Strategies for Improving Service Quality of Business Enterprise Registration of the Provincial Industry and Commerce Department in Champasak Province, Lao People’s Democratic Republic

Abstract

The purpose of the research were 1) to analyze factors affecting strategies for improving service quality of business enterprise registration of the Provincial Industry and Commerce Department in Champasak Province, Lao People’s Democratic Republic, 2) to create strategies for improving service quality of business enterprise registration, and 3) to implement and evaluate the strategies for improving service quality of business enterprise registration.           The research methodology was divided into three phases. In the first phase, the researcher focused on studying and analyzing strategies for improving service quality of business enterprise registration. The data was collected by questionnaire from three hundred and eighty eight participants. The sample subjects of the study were three hundred and eighty eight customers of business enterprise registration services of the Provincial Industry and Commerce Department in Champasak Province. Taro Yamane formula was employed for calculating the sample size and the samples were selected from twelve thousand and two hundred and thirty nine customers of the business enterprise registration services by proportional stratified random sampling and simple random sampling. The data was collected by questionnaire from the participants. Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) of LISREL and Pearson Correlation were employed for data analysis. In the second phase, strategies for improving service quality of business enterprise registration were designed and developed by twenty research participants consisting of experts, specialists and stakeholders through workshop and brainstorming methods. In the third phase, the strategies were implemented with eight officers of the business enterprise registration of the Provincial Industry and Commerce Department in Champasak Province. The research participants were divided into two groups: eight officers of the business enterprise registration selected by purposive sampling and twenty customers of the business enterprise registration selected by accidental random sampling. The data was collected from the research participants and twenty customers of the business enterprise registration office. MANOVA (Repeated measure) was used for the study.

Results of the research were as follows :

1. The research findings indicated that three major factors affected directly the service quality improvement of business enterprise registration of the Provincial Industry and Commerce Department in Champasak Province. They were information technology, officers and knowledge. The coefficient values were .12, .07 and .03 respectively. Two factors affected indirectly the service quality improvement. They were motivation and satisfaction. The coefficient values were -.02 and -04 respectively. The percentage of the variance of the variables was 70%.


2. The study showed that the nine strategies for improving the service quality of the business enterprise registration office were service assessment, service measurement, job analysis, teamwork skills, knowledge acquisition, role-plays, organizing training course of computer maintenance and computer network, expectation of the customers, and personnel development.

            3.          The findings revealed that the average performance efficiency of the officers after implementing the strategies was significantly better than before implementing the strategies at the .05 level. In conclusion, the strategies were appropriate and practical for service quality improvement of the business enterprise registration office, the Provincial Industry and Commerce Department in Champasak Province.