MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING NATIONAL ECONOMICS UNIVERSITY PHAM THI KIM THANH THE IMPACT OF ACADEMIC QUALITY ON NON-POSITIVE STUDENT ENGAGEMENT IN HIGHER EDUCATION PHD DISSERTATION IN BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION HANOI – 2023 MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING NATIONAL ECONOMICS UNIVERSITY PHAM THI KIM THANH THE IMPACT OF ACADEMIC QUALITY ON NON-POSITIVE STUDENT ENGAGEMENT IN HIGHER EDUCATION Specialization: BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION Code: 9340101 PHD DISSERTATION Supervisor: Asocc. VU TRI DUNG HANOI – 2023 DECLARATION I hereby declare that this dissertation is my own work, which I have never submitted for a degree at this or any other educational institution. I also certify that all of the dissertation's references have been properly credited. I have read and comprehended the University's policy on plagiarism and academic integrity violations.
With my own honor, I certify that this research was carried out by me and that it does not violate regulations of good academic practice. PhD candidate i TABLE OF CONTENTS DECLARATION. I TABLE OF CONTENTS. II LIST OF TABLES.
V LIST OF FIGURES. VI LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS. THE RATIONALE FOR THE RESEARCH TOPIC. PURPOSE OF THE RESEARCH.
STRUCTURE OF THE DISSERTATION. 6 CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW. LITERATURE REVIEW ON CUSTOMER ENGAGEMENT IN MARKETING .1 The theory of customer engagement. The antecedents and outcomes of customer engagement.
CUSTOMER ENGAGEMENT IN HIGHER EDUCATION. Literature on marketing in higher education. Literature on student engagement in higher education. LIMITATIONS AND RESEARCH GAPS.
In customer engagement in marketing. In Customer engagement/ Student engagement in higher education. 34 SUMMARY OF CHAPTER 1. 35 CHAPTER 2: THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK AND HYPOTHESIS DEVELOPMENT.
THE ACADEMIC QUALITY IN HIGHER EDUCATION AND CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK IN CE VALENCE. HedPerf model in assessing academic quality and student satisfaction in HE. The conceptual model of Customer engagement valence. Theory of Planned Behavior.
RESEARCH MODEL AND HYPOTHESES DEVELOPMENT. Academic quality, student satisfaction, and student non-positive engagement intention 46 2. The moderating effects stemming from school preference and major preference 51 SUMMARY OF CHAPTER 2. 54 CHAPTER 3: RESEARCH METHODS .1 Questionnaire Survey process.
Development of instrument and questionnaire. Data collection and analysis. METHODS OF STATISTICAL ANALYSIS. Refinement and Validation of Instrument.
73 SUMMARY OF CHAPTER 3. 77 CHAPTER 4: RESULTS OF THE RESEARCH .2 Factor Analysis and Reliability Test .1 Evaluation of the Structural Measurement Model .2 Hypotheses testing results. The relationship between student disengagement and negative engagement testing results. 101 SUMMARY OF CHAPTER 4.
103 CHAPTER 5: DISCUSSIONS AND IMPLICATIONS .1 DISCUSSION OF RESEARCH FINDINGS. Results of descriptive and path analysis. The Moderating Effects of major preference and school preference. The relationship between student disengagement and negative engagement intention testing results.
LIMITATIONS AND FUTURE RESEARCH. 113 SUMMARY OF CHAPTER 5. 115 LIST OF PUBLISHED WORKS. 147 APPENDIX A: SURVEY QUESTIONNAIRE (ENGLISH VERSION).
147 APPENDIX B: SURVEY QUESTIONNAIRE (VIETNAMESE VERSION). EFA, CFA AND SEM MODEL. 203 iv LIST OF TABLES Table 1.1: CE definitions in highly ranked and cited articles .2: Constructs related to customer engagement .3: Constructs related to negative engagement .1: Description of the original HEdPERF scale dimensions .2: CE manifestation in research .1: Measurement items for perceived academic quality and student dissatisfaction .2: Measurement items for Student Disengagement Behavior intention .3: Measurement items for Negative Engagement Intention .4: Measurement items for three component factors in TPB .1: Demographic and Basic Information of Respondents .2: Descriptive statistics for Measurement Items .3: KMO and Bartlett's Test .4: Total Variance Explained .6: Results of multiple fit indices .7: Convergent and Discriminant Validity .8: Results of Structural Equation Model .9: Mediation Results for Dissatisfaction .10: Global Test 2 Results –major_preference .11: Global Test 1 Results –school_preference .12: Multigroup Tests Desired_major – Not_desired_major .13: Multigroup Tests Desired_school – Not_desired_school .14: Relationship between non-positive engagement behaviors testing results .101 v LIST OF FIGURES Figure 1: Research design .1: The conceptual Framework of CE Valence .2: The theoretical framework .1: Structural Model Results. 102 vi LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS Abbreviations Full form ATDB Attitude toward student disengagement behavior ATNEB Attitude toward negative engagement behavior CE Customer engagement CEB Customer engagement behavior CEM Customer engagement marketing CRM Customer relationship management DIS Dissatisfaction eWOM Electronic Word of Mouth HE Higher education HEI Higher education institute NEB Negative customer engagement behavior/ Negative engagement behavior NEBO Actual negative engagement behavior outside HEI NEBW Actual negative engagement behavior within HEI NEIO Intention to Negative engagement behavior outside HEI.
NEIW Intention to Negative engagement behavior within HEI. PAQ Perceived academic quality PBNEB Perceived behavioral control toward negative engagement behavior SD Student disengagement SDB Student disengagement behavior SDI Student disengagement intention SE Student engagement SEM Structural Equation Model SET Student Evaluation of Teaching SNDB Subjective norm toward student disengagement behavior SNNEB Subjective norm toward negative engagement behavior SNS Social Networking Site TPB Theory of Planned Behavior UA University Autonomy VNU Vietnam National University vii INTRODUCTION 1. The rationale for the research topic For the last two decades, since the early 2000s, the term "customer engagement" (CE) has risen as a phenomenon in marketing and has drawn the attention of a large number of marketing practitioners and scholars (e., Ng et al., 2020; Palmatier et al. The idea of leveraging customer engagement emerged when the digital age was booming.
Researchers have been working on CE to deeply understand and clarify the definition, firm-related and customer-related antecedents, the outcomes, and the different contexts of customer engagement to complete the theory (Brodie et al., 2011; Maslowska et al., 2016; Storbacka et al. 2016; Van Doorn et al. Previous research findings reveal that customer engagement's valence includes both positive and non-positive. However, the non-positive side of CE which consists of disengagement and negative engagement, is so far under-discovered in current literature, except for just a few papers addressing these forms of engagement (e., Hollebeek & Chen, 2014; Alexander et al., 2018; Naumann et al.
These gaps are calling for research as the fact is that satisfied customers do not necessarily positively engage but customers who experience stressful or unpleasant service encounters are likely to release their anger and disappointment with a brand as a means of self-preservation through negative engagement (Hollebeek & Chen, 2014). In the higher education (HE) sector, the literature seems to draw its own picture of CE in the theory of CE so far as it was considered a “non-customer” sector (Ng et al. Research in HE focuses on the term “Student engagement” in learning activities from the perspective of educators and students as the “product” of higher education institutions (HEI). This research direction focuses on identifying antecedents, dimensions, measurements, and outcomes of student engagement (SE) in learning tasks (e.
Chickering & Gamson, 1999; Pike, 2003; Trowler, 2010). As an educator, academia pays attention to SE for quality assurance in HEI, higher retention, and prevention of school dropout. However, academic quality issues are their core concern not only for quality assurance but also due to the changes in the labor market and the more and more demanding customers - students. Specifically, in the world of employers, skills-based hiring is rising, and de-emphasizing degrees is the trend (Fuller et al.
Even though the jobs had not changed in the previous 20 years, employers started putting degree requirements in the job descriptions. Following the Great Recession, several businesses started making efforts to relax those 1 rules. When there is a severe shortage of talent, companies place less value on degrees. That became more and more clear during the challenging job market of the late 2010s.
Employers lowered degree requirements for 46% of middle-skill positions and 31% of high-skill positions between 2017 and 2019. (Fuller et al. Employers are abandoning the proxy of degree completion when evaluating job applications in favor of hiring on the basis of demonstrated skills and capabilities. This transition to skills- based hiring will provide possibilities to a sizable community of potential employees who, in recent years, have been labeled "hidden workers" and "stars" but have frequently been overlooked due to degree inflation.
(Fuller et al. Furthermore, regarding the behavior of Gen Z students, enrolling in HEIs is not the only future path of Gen Z after high school. Especially after the Covid 19 pandemic, and the increasingly expensive cost of HE service, there exists a dropping in the university enrollment rate and the tendency to skip the 4-year higher education in developed countries like the US (Jon Marcus 2022; Jessica Dickler 2022). For academic knowledge learning, typical Gen Z students are considered the generation of self-learners who are more comfortable absorbing knowledge online than in traditional institutions of learning (Francis & Hoefel 2018).
A variety of online academic sources are free of charge and easy for them to access. Hence, once they choose to go to HEI, as they have to pay for the costly services to HEIs, it encompasses high involvement of students and leads to their initiative in making a post-purchase assessment (e., Molesworth et al., 2011) based on their experience with the service. Their reviews then are a source of reference for prospective students. In searching and considering alternatives, they are viewed as the first generation of true digital natives; searching and unveiling the truth behind all things is the root of their behavior (e., Francis & Hoefel 2018, Lypnytska, 2019).
They search and trust 'reviews' from former customers, they then consider making a review based on self-experience with the service as their responsibility to netizens and other customers. The question is what if students do not satisfy with the academic quality of their HEI? Will they disengage from studying activities when they have to pay quite a large amount for tuition fees? Will they negatively engage with HEI by sharing their negative feedback and/ or reviews about their HEI academic quality, which would affect HEI's reputation, thereby affecting their own image in prospective employers in the labor market? These questions remain unanswered as the current literature in both streams on SE/CE in HE mainly focuses on students' satisfaction and their positive engagement with learning tasks and with the school. 2 In the context of HE in Vietnam, with increasingly fierce competition among domestic and international-related HEIs, and even among programs within a HEI, the teaching staffs in HEI who are responsible for academic aspects of HEI are in the dilemma of being a multi-tasking staff in a service business. They are responsible for the quality of academic teaching for quality assurance as educators.
They are also service staff to serve and satisfy the “customer” for HEI’s objectives in competition and growth by developing new programs and hot courses, other support services, and non-academic jobs when the university autonomy is widely implemented in HEIs. Pham Nhu Nghe, Deputy Director of the Higher Education Department, Ministry of Education and Training, said that although encouraging results have been achieved, the effectiveness of student career orientation and direction is still very modest (Nghiem, 2022). A situation in the past years shows that HEIs try to improve enrollment and training targets based on the school's capacity and growth objectives since UA implementation, but do not pay much attention to whether graduates can get jobs that match their academic major or not. Hence, the fierce competition among HEIs in recruiting students brings students more choices but also exists the fact that many of them choose the school or major that does not match their abilities and interests (Tran, 2022) because of following their parents’ direction, or trends.
Those students' disengagement and negative engagement are under-covered and need to be clarified with empirical evidence.