Customer Satisfaction on In-flight Services of Vietnam Airlines: Masters thesis of Business Administration

MEIHO UNIVERSITY

Graduate Institute of Business and Management

MASTERS THESIS

Customer Satisfaction on In-flight Services

of Vietnam Airlines

In partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of

Masters of Business Administration

Advisor: Dr. Chien-Chung Lin

Co-advisor: Dr. Vo Phuoc Tan

Graduate Student: Tran Sy Ngach

December, 2010

I

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

First of all, I would like to thank Dr. Chien Chung Lin of the Graduate Institute of

Business and Management of Meiho Institute of Technology, Taiwan (MIT Taiwan), who not

only gave me much valuable and timely instructions but also encouragement during my

preparation of this research.

I would also like to thank Dr. Vo Phuoc Tan, the Head of the Post Graduate Department

of Ho Chi Minh City University of Industry, Vietnam, for his advice to complete the thesis.

Beside my own efforts together valuable advice of the advisors, I also receive great help

and encouragement from my family, my friends, and my colleagues so finally, I would like to

extend a special thankfulness to all of them, especially Ms. Do Thi Thanh Huyen, for their

support during my course and survey.

II

Customer Satisfaction on In-flight Services of

Vietnam Airlines

ABSTRACT

Customer satisfaction is a measure of how products and services supplied by a

company meet or surpass customer expectation. Managers strongly believe that customer

satisfaction is seen as a key differentiator, which has become a key element of business

strategies in a competitive marketplace where businesses compete for customers.

Marketers are also aware that measuring customer satisfaction provides an indication of

how successful the organization is at providing products or services to the marketplace.

The aim of this study was to explore the perception of Vietnam Airlines passengers to the

in-flight services provided by the airline. The model used to examine customer

satisfaction on service quality is the SERQUAL modal, developed by Parasuraman,

Zeithaml, and Berry together the five-point scale of SERVPEX, proposed by Robledo

(2001). To achieve the purpose of the study, a survey was used involving 450 Vietnam

Airlines passengers in four domestic and international flights. The results of the survey

exposed the current perception of Vietnam Airlines’s passengers on the quality of in￾flight services. Based on results of the analyses, the study showed the effects of service

criteria on passenger’s perceptions of in-flight services and offered some suggestions to

enhance customer satisfaction with perceived in-flight service quality for Vietnam

Airlines.

Keywords: Service Quality, Customer Satisfaction, In-flight Services, SERVQUAL,

SERVPEX, Viet Nam Airlines

III

Customer Satisfaction on In-flight Services of

Vietnam Airlines

Contents

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS .........................................................................................................I

ABSTRACT..............................................................................................................................II

Contents .................................................................................................................................. III

Tables....................................................................................................................................... V

Figures....................................................................................................................................VII

Chapter1 Introduction ............................................................................................................... 1

1.1 Motivation....................................................................................................................... 1

1.2 Purpose............................................................................................................................ 5

1.3 Research Scope and Limitations..................................................................................... 6

1.4 Definition of Terms ........................................................................................................ 6

1.4.1 Service quality. ........................................................................................................ 6

1.4.2 In-flight service........................................................................................................ 6

1.4.3 SERVQUAL. ........................................................................................................... 7

1.4.4 SERVPEX................................................................................................................ 7

Chapter 2 Literature Review..................................................................................................... 8

2.1 Service Quality ............................................................................................................... 8

2.2 In-flight Services........................................................................................................... 15

2.3 Customer Satisfaction ................................................................................................... 22

2.4 The Relationship between Service Quality and Customer Satisfaction ....................... 23

Chapter 3 Research Methodology........................................................................................... 27

3.1 Research Process........................................................................................................... 27

3.2 Research Framework .................................................................................................... 28

3.3 Research Methodology ................................................................................................. 29

3.4 Population and Sampling.............................................................................................. 29

3.4.1 Population. ............................................................................................................. 29

3.4.2 Sampling. ............................................................................................................... 30

3.5 Questionnaire Design.................................................................................................... 30

3.5.1 Classification questions. ........................................................................................ 30

3.5.2 Main questions....................................................................................................... 31

IV

3.6 Reliability and Validity................................................................................................. 34

3.6.1 Reliability............................................................................................................... 34

3.6.2 Construct validity................................................................................................... 34

3.7 Data Collection ............................................................................................................. 34

3.8 Data Analysis................................................................................................................ 35

Chapter 4 Research Results and Analysis............................................................................... 36

4.1 Descriptive Statistics..................................................................................................... 36

4.1.1 Characteristics of the respondents. ........................................................................ 36

4.1.2 Measurement results of research variables. ........................................................... 38

4.2 Reliability...................................................................................................................... 41

4.3 Inferential Statistics ...................................................................................................... 43

4.3.1 Regression analysis................................................................................................ 43

4.3.2 Independent sample T-test. ................................................................................... 47

4.3.2 One way ANOVA.................................................................................................. 50

Chapter 5 Conclusions, Recommendations and Implication .................................................. 59

5.1 Conclusions................................................................................................................... 59

5.1.1 How Vietnam airlines’ passengers perceive the in-flight services. ....................... 59

5.1.2 How factors influence on the customer satisfaction of in-flight sevices. ............. 59

5.1.3 How passengers with different genders perceive the in-flight services................. 59

5.1.4 How passengers with different ages perceive the in-flight services...................... 59

5.1.5 How passengers with different occupations perceive the in-flight services.......... 60

5.1.6 How passengers with different frequency of air travel perceive the in-flight

services............................................................................................................................ 60

5.1.7 How passengers with different types of ticket perceive the in-flight services. ..... 60

5.1.8 How passengers with different nationalities perceive the in-flight services. ........ 60

5.2 Recommendations......................................................................................................... 61

5.3 Implication.................................................................................................................... 62

References............................................................................................................................... 63

Appendix I .............................................................................................................................. 66