire was
consented for this study on the basis of the previous researches. The specific
indicators in details are shown in Table 3.2.
3.3. Quantitative research
3.3.1. Variables and measures
This study consisted of eight variables, namely tangibles, reliability,
responsiveness, assurance, empathy, customer satisfaction, word-of-mouth and
repurchase intentions. Among them, the first five variables are independent then
intermediate and finally 2 dependent variables. These variables are measured by
using multiple indicators. These indicators of the variables were obtained from both

28
the literature review and discussion in focus group. Specifically, the scale of this
research was based on the basis of scales of Parasuraman et al. (1988); Molinari et
al. (2008); Ahn and Lee (2011); Taghizadeh et al. (2013); Narteh (2017) (Appendix
1). Table 3.2 shows the research variables and the number of the items of the eight
variables.
Furthermore, five-point Likert scale ranging from strongly disagree (1) to
strongly agree (5) was employed to measure the responses of each respondent. In
the questionnaire, all of the indicators were created by using positive statements. To
be more specific, the higher the indicators were assigned by the respondents, the
higher they perceived the service quality, customer satisfaction. The same for the
dependent variable, it was assumed that the customers would have high behavioral
intentions when they scored for 4 or 5.
Table 3.2: Research variables and measures
No. Variable Item Symbol
1
Tangibles
New and updated planes Tan 1
2
The airline staff's neat and good-looking
appearance
Tan 2
3 Clean inboard facilities and interiors of planes Tan 3
4 Comfortable in-flight seats and legroom Tan 4
5
Reliability
No sudden cancellations of flights Rel 1
6
Provisions of consistent ground/in-flight
services
Rel 2
7 Punctuality of departures and arrivals Rel 3
8 Clear public performances of service users' Rel 4

29
interests
9
Efficient check-in and baggage handling
services
Rel 5
10
Responsiveness
Available staff for passengers to contact Res 1
11 Staff's sincerity for problem-solving Res 2
12 Appropriate and in-time for customers' Q&A Res 3
13
Prompt announcement for changes to
passengers
Res 4
14
Assurance
Employees' good knowledge for passengers'
questions
Ass 1
15
The feeling of safety and relaxation for
passengers during flights
Ass 2
16 Returning enough luggage in proper condition Ass 3
17
Employees' polite and friendly attitudes
towards customers
Ass 4
18
Empathy
Employees' attention and willingness for help Emp 1
19 Convenient flight schedules and frequencies Emp 2
20
Employees' understanding customers' specific
and particular needs
Emp 3
21
An update of new trends to meet customers'
demands
Emp 4
22
Customer
satisfaction
Perceived reliability from passengers CS 1
23 Overall satisfaction of the airline service CS 2
24 LCCs customers' needs fulfilment CS 3

30
25
Word-of-mouth
Recommendation to others to this LCC WOM 1
26 Encouraging others for the purchase WOM 2
27 Telling other passengers‟ good experience WOM 3
28
Repurchase
intentions
Consider this LCC again next time RI 1
29 Choose this LCC again next time if possible RI 2
30 The first choice for this LCC RI 3
3.3.2. Population and sampling
The target population was those who have travelled abroad with LCCs. The
survey was held for passengers flying abroad with LCCs at least 2 times within one
year because they were more likely to remember their perceptions of service quality
and airline experience. Passengers of Vietjet Air, Air Asia and Jetstar departing at
international terminal of Tan Son Nhat Airport were aimed for the survey sampling
right before their flights in their leisure waiting time. We chose this airport as well
as these three LCCs for several reasons. Firstly, Tan Son Nhat is the largest airport
located in the biggest city of Viet Nam with the capacity of 8-10 million passengers
per year and even more in deed. Moreover, Vietjet Air, Air Asia and Jetstar are the
three of the biggest LCCs in the South East Asia and well-known in Viet Nam with
a lot of flights to different destinations every day from Tan Son Nhat airport.
Hair et al. (1998) indicated that the suitable sample size for Exploratory
factor analysis (EFA) reaching the minimum is five times more than the number of
the questions in the research. Meanwhile, Tabachnick & Fidell (1996) stated that
the optimal sample size for multiple regression analysis is more than the sum of 50
and 8*m (m: the number of independent variables). Therefore, the suitable sample

31
size for this study is at least 30 * 5 = 150 and 5 * 8 + 50 = 90; finally, 240 were
delivered and collected, 238 of them were useful.
The survey was conducted to collect data directly from respondents using
brief responses with a five-point Likert-type scale. To develop the sampling, quick
interviews and questionnaires were delivered to the passengers mentioned above
waiting for the boarding time at gates in international terminal of Tan Son Nhat
International Airport. To ensure for the quality of data collected, the survey was
undertaken according to following three steps:
- These passengers were asked if they have travelled at least 2 times within a
year first to check if they are eligible to become respondents.
- If yes, those passengers then would be asked for help to complete the
questionnaires. It was due to the fact that they were more likely to remember their
perceptions of service quality and airline experience.
- Finally, the questionnaires were collected for the data. The report of data
collection each day was conducted (Appendix 4)
Non-probability sampling for convenient sampling was chosen since it is less
time-consuming and convenient for both as directed by Ahn and Lee (2011),
Widianti et al. (2013).
3.3.3. Data collection
The survey time was conducted from mid-December, 2018 to mid-January,
2019 because this was the peak time of the year when people had a high demand in
travelling. 240 questionnaires were delivered to passengers of these three LCCs
within twelves times during 4 weeks in accordance with the number of flights of
each airline by the author and one more person. Specifically, the survey took place
three times a week in business hours at the waiting gates in international terminal of
Tan Son Nhat International Airport. 2 of 240 returned questionnaires were double
checked for some items, so a total of 238 papers were useful for data analysis.

32
The questionnaire consisted of three parts. Part A consisted of questions
regarding to respondents‟ demographic profiles and their number and reasons of
flights within a year. Part B contained 21 questions that measured the airline‟s
service quality from passengers‟ points of view. It included the five SERVQUAL
dimensions: tangibles, reliability, responsiveness, assurance, and empathy while
four, five, four, four and four questions for each respectively. Part C was to examine
the customer satisfaction and passengers‟ behavioral intentions (word-of-mouth and
repurchase), with each construct having three questions, a total of nine. All of the 30
items in the three parts used a five-point Likert-type scale. (Appendix 5)
The collected data consisted of three parts:
A. Personal information
 Gender: Male and female
 Age: 4 levels (under 20, 21-40, 41-55, over 55)
 Occupation: 4 options (Student, private sector, government sector, others)
 Education: 4 levels (Lower than Bachelor, Bachelor‟s degree, Master‟s
degree, higher than Master)
 Monthly income: 4 levels (Under 8 million dong, 8-20 million dong, 21-30
million dong, over 30 million dong)
 Flight frequency: 2 options (2-6 times a year, more than 6 times a year)
 Reason of flight: 4 options (Pleasure, visit family, friends, business, others)
B. 21 survey questions for five dimensions of SERVQUAL on the
customers‟ perspective on the five-point Likert-type scale
Tangibles: 4 questions
Reliability: 5 questions
Responsiveness: 4 questions

33
Assurance: 4 questions
Empathy: 4 questions
C. 3 survey questions for each among customer satisfaction, word-of-mouth,
and repurchase intentions
A number of 240 questionnaires were obtained, corresponding with the
number of flight of each airline (Appendix 3). However, 238 of them were
considered to be adequate and satisfactory for proceeding to further analysis.
3.3.4. Data analysis
Data analysis was conducted in SPSS 22 and AMOS 20 for respondent
demographics, descriptive statistics, reliability and validity analysis using
Cronbach‟s alpha, exploratory factor analysis (EFA), confirmatory factor analysis
(CFA) and the hypotheses test using structural equation modeling (SEM).
Respondent demographics
Respondent demographics were used only as a demographic profile of
surveyed passengers. The demographic statistics were calculated on the basis of the
data type and intended characteristics. Those were presented by charts, graphs or
tables as appropriate. In this study, demographic profile was used to describe data of
respondents‟ gender, age, occupation, education level, monthly income, flight
frequency, reason of flight.
Descriptive statistics
Descriptive statistics are statistics of a single variable meant to describe
characteristics of the sample (Nunnally and Bernstein, 1994). Or they are numbers
that are used to summarize and describe data collected. These descriptive statistics
consist of mean and standard deviation (for numerical and Likert scale variables)
and frequency or percent (for categorical variables). In this study, descriptive

34
statistics of mean and standard deviation (for numerical and Likert scale variables)
was used for all the eight variables.
Reliability analysis
Cronbach‟s alpha is a measure of internal consistency developed by Lee
Cronbach in 1951, e.g. how closely related a set of items are as a group. Cronbach‟s
alpha tests aim to see if multiple-question Likert scale items are reliable. The scale
reliability of eight variables, including tangibles, reliability, responsiveness,
assurance, empathy, customer satisfaction, word-of-mouth and repurchase
intentions were measured by Cronbach‟s alpha along with their sets of items.
Firstly, Corrected Item-Total Correlation shows the consistency of one item
with the others. It serves as a criterion for initial assessment and purification. The
item is adopted when its Corrected Item-Total Correlation was higher than or equal
0.30 (Nunnally and Bernstein, 1994). By contrast, the items which have Corrected
Item-Total Correlation lower than 0.30 will be eliminated.
The resulting Cronbach‟s alpha coefficient of reliability ranges from 0 to 1
providing this overall assessment of a measure‟s reliability, and this coefficient
must be higher than 0.6 for the requirement (Nunnally & Burnstein, 1994).
Validity analysis
Exploratory factor analysis (EFA)
Indeed, a high value for α coefficient does not imply that the measure is
unidimensional. Therefore, exploratory factor analysis (EFA) is one method of
checking dimensionality. EFA is a statistical technique used to reduce data to a
smaller set of summary variables and to explore the underlying theoretical structure
of the phenomena (Hair et al, 2007). It is used to identify the structure of the
relationship between the variables and their items.

35
Firstly, the suitability of data for structure detection is tested via the Kaiser-
Meyer-Olkin Measure of Sampling Adequacy, which is a statistical indicating the
proportion of variance in variables probably caused by underlying factors. High
values, close to 1.0, generally state that a factor analysis may be useful with the
data. If the value is less than 0.50, the results of the factor analysis probably will not
be useful (Hair et al., 1998).
Then, Bartlett's test of sphericity tests the hypothesis that correlation matrix
is an identity matrix, which would indicate variables unrelated and unsuitable for
structure detection. Values lower than 0.05 of the significance level show that a
factor analysis may be useful for data.
Selection of factors to be extracted:
Most researchers use the Eigenvalue criteria for the number of factors to be
extracted. According to Kaiser Normalization, the factors which have Eigenvalue
less than 1.0 will be suppressed out of the hypothesis. Variance explained criteria
for practical and statistical significance of Factor Loadings must be higher than 50%
(Hair et al., 1998).
Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA)
After the numbers of factors are explored to represent the data in EFA,
confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) will be undertaken to specify the numbers of
indicators required in the data and which measured item is related to which latent
variable. CFA is a multivariate statistical procedure conducted to test how well the
measured variables represent constructs.
Assessing the measurement model validity happens when the theoretical
measurement model is compared with the real model to see how well the data fit.
To check the measurement model validity, a number of coefficients must satisfy the
criteria, i.e. CMIN/DF lower than 2; TLI, CFI and GFI higher than 0.9; RMSEA
lower than 0.08.

36
Then convergent and discriminant validity will be tested by using composite
reliability (CR) and average variance extracted (AVE). For convergent validity, CR
coefficients as well as standardized coefficients of the correlation between variables
and their indicators must be higher than 0.5. For discriminant validity, the
coefficients of the correlation (estimate) between variables must be different from 1
with the reliability of 95% (AVE coefficients > square correlation coefficient) (Hair
et al., 1998).
Hypotheses test
Structural equation modeling (SEM) is a multivariate statistical analysis
technique that is used to analyze structural relationships. This technique is a
combination of factor analysis and multiple regression analysis. To be more
specific, it is conducted to examine the structural relationships between measured
variables and latent constructs. A number of coefficients must meet the
predetermined criteria, i.e. CMIN/DF lower than 2; TLI, CFI and GFI higher than
0.9; RMSEA lower than 0.08. Standardized Coefficients are used to describe how
well the antecedent variables influence on the subsequent variables (Hair et al.,
1998).

37
Chapter 4: DATA ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSION
4.1. Respondent demographics
Demographic information part showed the personal facts of target passengers
of this study (Appendix 6). Demographic characteristics were collected during the
course of the survey, including respondents‟ gender, age, occupation, education
level, monthly income, flight frequency, reasons of flight. Demographic information
in 238 eligible questionnaires collected was processed for the data of respondent
demographics. The summary of surveyed passengers‟ demographic background is
shown on Table 4.1 as follows:
Table 4.1: Summary of respondent demographics
No. Demographic characteristic
Number of
subjects
Proportion
1 Gender
Male 144 60.5%
Female 94 39.5%
Total 238 100%
2 Age
Under 20 21 8.8%
21 - 40 124 52.1%
41 - 55 84 35.3%
Over 55 9 3.8%
Total 238 100%
3 Occupation
Student 28 11.8%
Private sector 89 37.4%
Government sector 48 20.2%
Others 73 30.7%
Total 238 100%

38
4
Education
level
Lower than Bachelor 96 40.3%
Bachelor‟s degree 117 49.2%
Master‟s degree 25 10.5%
Higher than Master 0 0%
Total 238 100%
5
Monthly
income
Under 8 million dong 40 16.8%
8-20 million dong 168 70.6%
21-30 million dong 28 11.8%
Over 30 million dong 2 0.8%
Total 238 100%
6
Flight
frequency
2-6 times a year 167 70.2%
More than 6 times a year 71 29.8%
Total 238 100%
7
Reasons of
flight
Pleasure 143 60.1%
Visit family, friends 67 28.2%
Business 28 11.8%
Others 0 0%
Total 238 100%
A total of 238 questionnaires were obtained in the survey and could be used
for respondent demographics analysis. The survey results showed that 60.5%
respondents were male, and 39.5% female. The number of male respondents was
much more than females, causing the imbalance of sex ratio in the survey.
Concerning age, 8.8% of the respondents were under 20 years old. The two
age levels 20 – 40 and 41 – 55 years old were dominant out of 238 respondents in
the survey, 52.1% and 35.3% respectively. A modest rate of over 55 years old

39
accounted for 3.8% (just 9 people). Therefore, the results of this survey would be
somehow prior to this group of age‟s opinions.
In terms of respondents‟ occupation, two thirds of surveyed passengers have
jobs in private sector and others, 37.4% and 30.7% respectively. 48 out of 238
respondents (20.2%) work in government sector, and the rest were students with
11.8%.
Regarding to the education level of the respondents, almost all of them have
Bachelor‟s degrees or lower, a total of 213 people with the rate of 49.2% and 40.3%
respectively. Just 25 of them have got Master‟s degrees, accounting for 10.5%; no
one is at higher than master‟s degree.
Of the respondents, those who have monthly incomes lower than 8 million
dong accounted for 16.8%; most of those are paid from 8-20 million dong, 168
respondents at 70.6%. Some others have incomes from 21-30 million dong (11.8%),
and the modest percentage of 0.8 for over 30 million dong.
More than two thirds of 238 respondents took international flights with LCCs
2-6 times within a year, 167 respondents at 70.2%; the rest has travelled abroad
more than 6 times a year.
The reason for using the LCCs service was majorly for pleasure, 60.1% with
143 people. Another 28.2% took international flights to visit their family; the rest
11.8% went on business trips, no for other reasons.
4.2. Descriptive statistics
First of all, descriptive statistics was presented for all the eight constructs
(tangibles, reliability, responsiveness, assurance, empathy, customer satisfaction,
word-of-mouth, and repurchase intentions). Mean and standard deviation were
calculated for all individual items of the variable scales (Appendix 7). It can be
considered as the levels of agreement of respondents for the survey questions about
service quality, customer satisfaction and behavioral intentions. They are presented
in Table 4.2 as follows:

40
Table 4.2: A summary of variables’ Mean and Standard deviation
Variables Mean SD
1 Tangibles 2.28 1.15
2 Reliability 3.42 1.15
3 Responsiveness 3.11 1.25
4 Assurance 3.43 1.20
5 Empathy 3.60 1.09
6 Customer satisfaction 3.49 1.12
7 Word-of-mouth 3.61 .99
8 Repurchase intentions 3.69 1.08
Firstly, for Tangibles, „the airline staff's appearance‟ was the highest
evaluated with Mean = 4.00. While other three items (planes, inboard facilities and
interiors, seats and legroom) were score low, ranging from 2.26 to 2.31 for Mean
with high Standard Deviation (1.25 - 1.37).
For Reliability, „punctuality of departures and arrivals‟ and „efficient check-
in and baggage handling services‟ were evaluated as neutral with Mean as 3.11 and
3.20 respectively. The remaining three items were agreed as good, and „provisions
of consistent ground/in-flight services‟ was at the highest score (Mean=3.74).
Responsiveness was also agreed at neutral, ranging from 2.97 to 3.22 along
with high standard deviation from 1.30 to 1.49. Prompt announcement for changes
to passengers was scored as the lowest, a bit under neutral.
With regarding to Assurance, „employees' good knowledge for passengers'
questions‟ was perceived as the best with Mean=3.77 while other three items were
evaluated quite good with Mean from 3.35 to 3.52.

41
The measure Empathy was scored quite good when all four items came to
their Mean over 3.50, from 3.51 to 3.70. „Convenient flight schedules and
frequencies‟ was perceived with the highest agreement in this dimension.
Customer satisfaction‟ question items were scored around 3.50. Specifically,
passengers agreed to be overall satisfied with the airline service then quite
perceived reliability and fulfilment of their needs from LCCs with Mean as 3.55,
3.43, and 3.48 respectively.
Regarded to word-of-mouth, „Recommendation to others to this LCC‟
acquired the highest Mean at 3.70. „Encouraging others for the purchase‟ and
„telling other passengers‟ good experience‟ got Mean at 3.55 and 3.58 respectively.
For repurchase intentions, „The first choice for this LCC‟ was agreed as
neutral at Mean=3.0. The remaining items got higher Mean at 3.63 and 3.76 for
„choose this LCC again next time if possible‟ and „considering this LCC again next
time‟.
4.3. Reliability and validity
Prior to being presented in Chapter 3, there have been eight constructs for
this research: (1) tangibles, (2) reliability, (3) responsiveness, (4) assurance, (5)
empathy, (6) customer satisfaction, (7) word-of-mouth, and (8) repurchase
intentions. These measures were tested using Cronbach‟s alpha to see the reliability,
exploratory factor analysis (EFA) and confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) to
evaluate the validity.
4.3.1. Reliability test
After conducting Cronbach‟s alpha test (Appendix 8), the results showed that
the five indicators, Tan 2, Rel 2, Res 2, Ass 1 and RI 3 were eliminated because
their Corrected Item-Total Correlation was lower than 0.3 (0.223, 0.114, 0.208,
0.273 and 0.242 respectively). Consequently, five indicators („The airline staff's
neat and good-looking appearance‟, „Provisions of consistent ground/in-flight
services‟, „Staff's sincerity for problem-solving‟, „Employees' good knowledge for

42
passengers' questions‟ and „The first choice for this LCC‟) would not be the
indicators of the research after Cronbach‟s alpha test. As a result, there have existed
to be 25 out of 30 items continuing to be evaluated in the next step (EFA).
Table 4.3: Cronbach’s alpha test outcomes
Variables Statements Corrected
Item-Total
Correlation
Cronbach's
Alpha if
Item Deleted
Tangibles Cronbach's α = 0.852
Tan 1 New and updated planes 0.748 0.768
Tan 3
Clean inboard facilities and interiors of
planes
0.728 0.789
Tan 4 Comfortable in-flight seats and legroom 0.693 0.819
Reliability Cronbach's α = 0.850
Rel 1 No sudden cancellations of flights 0.715 0.799
Rel 3 Punctuality of departures and arrivals 0.699 0.806
Rel 4
Clear public performances of service
users' interests
0.727 0.793
Rel 5
Efficient check-in and baggage handling
services
0.622 0.837
Responsiveness Cronbach's α = 0.856
Res 1 Available staff for passengers to contact 0.713 0.814
Res 3
Appropriate and in-time for customers'
Q&A
0.718 0.810
Res 4
Prompt announcement for changes to
passengers
0.761 0.769

43
Assurance Cronbach's α = 0.866
Ass 2
The feeling of safety and relaxation for
passengers during flights
0.771 0.788
Ass 3
Returning enough luggage in proper
condition
0.687 0.864
Ass 4
Employees' polite and friendly attitudes
towards customers
0.780 0.780
Empathy Cronbach's α = 0.867
Emp 1
Employees' attention and willingness for
help
0.740 0.822
Emp 2
Convenient flight schedules and
frequencies
0.756 0.814
Emp 3
Employees' understanding customers'
specific and particular needs
0.714 0.832
Emp 4
An update of new trends to meet
customers' demands
0.664 0.851
Customer satisfaction Cronbach's α = 0.869
CS 1 Perceived reliability from passengers 0.783 0.783
CS 2 Overall satisfaction of the airline service 0.736 0.827
CS 3 LCCs customers' needs fulfilment 0.728 0.834
Word-of-mouth Cronbach's α = 0.797
WOM 1 Recommendation to others to this LCC 0.674 0.687
WOM 2 Encouraging others for the purchase 0.597 0.768
WOM 3 Telling other passengers‟ good experience 0.653 0.711

44
Repurchase intentions Cronbach's α = 0.738
RI 1 Consider this LCC again next time 0.585 -
RI 2
Choose this LCC again next time if
possible
0.585 -
4.3.2. Validity test
Exploratory factor analysis (EFA)
According to the results of first EFA (Appendix 9), no factor loading values
beneath 0.5 existed. However, an issue happened to the two variables, Emp 3
(Employees' understanding customers' specific and particular needs) and Rel 5
(Efficient check-in and baggage handling services). The former, Emp 3, loaded on
two components 1 and 2, while the latter, Rel 5, loaded on component 2 and 4. This
definitely made it impossible to detect which variables they uniquely capture;
therefore, these two items were suppressed.
Second EFA for the group of five independent variables showed the results
that:
KMO value equaled 0.811 > 0.5
Sig. of Bartlett's Test of Sphericity was 0.000 < 0.05
Eigenvalues equaled 1.007 > 1
Cumulative Extraction Sums of Squared Loadings was 65.933% > 50%
All the factor loading values stayed above 0.5. Therefore, all the items
uniquely captured their variables. As a result, an eight-factor solution including 23
attributes explained 65.933% of the variance in the data with the Eigenvalues higher
than 1.0.

45
Table 4.4: EFA results
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
Ass2 0.942
Ass4 0.867
Ass3 0.641
Res4 0.921
Res3 0.793
Res1 0.719
Tan1 0.867
Tan3 0.804
Tan4 0.772
Emp2 0.850
Emp4 0.754
Emp1 0.747
Rel3 0.780
Rel1 0.775
Rel4 0.774
CS1 0.952
CS3 0.777
CS2 0.686
WOM1 0.801
WOM3 0.758
WOM2 0.702
RI1 0.800
RI2 0.735

46
Eigenvalues 6.566 2.421 2.067 1.941 1.365 1.313 1.173 1.007
Variance
27.13% 8.96% 7.53% 7.06% 4.52% 4.24% 3.39% 3.1%
Cumulative: 65.933%
After conducting EFA, the two more items, Emp 3 and Rel 5, were dropped.
There remained to be 23 out of 30 indicators shown in Table 4.5 hereafter:
Table 4.5: Factor structure based on factor analysis results
Symbol Factors
Tangibles
Tan 1 New and updated planes
Tan 3 Clean inboard facilities and interiors of planes
Tan 4 Comfortable in-flight seats and legroom
Reliability
Rel 1 No sudden cancellations of flights
Rel 3 Punctuality of departures and arrivals
Rel 4 Clear public performances of service users' interests
Responsiveness
Res 1 Available staff for passengers to contact
Res 3 Appropriate and in-time for customers' Q&A
Res 4 Prompt announcement for changes to passengers
Assurance
Ass 2 The feeling of safety and relaxation for passengers during flights
Ass 3 Returning enough luggage in proper condition
Ass 4 Employees' polite and friendly attitudes towards customers

47
Empathy
Emp 1 Employees' attention and willingness for help
Emp 2 Convenient flight schedules and frequencies
Emp 4 An update of new trends to meet customers' demands
Customer satisfaction
CS 1 Perceived reliability from passengers
CS 2 Overall satisfaction of the airline service
CS 3 LCCs customers' needs fulfilment
Word-of-mouth
WOM 1 Recommendation to others to this LCC
WOM 2 Encouraging others for the purchase
WOM 3 Telling other passengers‟ good experience
Repurchase intentions
RI 1 Consider this LCC again next time
RI 2 Choose this LCC again next time if possible
Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA)
23 items into eight groups of factors were proceed to confirmatory factor
analysis (CFA) to examine the full model for convergent and discriminant validity
(Appendix 10).
According to the results, the evaluation coefficients matched with the
criteria:
CMIN/DF = 1.487, lower than 2
GFI (0.903), TLI (0.953), and CFI (0.963) were all greater than 0.9

48
RMSEA= 0.045, lower than 0.08
Therefore, the model fit research data. Then, convergent and discriminant
validity would be tested hereafter
Table 4.6: Summary of CR and AVE
Factors CR AVE
Ass 0.869 0.690
Res 0.858 0.668
Tan 0.853 0.659
Emp 0.834 0.627
Rel 0.839 0.635
CS 0.870 0.691
WOM 0.799 0.571
RI 0.739 0.586
According to the table, all CR and AVE values of all the eight factors were
greater than 0.5, which matched with the criteria for acceptance for the model.
Test of convergent validity
Table 4.7: The convergent coefficients of factors
The correlations between
factors
Estimate
Standardized
estimate
Ass2 <--- Ass 1.000 0.846
Ass4 <--- Ass 1.042 0.887

49
Ass3 <--- Ass 0.869 0.753
Res4 <--- Res 1.000 0.854
Res3 <--- Res 0.868 0.792
Res1 <--- Res 0.851 0.805
Tan1 <--- Tan 1.000 0.843
Tan3 <--- Tan 0.894 0.828
Tan4 <--- Tan 0.856 0.762
Emp2 <--- Emp 1.000 0.833
Emp4 <--- Emp 0.834 0.720
Emp1 <--- Emp 0.902 0.817
Rel3 <--- Rel 1.000 0.808
Rel1 <--- Rel 0.960 0.754
Rel4 <--- Rel 1.176 0.827
CS1 <--- CS 1.000 0.861
CS3 <--- CS 0.938 0.806
CS2 <--- CS 0.983 0.826
WOM1 <--- WOM 1.000 0.813
WOM3 <--- WOM 0.891 0.772
WOM2 <--- WOM 0.798 0.675
RI1 <--- RI 1.000 0.745
RI2 <--- RI 1.084 0.785

50
Moreover, all of the CR values of all the eight factors (Table 4.6) along with
the standardized estimate coefficients (Table 4.7) were higher than 0.5, so this
model was accepted for convergent validity.
Test of discriminant validity
Table 4.8: The discriminant coefficients of factors
AVE^1/2 Ass Res Tan Emp Rel CS WOM RI
Ass 0.831 1
Res 0.817 0.286 1
Tan 0.812 -0.210 -0.221 1
Emp 0.792 0.511 0.367 -0.203 1
Rel 0.797 0.399 0.275 -0.380 0.413 1
CS 0.831 0.577 0.440 -0.212 0.554 0.568 1
WOM 0.756 0.208 0.109 -0.154 0.180 0.392 0.313 1
RI 0.766 0.028 0.209 -0.116 0.112 0.226 0.153 0.409 1
Seen from the table 4.8, all the coefficients of the correlation between the
eight variables were different from 1 with reliability of 95%. All the AVE ½ values
were higher than the absolute values of the correlation coefficients. Thus, it has
confirmed that this model was accepted for discriminant validity.

51
4.4. Hypotheses test
After being checked reliability and validity, the seven hypotheses and the
research model would be tested by SEM.
Structural equation modeling - SEM 1
According to the results (Appendix 11), the evaluation coefficients matched
with the criteria:
GFI (0.892) was approximately 0.9
TLI (0.943), and CFI (0.952) were all greater than 0.9
Table 4.9: Standardized regression weights 1
Estimate S.E. C.R. P
Standardized
Coefficients
CS <--- Tan 0.056 0.058 0.968 0.333 0.061
CS <--- Rel 0.371 0.079 4.722 0.000 0.350
CS <--- Res 0.171 0.053 3.196 0.001 0.204
CS <--- Ass 0.266 0.065 4.067 0.000 0.291
CS <--- Emp 0.194 0.074 2.641 0.008 0.199
WOM <--- CS 0.309 0.070 4.425 0.000 0.340
RI <--- CS 0.160 0.077 2.076 0.038 0.183
The results from SEM 1 have indicated that there was no evident relationship
between Tan (tangibles dimension) and CS (customer satisfaction) due to P = 0.333,
higher than > 0.05.

52
Structural equation modeling - SEM 2
According to the results (Appendix 11), the evaluation coefficients matched
the criteria:
GFI (0.890) was approximately 0.9
TLI (0.926), and CFI (0.939) were all greater than 0.9
Table 4.10: Standardized regression weights 2
Estimate S.E. C.R. P Standardized
Coefficients
CS <--- Rel 0.353 0.074 4.746 0.000 0.330
CS <--- Res 0.165 0.053 3.117 0.002 0.197
CS <--- Ass 0.263 0.065 4.027 0.000 0.287
CS <--- Emp 0.194 0.073 2.638 0.008 0.199
WOM <--- CS 0.310 0.070 4.427 0.000 0.340
RI <--- CS 0.160 0.077 2.080 0.037 0.183
The results from SEM 2 have indicated that Rel, Res, Ass and Emp all have
influence on customer satisfaction, especially Rel and Ass with β as 0.33, 0.197,
0.287 and 0.199 respectively. Meanwhile, CS was found to affect WOM at β=0.34
and RI at β=0.183.
As a result, the six hypotheses (H2, H3, H4, H5, H6, H7) were accepted with
the reliability of 95%.
4.5. Summary of data analysis results
Variables and hypotheses after test are presented in Table 4.11, 4.12 and
Figure 4.1 hereafter:

53
Table 4.11: Factor structure after hypotheses test
Symbol Factors
Reliability
Rel 1 No sudden cancellations of flights
Rel 3 Punctuality of departures and arrivals
Rel 4 Clear public performances of service users' interests
Responsiveness
Res 1 Available staff for passengers to contact
Res 3 Appropriate and in-time for customers' Q&A
Res 4 Prompt announcement for changes to passengers
Assurance
Ass 2 The feeling of safety and relaxation for passengers during flights
Ass 3 Returning enough luggage in proper condition
Ass 4 Employees' polite and friendly attitudes towards customers
Empathy
Emp 1 Employees' attention and willingness for help
Emp 2 Convenient flight schedules and frequencies
Emp 4 An update of new trends to meet customers' demands
Customer satisfaction
CS 1 Perceived reliability from passengers
CS 2 Overall satisfaction of the airline service
CS 3 LCCs customers' needs fulfilment

54
Word-of-mouth
WOM 1 Recommendation to others to this LCC
WOM 2 Encouraging others for the purchase
WOM 3 Telling other passengers‟ good experience
Repurchase intentions
RI 1 Consider this LCC again next time
RI 2 Choose this LCC again next time if possible
Table 4.12: Hypotheses test summary
No. Hypothesis
Standardized
Coefficients (β)
Results
1
Service quality dimension “Tangibles” has a
positive influence on customer satisfaction
0.061 Rejected
2
Service quality dimension “Reliability” has
a positive influence on customer satisfaction
0.330 Accepted
3
Service quality dimension
“Responsiveness” has a positive influence
on customer satisfaction
0.197 Accepted
4
Service quality dimension “Assurance” has
a positive influence on customer satisfaction
0.287 Accepted
5
Service quality dimension “Empathy” has a
positive influence on customer satisfaction
0.199 Accepted
6
Customer satisfaction has a positive
influence on word-of-mouth
0.340 Accepted
7
Customer satisfaction has a positive
influence on repurchase intentions
0.183 Accepted
Tải bản FULL (134 trang): https://bit.ly/3FNlSt3
Dự phòng: fb.com/TaiHo123doc.net

56
attentions and priorities for these two service quality dimensions (reliability and
assurance) to bring a consistent satisfaction to every passenger.
More additionally, for dimension of reliability, „provisions of consistent
ground/in-flight services‟ and „clear public performances of service users' interests‟
were well agreed by respondents, at Mean of 3.74 and 3.67 respectively, followed
by „no sudden cancellations of flights‟. „Punctuality of departures and arrivals‟ was
quite supposed to no idea from surveyed passengers. Meanwhile, items of assurance
were perceived quite good, especially „employees' good knowledge for passengers'
questions‟ at mean of 3.77, then the other three items at mean around 3.40.
Besides, responsiveness and empathy were detected to have the same
significance to customer satisfaction with β as 0.197 and 0.199 respectively. While
empathy was evaluated as good for the service quality, responsiveness was close to
neutral. Therefore, the LCCs manager also needs to consider responsiveness
dimension. Nevertheless, these two dimensions also experienced big standard
deviation, which has shown that the evaluations among respondents were not
consistent.
Indeed, although these two dimensions (responsiveness and empathy) have
had quite the same influence on customer satisfaction, they were evaluated quite
differently by the passengers. While empathy was quite agreed as good,
responsiveness stayed at neutral according to the findings, at 3.60 and 3.11
respectively. Specifically, items of empathy were scored at around 3.60, the highest
for „convenient flight schedules and frequencies‟. And all items of responsiveness
were scored pretty low at just around 3.0, the lowest for „prompt announcement for
changes to passengers‟ (Mean = 2.97)
Lastly, no evident relationship between tangibles dimension and customer
satisfaction was found. Indeed, customers‟ evaluation for this dimension was at just
disagree level; however, these customers were quite satisfied with the service.
Specifically, passengers evaluated that the planes of LCCs were not new and
Tải bản FULL (134 trang): https://bit.ly/3FNlSt3
Dự phòng: fb.com/TaiHo123doc.net

57
updated with not clean inboard facilities and interiors, and uncomfortable seats and
legroom. The airline staff‟s appearance was marked as neat and good-looking for
the dimension of tangibles.
As a result, LCCs operators should give more priority to reliability
dimension by avoiding sudden cancellations of flights, managing to depart and
arrive on time, performing customers‟ interests clearly. Moreover, assurance also
need to be attentive by enhancing the experience of safety and relaxation for
passenger during flights, controlling their luggage efficiently, and training staff to
be polite and friendly toward customers.
Then responsiveness should be also prioritized; deploying staff for the
passengers to contact, having appropriate and in-time responses for customers‟
concerns and announcing immediately the changes are all necessary. The same for
empathy, attentive and willing staff, convenient flight schedules and frequencies, an
update of new trends to meet customers' demands need to be in consideration.
Customer satisfaction was detected to have positive effect on both behavioral
intentions (word-of-mouth and repurchase intentions). While the relationship of
customer satisfaction and word-of-mouth was found significant at β=0.34, the
association of customer satisfaction and repurchase intentions was detected a bit
lower at β=0.183. It has indicated that satisfied customers are more likely to create
positive word-of-mouth than reusing the service. There might be other factors
affecting repurchase intentions.
These findings have helped the LCCs managers to realize that satisfied and
trusting customers are likely to create positive word-of-mouth and probably
repurchase the service. Specifically, the customers will recommend or tell other
good things of the service or they will even encourage their friends and
acquaintances to use the LCCs service. The same for the next behavioral intention,
satisfied customers will probably consider and choose the LCCs next time.
Therefore, focusing on the service quality to satisfy passengers is of great
6672608

Service quality, customer satisfaction and behavioral intentions - a study of international flights with low-cost carriers in Viet Nam.pdf

Recommended

Recommended

More Related Content

Similar to Service quality, customer satisfaction and behavioral intentions - a study of international flights with low-cost carriers in Viet Nam.pdf

Similar to Service quality, customer satisfaction and behavioral intentions - a study of international flights with low-cost carriers in Viet Nam.pdf (20)

More from HanaTiti

More from HanaTiti (20)

Recently uploaded

Recently uploaded (20)

Service quality, customer satisfaction and behavioral intentions - a study of international flights with low-cost carriers in Viet Nam.pdf