Luận án TS: Vai trò niềm tin, nhận dạng, cam kết SV với danh tiếng ĐH, dự định hành vi

i MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING UNIVERSITY OF ECONOMICS HO CHI MINH CITY -------------------------------- BUI HUY KHOI The roles of student trust, identity and commitment in the relationship between university reputation and behavioral intention A dissertation submitted for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Business Administration Ho Chi Minh City – 2021 ii MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING UNIVERSITY OF ECONOMICS HO CHI MINH CITY -------------------------------- BUI HUY KHOI The roles of student trust, identity and commitment in the relationship between university reputation and behavioral intention Industry: Business Administration Industry ID: 9340101 A dissertation submitted for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Business Administration Academic Supervisors: Dr. Nguyen Huu Lam Dr. Dang Ngoc Dai Ho Chi Minh City – 2021 i STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP I please declare that this submission is my work and except where due reference is made; this dissertation contains no material previously published or written by another person(s). This dissertation does not contain material extracted in the whole or part from the dissertation or report presented for another degree or diploma in University of Economics Ho Chi Minh city or any other educational institution.

January 2021 Bui Huy Khoi ii ACKNOWLEDGMENT First of all, this dissertation is dedicated to the thank of my wife-Nguyen Thi Ngan, to my daughter-Bui Mai Anh (9 years), my daughter-Bui Mai Vy (6 years), my son-Bui Minh Nhat (4 years), and to my son-Bui Minh Hoang (4 years). They help me have many efforts to overcome difficulties in completing my dissertation. It is the biggest achievement of my life. Second, I would like to express my best gratitude to Ph.

Nguyen Huu Lam and Ph. Dang Ngoc Dai, who supervise and help me conduct my dissertation for many years at University of Economics HCM City. Third, I am deeply thankful to Prof. Vladik Kreinovich, University of Texas, USA for supporting me to publish my paper related to my dissertation in the Scopus system.

Especially, I would express my gratefulness to Ph. Ngo Quang Huan, University of Economics HCM City and Ph. Nguyen Thanh Long, Industrial University of HCM City who indirectly or directly support and help me conduct the dissertation. Moreover, I am thankful to the board of professors in School of UEH Graduate, the independent reviewers for their constructive reviewing and comments.

Bui Huy Khoi iii TABLE OF CONTENT STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP. ii TABLE OF CONTENT. iii LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS. vii LIST OF TABLES.

viii LIST OF FIGURES. The research gap identification. Research object and scope. The research questions.

Research and development. Market signaling theory. The theory of planned behavior (TPB). Theory of reasoned action (TRA) and extended valence framework.

The research model and hypotheses. Factors affecting university reputation. The roles of student trust, student identity, and student commitment. The research process.

Sample and data collection. Quantitative analysis frame. Internal consistency and convergent validity. The fitness of the structural model.

Stability of parameter estimates .120 CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSIONS AND MANAGERIAL IMPLICATIONS. Contributions to methodology. New contribution to the measurement model. Implications for domestic manager.

Implications for university manager. Limitations and recommendations for further research. 159 EDITED CONFIRMATION BY CAMBRIDGE. 187 vii LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS Abbreviation Meanings HEIs Higher education institutions PLS-SEM Partial least squares structural equation modelling UR University Reputation SG Student Guidance Social Contributions SCN EN Environments LE Leadership FU Funding RD Research and Development ST Student Trust SI Student Identity SC Student Commitment BI Behavioral Intention Hypothesis H TRA The theory of reasoned action TBP The theory of planned behavior Pc The composite reliability Pvc The average variance extracted SRMR The standardized root mean square residual OL Outer loading VIF Variance Inflation Factor viii LIST OF TABLES Table 2.

Variables and their proposing authors. Summary of the correlations in the model. The discussion group code. Social Contributions’ items.

Research and Development’s items. Student Guidance’s items. Student Trust’s items. Student identity’s items.

Student Commitment’s items. Behavioral Intention’s items. Items and factors in the reputation scale. Item and factor in the university reputation scale.

University Reputation’s items. Internal consistency and convergent validity. Fornell-Larcker Criterion. Inner VIF Values.

Measurement of model PLS-SEM.117 ix LIST OF FIGURES Figure 2. Valence Framework Model. The model of Keh and Xie (2009). The model of Rather (2018).

The model of Heffernan et al. The model of Nuraryo et al. The theoretical model. The process of quantitative analysis.

Model Testing and Analysis. 114 x ABSTRACT This dissertation aims to investigate and explore the roles of student trust (ST), student identity (SI), and student commitment (SC) in a relationship between the reputation of a university (UR) and its students’ behavioral intention (BI) in Vietnam's higher education sector. The dissertation builds an empirically tested model from a sample of 1,538 Vietnamese graduates. Its purpose determines the factors affecting university reputation and the roles of student trust, student identity, and student commitment in the relationship between university reputation and behavioral intention to understand student choices of master’s programs.

Next, these factors will be measured by some analysis quantitative tools. Finally, this dissertation will also give some implications to develop the relationship between university reputation and behavioral intention in Vietnamese higher education. The analysis results revealed that the tested relationship between university reputation and behavioral intention to continue studying is positive. Twelve of the proposed hypotheses were confirmed, including the direct relationship of the variables and the mediating role of SI, SC, and ST in the model.

The results suggest that a university reputation can be a driving force toward students’ behavioral intention to achieve positive goals in the development of their higher education. This dissertation significantly contributes to the understanding of university reputation and student behavioral intention in higher education. In both theory and practice, it provides vital findings and suggestions to scientists, university administrators, and strategic marketers applying in their working environment. Keywords: University reputation, behavioral intention, student trust, student identity, student commitment, higher education xi TÓM TẮT Luận án này nhằm mục đích khám phá và kiểm tra vai trò của niền tin (ST), nhận biết (SI) và cam kết (SC) của sinh viên trong mối quan hệ giữa danh tiếng trường đại học (UR) và dự định hành vi của sinh viên (BI) tốt nghiệp đại học trong bối cảnh giáo dục sau đại học tại Việt Nam.

Luận án xây dựng một mô hình được kiểm nghiệm từ thực tế trong một mẫu nghiên cứu gồm 1.538 sinh viên tốt nghiệp đại học ở Việt Nam. Mục đích của luận án là xác định các yếu tố ảnh hưởng đến danh tiếng trường đại học và vai trò của niền tin, nhận biết và cam kết của sinh viên trong mối quan hệ giữa danh tiếng trường đại học và dự định hành vi để hiểu sự lựa chọn của sinh viên đối với các chương trình đào tạo thạc sĩ. Ttiếp theo, các yếu tố này sẽ được đo lường bằng một số công cụ phân tích định lượng. Cuối cùng, luận án cũng sẽ đưa ra một số hàm ý quản trị nhắm phát triển mối quan hệ giữa danh tiếng trường đại học và dự định hành vi trong giáo dục sau đại học tại Việt Nam.

Kết quả phân tích cho thấy mối quan hệ đã được kiểm định giữa danh tiếng trường đại học và hành vi có dự định tiếp tục lựa chon việc học tập là tích cực. Mười hai giả thuyết được đề xuất đã được xác nhận, bao gồm mối quan hệ trực tiếp của các yếu tố và vai trò trung gian của niền tin (ST), nhận biết (SI) và cam kết (SC) của sinh viên trong mô hình cũng được xác nhận. Kết quả cho thấy danh tiếng trường đại học có thể là động lực thúc đẩy dự định hành vi của sinh viên nhằm đạt được các mục tiêu tích cực trong sự phát triển giáo dục sau đại học của họ. Luận án này góp phần đáng kể vào sự hiểu biết về danh tiếng trường đại học và dự định hành vi của sinh viên trong giáo dục sau đại học.

Về cả lý thuyết và thực tế, nó cung cấp những phát hiện và đề xuất quan trọng cho các nhà khoa học, các nhà quản trị trường đại học và các nhà tiếp thị chiến lược ứng dụng vào môi trường làm việc của mình. Từ khóa: Danh tiếng trường đại học, dự định hành vi, niềm tin, nhận biết, cam kết, giáo dục sau đại học 1 CHAPTER 1. Introduction This dissertation shows the roles of student trust, identity and commitment in the relationship between university reputation and behavioral intention in Vietnamese higher education. I present standard information about the studied problem and dissertation background, and I identify the dissertation’s aims and research questions.

This chapter also briefly describes the dissertation structure. Research background QS University Rankings for Asian 2021 based on 11 different criteria to evaluate one university, including academic reputation (30%), employer reputation (20%), lecturer/ student ratio (10 %), percentage of lecturers with doctoral degrees (5%), ratio of published papers per lecturer (5%), citations per paper (10%), international research network (10%), international lecturer ratio (2.5%), international student rate (2.5%), domestic exchange students (2.5%), and foreign exchange students (2. Vietnam has 11 universities participating in the QS University Rankings for Asian 2021(QS, 2020). So, reputation is the most important key for ranking a university and that is a reason which Vietnamese universities are creating, building, and developing it.

Nowadays, the university operates in a highly competitive market (Del-Castillo- Feito et al., 2020; Lafuente-Ruiz-de-Sabando et al., 2018) where attracting resources has become a complicated task. The current trends of globalization and internationalization have led higher education institutions (HEIs) to receive increasing interest from policymakers and educational leaders (Tran and Villano, 2017). This is because a nation’s human resources significantly affect its socioeconomic development (Agasisti and Pohl, 2012; Tran and Villano, 2017). The globalization of business 2 has been embraced by the higher education sector, in which education is seen as a service that is marketable worldwide.

Universities and other institutions of higher education must compete to attract highly talented students, prestigious professors, and effective employees (Del-Castillo-Feito et al., 2020; Hemsley-Brown et al, 2016; Nuraryo et al., 2018; Plewa et al. Some individuals credit the globalization of universities to the many changes and difficulties that the educational sector is now facing. Despite differences in opinion, school leaders and various other commentators agree that competition between higher education institutions has intensified over the last few years (Chen and Esangbedo, 2018; Plewa et al. Education plays an enormous role in a country’s development, and its progress in a given country partly symbolizes that country’s growth in general (Chen and Esangbedo, 2018).

Higher education institutions play an important role in society: they are essential partners of the knowledge-creation and knowledge-exchange networks, and they catalyze innovation, supply tangible benefits of research, and provide consulting and advisory services. Universities are meant to foster progress, build social capital, prepare students for outside realities, provide access to knowledge, and extend the bounds of justice, thereby contributing to the creation and maintenance of a democratic and sustainable society. However, the increasingly competitive and dynamic nature of educational environments raises many challenges, such as declining enrollment. (Dzimińska et al.

Vietnam, a transitional economy in the Asia–Pacific region, has a population of over 96 million people (Nguyen and McDonald, 2019). In background terms, it is noteworthy that since the mid-1980s, Vietnam has been pursuing a path of market- oriented economic reform. This course of change has helped the economy to free itself from absolute poverty and achieve substantial and sustainable economic growth. 3 RGDP of Vietnam was 2,563 U.