National Cheng Kung University Institute Of
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National Cheng Kung University Institute of International Management Qualitative Research Method Final Report Explanation of Millennial Taiwanese Customers’ Satisfactions and Dissatisfaction with Southern Taiwan Night Markets’ Service Team Untitled: Ursula RA6107069 Munnuu RA3097442 Professor James Stanworth, Ph.D. June, 2021 TABLE OF CONTENTS 1. INTRODUCTION ..................................................................................................... 3 2. LITERATURE REVIEW .......................................................................................... 4 2.1 Behaviors of Millennials ................................................................................ 4 2.2 Night Market................................................................................................... 5 2.3 Service Quality ............................................................................................... 7 2.4 Satisfaction factors of night market ................................................................. 8 3. METHODOLOGY .................................................................................................... 8 3.1 Research Method Design ................................................................................. 8 3.2 Sample Plan ..................................................................................................... 9 3.3 Data Collection ................................................................................................ 9 3.4 Transcribing process ...................................................................................... 10 3.5 Manual Coding .............................................................................................. 10 4. RESULTS AND FINDINGS .................................................................................. 10 4.1 Location ......................................................................................................... 10 4.2 Atmosphere .................................................................................................... 12 4.3 Facilities ........................................................................................................ 13 4.4 Vendors .......................................................................................................... 14 4.5 Goods and Products ....................................................................................... 15 5. CONCLUTION ....................................................................................................... 16 5.1 Conclusion ..................................................................................................... 16 5.2 Limitation and Future Suggestions ................................................................ 17 5.3 Expected Contribution ................................................................................... 18 6. REFERENCES ........................................................................................................ 19 7. APPENDICES ......................................................................................................... 22 I 7.1 Research Timeline ......................................................................................... 22 7.2 Confidentiality ............................................................................................... 22 7.3 Interview Schedule ........................................................................................ 22 7.4 Interview Guideline ....................................................................................... 23 7.5 Axial Coding Categorization ......................................................................... 25 7.6 Transcripts ..................................................................................................... 40 II 1. INTRODUCTION Night markets are a cultural phenomenon observable in Taiwan, and other Southeast Asian countries (Huang, 2012), where tourists and locals come to spend an evening with friends and family. In the early days of Taiwanese night markets, one could find food and beverages, and few other consumer goods from unorganized group of vendors. However, as the culture and the industry developed, vendors got more organized and diversified their business (Yang, 2000) with entertainment (games, performances and auctions), services (massage, phone repair, hairdressing), and modern consumer technology sales (Tsai, 2013). Despite all this modernization, night markets kept and even strengthened the other side of consumer visit intention factor, the cultural and communal aspect of the recreational activity (Ackerman & Walker, 2012; Hsieh & Chang, 2006). For some consumers, night market is part of experiencing culture with all their senses (Tsai, 2013). Prior research suggests some customer’s visitation to local night markets a regular activity, whether just for the food or not, as some customers visited night markets 52 times in the last year (Ackerman & Walker, 2012). This must have been caused by a strong satisfactory interaction. Even though the night markets are socially accepted, appreciated, and frequently visited, there are some factors of the service that customers are dissatisfied with. Previous research looked at service quality of night markets in Taiwan, as well as tourists’ satisfaction and their revisit intentions (Chou, 2013; Huang, 2012), but not local customers’ satisfaction and dissatisfaction of service in Taiwan’s night markets. They found diversity, friendly atmosphere and on-site business activities attracted tourists to the night markets (Hsieh & Chang, 2006). In prior research, consumer satisfaction and dissatisfaction were explained by each experience’s level of realization 3 of consumer expectancy (Blackwell et al., 2001). So as tourists come to Taiwanese night markets expecting diversity, and friendly atmosphere, and they find it is what they are expecting, they are satisfied. However, locals have different expectations and perceive the experience of going to night markets differently from tourists. So, we wanted to find out whether local millennials are satisfied or dissatisfied with night markets, and with what aspects particularly. The objective of this research is to explore and understand the satisfaction and dissatisfaction of service in southern Taiwan’s night markets. Through our research, ways to enhance and further solidify the existing advantages might be discovered, as well as ways to improve aspects that are causing dissatisfaction in customers. 2. LITERATURE REVIEW 2.1 Behaviors of Millennials Being characterized as the largest generation, millennials (generation Y) are defined as those born between the year of 1982 and 2000 (Naderi & Van, 2018), who are rapidly becoming the most valuable market segment in regards to the world’s economy and tourism field (Moscardo & Benckendorff, 2010). The most distinctive characteristics of millennials is that they are technology savvy (Moore, 2012). Their social network affects their loyalty to specific brands, and are most likely to seek variety of consumptions (Bowen & Chen McCain, 2015; Parment, 2013). Millennial have the desire to make the best decision in regards to not only price and quality but gave consideration to making good investments for the future and tend to spend their money as quickly as they acquire it, usually on consumer goods and personal service (Ordun, 2015). Kueh and Voon (2007) revealed that millennial consumers in Asian countries 4 are likely to have higher expectations of service quality like the promptness and reliability of service with visually appealing facilities and well-groomed staff than millennials in other part of the world. The millennial generation is a key customer segment for food service, not only in terms of market size, but also due to their lifestyle and consumption habits; having grown up with takeout, millennials eat out frequently, and are more adventurous in trying out new restaurants and seek environments that make them feel welcome with products and facilities that suit their needs (Gale, 2007; Hume, 2007). 2.2 Night Market To answer our research objective regarding the night market, we must first define the meaning of what we considered as a ‘night market’ and how it is different from its morning counterpart. While its definitions and characteristics may differ from person to person and place to place, the article “Hot and Noisy: Taiwan Night Market Culture” (Yu, 2004) surely gives us the general idea and definition of the night market, especially in Taiwanese context. While the author himself admitted that it is quite difficult to precisely define the solid concepts for the Taiwanese night markets due to their associations with various activities and complex meanings, because of its wide range of interpretation. Even in Taiwan, the concepts, designs, and activities of night markets are varied based on the locations and communities, with the recent trends including retailing and selling of foreign goods and various services not only attract more customers but also to compete the increasing numbers of restaurants as well (Jordan et al., 2004). However, despite the difficulties in pinpointing the solid definitions of night market, Yu (2004) did give us the general concepts and definitions of night market, focusing three main characteristics which make night market unique from other types of night 5 market: vendors, nightly activities, and ‘renao’, the word used to describe the preferable and leisurable “hot and noisy” atmosphere