Influence of university service quality on student experiences, academic performance and institutional loyalty: A case study in Vietnam

In an increasingly competitive global higher education landscape, universities are progressively adopting student-centered marketing and management strategies to attract and retain learners. This study investigates the impact of service quality dimensions on student satisfaction, academic performance, and institutional loyalty, specifically within Vietnam's distinct and rapidly evolving higher education sector, where cultural norms and developmental characteristics may shape these relationships. Guided by Social Exchange Theory (SET), the study employs an adapted SERVQUAL framework encompassing five dimensions, tangibles, reliability, responsiveness, assurance, and empathy, to assess how students' perceptions of service quality influence key academic and behavioral outcomes. The research employed a quantitative methodology with a correlational design, collecting data from 596 full-time university students in Vietnam through a self-administered online survey. The data were analyzed using Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM) through SmartPLS software. The results indicate that four service quality dimensions: tangibles, reliability, assurance, and empathy exert a significant influence on student engagement, motivation, and satisfaction, whereas responsiveness does not significantly influence engagement. Student engagement and motivation are found to positively predict both academic performance and institutional loyalty. Moreover, student satisfaction is identified as a critical mediator, and academic performance emerges as the strongest predictor of institutional loyalty, underscoring the role of academic success in shaping students' long-term commitment to their university. These findings, drawn from the Vietnamese context, suggest that the interplay between service quality and student outcomes may be nuanced by national cultural norms and specific educational system attributes. Consequently, they highlight the importance of service quality in higher education and provide practical implications for universities seeking to enhance the student experience, improve academic outcomes, and foster institutional loyalty, particularly within Vietnam and comparable socio-economic settings.