How to improve financial performance of tourism and travel enterprises: The case of Vietnam

 most of the hypotheses are satisfied, only two hypotheses are the impact of capital access on financial 
efficiency and employee satisfaction on financial efficiency without statistical significance. The hypothesis test results are 
extracted from Smart PLS software as stated in Table 5. From the results of the hypothesis test, the audit quality / reliability of 
financial statements has an average impact on customer loyalty. In developed countries, the truthfulness of all disclosed 
information, including financial information published in financial statements, is of great interest to customers and affects their 
loyalty to the business brands and products they're consuming. However, in the context of a developing country like Vietnam, 
especially in tourism businesses, the financial information is almost only affected at the average level with the impact level of 
0.170 at the meaningful level 1 % (P_value = 0.001). This is easy to understand, the loyalty of customers in the tourism industry 
is mainly based on the service and attraction of the destination but less dependent on the quality of published financial 
information. Following the audit quality / reliability of information on the financial statements has a very strong impact on the 
capital access of tourism and travel businesses at the impact level of 0.482 with a 1% significance level (P_value = 0.000). 
 342
Table 5 
Path Coefficients 
Mean, STDEV, T-Values, P-Values 
Original 
Sample 
(O) 
Sample 
Mean 
(M) 
Standard 
Deviation 
(STDEV) 
T Statistics 
(|O/STDEV|) P Values 
Access to capital → Financial performance 0.028 0.027 0.074 0.379 0.705 
Audit quality / reliability of financial statements → Access to capital 0.482 0.484 0.047 10.192 0.000 
Audit quality / reliability of financial statements → Audit fee 1.029 1.029 0.016 63.237 0.000 
Audit quality / reliability of financial statements → Corporate reputation 0.458 0.461 0.044 10.342 0.000 
Audit quality / reliability of financial statements → Customer loyalty 0.170 0.174 0.051 3.313 0.001 
Audit quality / reliability of financial statements → Employee satisfaction 0.206 0.208 0.053 3.860 0.000 
Audit quality / reliability of financial statements → Experience of auditors 1.036 1.036 0.009 115.240 0.000 
Audit quality / reliability of financial statements → Financial performance 0.162 0.161 0.064 2.533 0.012 
Audit quality / reliability of financial statements → Internal audit 1.021 1.022 0.010 97.730 0.000 
Audit quality / reliability of financial statements → Size of audit firm 1.023 1.023 0.013 78.935 0.000 
Audit quality / reliability of financial statements → independence of auditors 1.043 1.042 0.009 120.522 0.000 
Corporate reputation → Financial performance 0.361 0.366 0.063 5.759 0.000 
Customer loyalty → Financial performance 0.184 0.179 0.050 3.657 0.000 
Employee satisfaction → Financial performance 0.095 0.101 0.052 1.822 0.069 
Fig. 3. Results of a hypothesis test (Bootstrap out) 
In emerging economies like Vietnam, many market failures exist such as asymmetric information between investors and 
businesses, between credit institutions (lenders) and businesses, therefore, the audit quality / reliability of information on 
financial statements plays an extremely important role in raising capital of all types of businesses in general and tourism and 
tourism businesses in particular. The audit quality / reliability of information on financial statements also has a strong impact 
on the reputation of tourism and travel businesses at a very large impact level of 0.458 with a 1% significance level (P_value = 
0.000). In Vietnam, tourism and travel companies have recently been in fierce competition for brand, quality and reputation. 
Companies compete with each other in different ways such as price, service quality, and the incomplete institutional context 
like Vietnam, but the support of management team, the quality of the audit, as well as the reliability of the information on the 
financial statements are important. In other developed countries, in the context of Vietnamese tourism and travel businesses, the 
audit quality / reliability of information on financial statements has a strong impact on the reputation of the business. Finally, 
workers in travel and tourism businesses are in a service industry, whose income depends entirely on the services they provide, 
in order to know whether their level of dedication is appropriate. For this reason, the survey results show that the audit quality 
/ reliability of information on financial statements has a moderate impact on employee satisfaction with an impact level of 0.206 
at 1% significance level (P_value = 0.000). According to the research results given in Fig. 2, we understand that the audit quality 
/ reliability of the information in the financial statements had a direct impact on the financial performance, although the average 
effect is 0.162 at the 5% significance level (P_value = 0.012). This means that the relationship between the quality of the audit 
/ the reliability of the information on the financial statements is not a full mediate relationship. Next, the impact of intermediary 
variables on the financial performance of travel and tourism businesses is as follows: Firstly, customer loyalty has a moderate 
impact to financial efficiency with an impact level of 0.184 at the 1% significance level (P_value = 0.000). For the travel and 
tourism service business enterprises, the satisfaction, loyalty and return of tourists are very important because this directly affects 
the existence and development of the business. However, in the context of a poor country like Vietnam, customer loyalty has 
not much impact on the financial performance of businesses. Besides, the reputation of the business has a very strong impact on 
financial efficiency at the impact level of 0.361 with a 1% significance level (P_value = 0.000). For any business, the reputation 
T.L. Pham and T.T.H. Phan /Accounting 6 (2020) 343
of the business is very important. Finally, access to capital and employee satisfaction do not have a statistically significant 
relationship with the financial performance of travel and tourism businesses. Tourism and travel businesses are mainly small 
and medium-sized businesses. In addition, tourism and travel businesses have a small workforce and do not require high 
professional qualifications. Therefore, employee satisfaction did not statistically significant impact on financial performance. 
5. Conclusion, limitations and future research 
From the above research results, the quality of the audit has had a great impact on improving the financial performance as well as the 
financial efficiency of tourism and travel businesses in Vietnam. Therefore, travel businesses need to focus on improving the quality 
of audits including internal and independent audits. 
Limitations and future research 
Our research was conducted within a year with the enthusiastic and responsible participation of the members of the study team. 
However, the research team still has some limitations as follows: 
- Firstly: Our research is only conducted for tourism and travel businesses in Vietnam, so it is not representative of the entire 
Vietnamese economy. 
- Second: The study does not distinguish between the different sectors in the tourism sector to see whether there is a difference in the 
impact of audit quality on financial performance. 
- Third: Our study does not pay attention to the socio-economic geographic characteristics of the provinces in the research sample 
affecting the relationship between audit quality / audit tools on financial performance. 
- Fourth: The research on measurement quality of audits was o based on the assessment of the auditing firm, so it lacks the objectivity 
of the auditing firm and its stakeholders. 
From the limitations that the research team has identified by itself, we strongly propose future research directions as follows: 
- First: Future studies should research in a broader scope to ensure the representative of the whole economy. 
- Second: Future studies should assess the impact and control of the demographic variables of the leaders in these enterprises, as well 
as the controlling the role of regional socio-economic characteristics and specific business activities of each industry. 
- Third: Future studies can use secondary data sources in combination with primary data sources and correlation testing to get more 
objective results and avoid bias of survey method. 
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