| Abstract [eng] |
62 pages, 13 tables, 9 figures, 60 references. The primary aim of this Master Thesis is to find out the impact of antecedents on customer satisfaction in business translations. This thesis consists of three main parts, a review of existing literature, empirical research and its outcomes, and conclusions and recommendations. Literature review presents theories on customer satisfaction and what different researchers have found to be the key antecedents thereof, as well as the inter-relations between them. Additionally, this section also covers a brief overview of translation and explains its nuances. Subsequent to the literature review, the author undertook research on the key antecedents of customer satisfaction in business translations and their impact on it. He carried out a multi-phase mixed method research. His initial phase was exploratory, wherein he interviewed 10 industry experts. In the course of his interviews, he sought the views of the experts on his Initial Research Model. They validated it, and provided insights on factors affecting each of the constructs, viz. perceived quality and perceived value. The initial research model was revised, and based on the revised research model, a questionnaire was developed and data collected using it. These responses were then statistically analysed by the researcher to establish the relation between the antecedents and assess their impact on customer satisfaction. This was done using SPSS software. Initially, the reliability for the scales was tested using Cronbach’s alpha which was found to be > 0.6 in all three cases (0.969 for Quality of Source Text questions, 0.887 for Perceived Quality questions and 0.659 for Perceived Value questions). In accordance with the revised research model which had three mediation paths, mediation analysis was performed using PROCESS macro. The researcher found that even though the revised research model indicated that there were three mediation paths, none of the mediations actually held from the data. Linear regression analysis indicated that perceived quality and perceived value were antecedents of customer satisfaction As a result of the analysis, he developed the final Model for Customer Satisfaction in Business Translations [CSAT-BIZTRANS]. The regression equation for the model is as given below. Customer Satisfaction [CSAT-BIZTRANS] = 0.483*(Perceived Quality) + 0.480*(Perceived Value) [R-square: 0.657] Interestingly, another view of the data yielded a different result. The researcher found that regressing customer satisfaction against all the individual sub-components of the constructs, showed that Perceived Service Quality is not a significant parameter in influencing Customer Satisfaction. The regression equation for the model in that case is as given below. Customer Satisfaction [CSAT-BIZTRANS] = 0.941*(Perceived Product Quality) + 0.386*(Functional Value) – 0.278*(Value Add Through Innovation) [R-square: 0.737] Finally, a focus group was conducted to understand why quality of source text, which was the independent variable as per the revised research model, did not appear in the final CSAT-BIZTRANS model, and also, what other possible factors there could be. The panelists contended that whilst source text quality was critical to the final quality of translations, customers did not hold it against vendors if the quality of the delivered translation was affected as a result of poor quality of source text. Factors mentioned by them which could be a cause of the unexplained variation, were timeliness and service experienced by customer – which unfortunately was elsewhere covered in the model and hence not considered by the author as possible factors. The chapter on Conclusions and Recommendations summarises the main findings of the literature review and the research conducted and also the recommendations, including applicability of the results and pointers for further research. |
