Scope of the Study - A Confirmative Study of Customer Satisfaction and Behavior Intensions on S

CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION

1.3 Scope of the Study

The scope of the study consisted of following:

1. The subjects in the study were 600 spectators’ who attendance the final round in 2014 Vietnam University Games.

2. The study was conduct from 19^th to 26^th April, 2014.

4 1.4 Assumptions

Followings are assumptions controlled for this study:

1. It was assumed that respondents answered the questions honestly and reflected a view consistent with their experiences.

2. It was assumed that the administrated questionnaires could measure the real response of respondents.

1.5 Limitations

Limitations of the study consisted of the following:

1. The scales for tested variables of this study were all based on experiences of sporting events which depend up the spectator’s perception and subjective judgment of respondent; therefore, data collection were influenced by respondent’s willing to cooperate, value and understanding the questions.

2. The questionnaires may have been some lost meaning in translating the questionnaire from English to Vietnamese.

3. The data collected from spectators of 2014 Vietnam University Games, which means that results are only indicative and cannot be generalized in the context of sporting events.

1.6 Definition of Terms

For the purpose of this study, following the terms was operationally defined:

1. Service quality: service quality as the interaction between font-line employees and service environment (Brady & Cronin, 2001; Cronin & Taylor, 1992; Parasuraman et al., 1985). Service quality is defined in this study as the spectator’s perceptions with the service of frontline employees with ticket seller, ticker takers, ushers, and concession clerks (Yoshida & James, 2010) and service environment with experiences in arena via their five senses: sight, sound, touch, smell and taste (Gobé, 2001; Hultén, Broweus, &

Dijk, 2009; Lindstrom, 2005; Schmitt, 1999).

2. Games quality: Mason in 1999 identifies a number of aspects believed to be unique to spectator sport products game schedule, league designed home territory, special series of league games such as play-offs, uncertainty of game outcomes, interclub competitiveness, rivalry between clubs, seasonality of league games, and hedonic experiences. Games quality is defined in this study as the spectator’s perceptions with opponent characteristics, player performance, game atmosphere (Yoshida & James, 2010;

Theodorakis, Kostas Alexandris, Nikolaos Tsigilis, Serafim Karvounis, 2013) in the relation to the sport competition on the arena.

3. Customer satisfaction: customer satisfaction in the sport content as ‘‘a pleasurable, fulfillment response to the entertainment of the sport competition and/or ancillary services provided during the games (Yoshida & James, 2010).

Customer satisfaction is defined in the current study as a spectator’s pleasurable, fulfillment, satisfied with outcome of the game quality and service quality (Theodorakis et.

al., 2013).

4. Behavior intension: Behavior intension is defined in this current study as the spectator’s will attend sporting event in the future, willingness to recommend a visit to others and word-of-mouth communications (Brady et al., 2006; Cronin et al., 2000) such as intention to say positive things about the games and its services. Behavioral intentions at sporting events as a customer’s favorable intentions to (1) recommend the team to other customers, (2) attend the team’s future sporting events, and (3) remain loyal to the team (Yoshida & James, 2010).

1.7 Summary

The purposes in this study were to: (1) understand the spectators’ satisfaction with the service quality and game quality, (2) propose a model of the relationship between service quality, game quality, customer satisfaction and behavior intensions and (3) examine the relationships among the proposed constructs. The theoretical background and

hypotheses will present in the Chapter 2, including the literature review relationship with service quality, game quality, customer satisfaction and behavior intensions in the content of sporting events.

CHAPTER 2 LITERATURE REVIEW

The purpose of this study was to examine the causal relationship between sporting event perceptions of service quality, game quality, game and service satisfaction, customer satisfaction and behavioral intentions in Vietnam University Game. The researcher seeks to understand the experiences of sports spectator’s while attending a sporting event. To carry out this study, it is necessary to complete a critical review of current literature. Four major areas of literature are critically reviewed: a) service quality, b) game quality, c) customer satisfaction, and d) behavioral intentions.

2.1 Service Quality

Service quality, defined as “the difference between what is expected from each of the service dimensions and what a consumer perceives he or she receives from them”

(MacKay & Crompton, 1988, p.46), has become a great differentiator of service enterprises (Kandampully, 1998). Service quality has been linked to outcomes such as customer satisfaction (Ko & Pastore, 2004), customer loyalty (Kandampully, 1998;

Zeithaml, Parasuraman, & Berry, 1990), value (Laroche, Ueltschy, Shuzo, & Cleveland, 2004), and repurchase intention (Fornell, 1992). In this regard, there are several descriptions of quality dimensions. For instance, Grönroos’ (1984) two-dimensional model is composed of technical quality and functional quality, while Lehtinen and Lehtinen’s (1983, 1991) included process quality and outcome quality. Lehtinen and Lehtinen (1991) also offered a three-dimensional model of physical quality, interactive quality, and corporate quality. Parasuraman, Zeithaml, and Berry’s (1985) SERVQUAL model consisted of five dimensions of tangibles, reliability, responsiveness, assurance, and empathy. Rust and Oliver (1994) introduced a three-dimensional model of service quality encompassing the service product, service delivery, and service environment. Brady and Cronin’s (2001) three-dimensional model of service quality consisted of interaction

quality, physical environment quality, and outcome quality. In the context of spectator sports, Croninet al. (2000) found that service quality had both a direct effect on spectators’

behavioral intentions and indirect effects (through satisfaction and service value) on such intentions. More recently, Theodorakis and Alexandris (2013) have provided support for the relationship between service quality and behavioral intentions among spectators of professional soccer by showing that the service dimensions of SERQUAL model including tangibles, reliability, responsiveness, assurance, and empathy. However, services marketing researchers clearly define service quality as the interaction with the service environment and the frontline employees (Brady & Cronin, 2001; Cronin &

Taylor, 1992; Parasuraman et al., 1988). Thus, this study focuses on the interaction between service experiences and the frontline employees of service quality.

2.1.1 Service Employees

Milne and McDonald (1999) suggest that a critical challenge for sport marketers is managing the core product and ancillary services. Ancillary services, on the other hand, include factors such as stadium employees, facility layout, accessibility, seating comfort, and information signs which can be influenced through managerial control (Greenwell et al., 2002; Wakefield & Blodgett, 1996; Zhang, J.J., Pease, D.G., Smith, D.W., Lee, J.T., Lam, E.T.C., & Jambor, E.A. 1998). The quality of stadium employees is defined as a customer’s perceptions of the attitudes and behaviors of stadium employees based on the interactions with ticket sellers, ticket takers, ushers, and concession clerks. Assurance refers to employees’ knowledge and their ability to convey trust and confidence. Tangible refers to the physical environment. Empathy refers to employees’ willingness to provide individualized at attention to customers, and responsiveness refers to employees’

willingness to help customers and to provide prompt services. Thus, this study was to

evaluation employees of the events such as attitude, knowledge, respond and skill interactions with spectator during the games.

2.1.2 Sensory Experiences

According Lee, Lee, Seo, and Green in 2012, sensory experience is well established in consumer behavior that consumers’ sensory experiences play an important role in their perceptions of the value companies provide. A number of consumer behavior studies have begun to pay close attention to consumers’ experiences via their five senses:

sight, sound, touch, smell and taste (Gobé, 2001; Hultén, Broweus, & Dijk, 2009;

Lindstrom, 2005; Schmitt, 1999). In this regard, a stadium can be considered a

“sensorycape” which provides a memorable experience by appealing to all five senses;

spectators can appreciate the visual beauty of a stadium’s architecture and grounds, hear stimulating music at the stadium, feel comfortable seats, experience the stadium’s unique smell, and enjoy the taste of the food available at the concession stands. Experiences have always been at the heart of the entertainment business (Holbrook & Hirschman, 1982), and sporting events are no exception. This conceptualization of the stadium experience differs from most facility research that has focused on cognitive evaluations of customer service, with some attention to sight (e.g., facility aesthetics), seating comfort, and crowding (Lee, Lee, Seo, and Green, 2012).

Many researchers have studied the relationship between service quality and customer satisfaction. Empirical findings showed that service quality is related to customer satisfaction (Babakus, E., C. C. Bienstock, J. R. V. Scotter. 2004). Customers who are satisfied with the perceived service quality will have a favorable emotional response, i.e., customer satisfaction. On the other hand, from the definition of consumer behavior intentions, refer to the research by Theodorakis (2008, 2013) in which a multi-dimensional model of behavior intentions was proposed. It was suggested that favorable

behavioral intentions include elements such as saying positive things and recommending the games to others, attendance games in the future while spectator perception in service quality. Thus, in this study examined the influence of service quality on behavioral intentions in spectator sporting events. Accordingly the literature review and previous research, the following two hypotheses are proposed:

Hypothesis 1: The customer’s perceptions of the services quality have a positive impact on customer satisfaction.

Hypothesis 2: The customer’s perceptions of service quality have a positive impact on behavior intensions.

2.2 Game Quality

Game quality (core product quality) in the spectator sport industry includes numerous characteristics. Mason (1999) identifies a number of aspects believed to be unique to spectator sport products: game schedule, league designed home territory, special series of league games such as play-offs, uncertainty of game outcomes, interclub competitiveness, rivalry between clubs, seasonality of league games, and hedonic experiences (i.e., a sense of entertainment and drama).

2.2.1 Core Product

According to Schaaf (1995) was defined the core product at a sporting event refers to the entertainment of competition based on the uncertainty of game outcome, or physical goods or services associated with the excitement of the sporting event, or both. The core product consists of the central product or service (Mullin, Hardy, & Sutton, 2007). In sport, the core product usually consists of the set of items that influence customers’ perceptions of the quality of the game. Specifically, factors such as team performance (Baade &

Tiehen, 1990; Branvold, Pan, & Gabert, 1997; DeSchriver, 1999; Pan, Gabert, McGaugh,

& Branvold, 1997), quality of opponents (Madrigal, 1995; Marcum & Greenstein, 1985;

Zhang, Pease, Smith, Lee, Lam, & Jambor, 1997), rivalry rank (Wall & Myers, 1989) and star players (Schofield, 1983) have each been found to influence attendance.

Abdullah & Rozario (2009), Yoshida & James (2010), and Theodorakis, Koustelios, Robinson, & Barlas, (2009) support this conceptualization and provide the basis for the conclusion that the core product in sports is derived from sport-related factors, such as the quality of the home and opposing teams. Winning percentage of a team, their place in the standings, the team’s history, the number of star players on the team, and the reputation of the team are also important factors that impact on spectator satisfaction. The core product in spectator sports includes game-related components, which are key determinants of whether an element is the core product or ancillary service (Yoshida & James, 2010).

According Morgan and Summers (2005), the core sport product as the competition itself, as this is the main reason people spend money to attend sporting events. Like any product, the sport product is seen as also consisting of three product levels which together all enhance the total product experience. These levels are depicted in Figure 1.

As specified in Figure 1, competition, by its very nature, is completely uncontrollable and unpredictable and it is the key to the passionate and committed following of many sport fans. Spectators can be satisfied with their experience, even if their team does not win, as long as the quality and intensity of competition is of a high standard (Morgan & Summer, 2005). The actual products and the augmented products simply enhance the entire experience, which then affects and impacts spectator satisfaction. Sports marketers can thus use past performances of the team in any marketing communication initiatives to intensify the expectation that fans have of the core product.

Figure1. Product Levels for A Sporting Event Source: Morgan & Summers (2005)

A review of the literature suggests that there are two important constructs pertaining to the core product at sporting events: team characteristics (i.e., winning percentage, place in the standings, team history, number of star players on the team, and the quality of the opposing team) and player performance which is captured by players’

on-field performance (i.e., skill, strategy, team effort, and drama; Garvin, 1984; Greenwell, 2001; James & Ross, 2004; Zhang et al., 1997). The special atmosphere in sport stadiums is one of the most important reasons why people attend events (Bauer, Sauer, & Exler, 2005; Holt, 1995; Pfaff, 2002; Wochnowski, 1996). More specifically, atmosphere is associated not only with the ambiance of the stadium, but also with the festive, party-like atmosphere of the game, history of a game, perceived rivalry, attractiveness of team colors and logos, and courteousness of event staff (Kahle, L., Aiken, D., Dalakas, V., & Duncan, M., 2003; Melnick, 1993).

In the study of Yoshida and James (2010) used the game quality in a multi-dimension nature in the context of sport spectatorship including core product quality as player performance and opponent characteristics and game atmosphere. However the player performance, opponent characteristics and games atmosphere dimensions failed to predict spectator satisfaction and behavior intension. In 2013, the study of Theodorakis and Alexandris was proposed game quality (i.e. competitiveness, level, spectacular games) and team performance (i.e. plays hard, win/lose record, great results) of outcome dimension, this study failed to examine the game atmosphere of game quality but the results indicated the outcome quality is significant strongly than service quality. In the sporting events context, the game atmosphere is one of the most important reason the spectators’ attendance stadium. Based on the previously research and literature review, thus, in this study was proposed the relationship between game quality, customer satisfaction and behavior intension.

Hypothesis 3: The customer’s perceptions of game quality have a positive impact on customer satisfaction.

Hypothesis 4: The customer’s perceptions of game quality have a positive impact on behavior intensions.

2.3 Customer Satisfaction and Behavior Intensions

Customer satisfaction is treated as fundamental to the marketing concept the notion of satisfying the needs and desire of customers (Spereng, MacKenzie, & Olshavsky, 1996). Oliver (1997) defines customer satisfaction as a product or service feature or the product or service itself, providing a pleasurable level of consumption-related fulfillment.

No longer can organizations afford to take their customers for granted as they can simply take their business elsewhere. Sports organizations are not an exception. Cronin and Taylor (1992) views customer satisfaction as the overall feeling customers have toward an organization. Customer satisfaction with a product can create long term benefits for firms

including positive word-of-mouth, cross-buying, and customer loyalty (Anderson, Fornell,

& Lehmann, 1994; Palmatier, Dant, Grewal, & Evans, 2006). Spectators may be satisfied only when they truly believe that they have received value for their time and money.

A cognitive evaluation and affective elements are used to assess customer satisfaction (Homburg, Koschate, & Hoyer, 2006). Customer satisfaction has been defined as customer’s emotional response to its evaluation of the perceived discrepancy between their prior experience with and expectation (Oliver, 1997; Parasuraman, A., Zeithaml, V.

A., & Berr y, L., 1985). It means that the customer’s own experiences of a service where the outcome has been evaluated in terms of what was received in order word what the customer had given to get something. According Jae Ko and Pastore (2007) stress that to be competitive in the very competitive sporting event’s market environment, sports organizations need to increase customer satisfaction by providing consistently high quality services.

In the context of spectator sports, the customer satisfaction that results from attending a game has been shown to be important indicator for developing fan loyalty and increasing team’s revenues (Koo, Y. G., Andrew, D. P. S., & Kim, S., 2008). and customer satisfaction has been viewed as a significant predictor of intentions to attend future sporting events (Cronin, J. J., Brady, M. K., & Hult, G. T. M., 2000; Kwon, Trail,

& Anderson; 2005; Wakefield & Blodgett, 1996). Yoshida and James (2010) defined spectators’ satisfaction as ‘‘a pleasurable, fulfillment response to the entertainment of the sport competition and/or ancillary services provided during the game’’. The relationship between service quality and customer satisfaction has been widely studied in the service literature as the research of Theodorakis (2013) findings customer satisfaction was a partially mediate dimension among relationship of service quality and game quality in the context of a professional football game in Greece. Thus, in this study

was proposed the relationship among service quality, game quality and customer overall satisfaction.

In the literature of sports marketing, behavioral intentions have been used to examine the consequence of a service performance and are considered the most widely used outcome indicator (Kwon, Trail, and Anderson, 2005; Trail, Anderson, and Fink, 2005; Wakefield & Blodgett, 1996; Yoshida & James, 2010). The relationship among service quality game quality and behavior intension has been reported that positive perceptions about the quality lead to customer satisfaction, which in its turn leads to positive behavior intensions (Theodorakis, 2013).

Behavioral intention is not a single dimensional construct, but a multidimensional construct (Cronin et al., 2000; Yoshida & James, 2010; Zeithaml, Valerie A., Parasuraman, A. & Berry, Leonard L., 1996). Zeithaml et al. (1996) identified five dimensions of behavioral intentions: a) loyalty to company, b) propensity to switch, c) willingness to pay more, d) external response to problem (negative word of mouth), and e) internal response to problem (complaints to employees). According Cronin and his colleagues (2000) focused on the positive aspect of behavioral intentions and developed three indicators of behavioral intentions: repurchase intentions, positive word-of-mouth intentions, and customer loyalty.

The relationship between customer satisfaction and behavioral intentions is well documented by researchers across different service settings (Anderson &

Fornell, 1994; Anderson & Sullivan, 1993; Athanassopoulos, Gounaris, &

Stathakopoulos, 2001; Bolton & Lemon, 1999) and game setting (Theodorakis, 2013).

Based on Zeithaml et al. (1996) conceptualized framework, Cronin et. al. (2000) proposed three determinants of behavioral intentions focusing on positive aspects: a) repurchase intentions, b) positive word of mouth intentions, and c) customer loyalty. With regard to the behavioral intentions, dimensions of repurchase intention and word of mouth are

frequently adapted for studies on the sporting events. Consistent with the literature review, we define behavior intensions at sporting events as a customer’s favorable intentions to (1) recommend the team to other customers, (2) attend the team’s future sporting events, and (3) remain loyal to the team. The literature review and previous research clearly defined customer satisfaction at sporting events will affect behavior intension. Thus, this study was proposed:

Hypothesis 5: Customer satisfaction has a positive impact on behavior intentions.

2.4 Summary

The previously research of sporting event such as the motivation, participation, customer satisfaction, behavior intentions, service quality, the experience on sporting event, in Vietnam was limited research regarding the customer satisfaction and behavior intension on sporting events.

In this chapter was presented the relationship among the service quality, game quality, customer satisfaction and behavior intensions in the context of sporting event can be understood that the factor influence the customer satisfaction on sporting events.

Therefore, the study aimed to examine the relationship among service quality, game quality, customer satisfaction and behavior intension on 2014 Vietnam University Games.

This study is limited research in Vietnam University Games for customer satisfaction and behavior intensions that can be recommendation to development of this field in professional sporting events in Vietnam.

CHAPTER 3 METHODOLOGY

This chapter presents the methodology used in the current study. It describes following (1) research procedure, (2) subjects, (3) instrumentation, (4) data collection, (5) data analysis.

3.1 Research Procedure

The procedure used in the current study was based on Churchill’s (1979) recommendations for scale development. The first stage in Churchill’s (1979) procedures is the specification and definition of the construct domain. The second step in the procedure for developing better measures is to generate items. Based on the literature review indicate the variable and dimension has been defined previously. Quantitative research is the focus of this current study. Survey research has been widely used in marketing academics and by practitioners for asking questions to understand, explain, and

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