The Impact of Good Governance on the People’s Satisfaction with Public Administrative Services in Vietnam

Abstract

The State of Vietnam continues to show the cumbersome, limited effectiveness of the public sector and the widespread corruption of public servants. Yet, it has been endeavoring to renovate national governance in the direction of good governance to improve the quality of public services to meet the requirements of an increasingly high level of education and social life democratization. Since 2018, the Vietnamese government has been applying the Satisfaction Index of Public Administrative Services (SIPAS) to measure people’s satisfaction with administrative services. This fact has received full attention from scientists, and there have been many studies on this issue. Therefore, this study has explored the impact of good governance on people’s satisfaction with administrative services by employing some variables of the SIPAS scale, including five dependent variables, namely: accessibility; administrative procedures; civil servants’ ethics and capacity; the results of the procedure settlement; the reception and handling of comments, feedback, and recommendations; and an independent variable, namely the people’s satisfaction, to add more evidence to previous studies and enrich the research literature. This study has been conducted through a cross-sectional survey using an intentional sampling technique (n = 500). The multivariate linear regression analysis technique was applied to prove the hypotheses. According to the research findings, all independent variables have a positive and significant relationship with the dependent variable. They imply that good governance initially has positive and significant effects on the Vietnamese people’s satisfaction level.

1. Introduction

Vietnam began implementing the Renovation policy in 1986 to gradually transition from a centrally planned economy according to the socialist model to a market economy. The Renovation process has changed the whole thinking behind economic and legal management in Vietnam. Governance is considered good when ensuring multistakeholder engagement, transparency in decision-making, accountability, effective management, and commitment to quality and the rule of law (Dosch and Vuving 2008). Vietnam is well-known for its complicated administrative organization, an abundance of civil servants, inefficient operations, and widespread corruption. Besides this, the government’s performance has not met the requirements of the people and businesses (Gregory 2016). The Government of Vietnam has also made many efforts to solve this situation by applying good governance. For example, reorganizing the administrative agencies to be more compact; requiring civil servants to work professionally, cleanly, openly, transparently, and accountably; and renovating the organization and operation of the Government in the direction of leanness, effectiveness, and efficiency. Public governance in Vietnam has attracted many qualitative and quantitative studies in recent times (Mai et al. 2016).

The term ‘good governance’ was defined in the 1990s during the reform of the public sector and implementation of new public management models in many countries. The ‘good governance’ model has eight fundamental characteristics, namely: participation, consensus orientation, accountability, transparency, responsiveness, equality and inclusion, effectiveness and efficiency, and law enforcement compliance. In recent decades, the Government of Vietnam has integrated this model into national governance. Many studies have shown that the application of this model has brought considerable successes, such as efficiency in governance and better public administration, contributing to improved income distribution and poverty reduction and cementing the relationship between the state and the people. (Cuong et al. 2021; Narayan Lakshman 2003). According to the survey results of the United Nations in 2018, Vietnam ranked 88 out of 193 countries in terms of online e-government and 59 out of 193 countries on the online public service index. The whole country has over 46,800 public services, of which 38,587 are level-3 online public services and 8590 are level-4 ones. Administrative procedures are reduced, creating favorable conditions for the people and businesses (Ministry of Home Affairs 2020). The Satisfaction Index of Public Administrative Services (SIPAS) contains such indicators as the people and organizations’ perceptions, satisfaction level, and expectations (Anh and Manh 2017), applied by the Vietnamese Government in 2018. In 2021, the 13th National Congress of the Communist Party of Vietnam advocated “renovating national governance towards modernity and efficiency” (CPV 2021).

Besides the positive aspects mentioned above, researchers are concerned that Vietnam is currently facing problems such as an unsatisfactory and often disordered governance system, inefficient operations, inappropriate resource allocation and poor public service delivery, illegal payments, bribery, low wages and benefits for public servants, poor service motivation, erosion of trust in the system, and reduced efficiency of public services (Naher et al. 2020). However, the success of Vietnam has caught many commentators off guard. In recent years, there have been growing objections that the weak governance and high corruption rate in Vietnam are poised to undermine its growth and development. The State of Vietnam, with an imperfect rule of law due to lack of resources to support progressive institutions and its political and bureaucratic interference in state-owned enterprises for political gain rather than for corporate performance efficiency, is beset by poor management (Phuong et al. 2020).

Positive and negative results for good governance performance in Vietnam need a rational explanation. With the ambition to find theoretical and quantitative gaps in previous studies, the authors take another approach to solve this problem as an additional contribution to the theory and model of quantitative research, contributing to enriching the understanding of good governance in Vietnam.

2. Literature Reviews

2.1. Good Governance

Good governance is the set of ways in which each individual and institution in both public and private sectors deals with their mutual challenges. It is a continuous process of resolving diverse, conflicting interests and implementing cooperative actions. It includes formal institutions and mechanisms empowered to ensure informal compliance and agreements that the people and organizations have agreed to or accepted to achieve their interests (Commission on Global Governance 1995). It consists of the mechanisms, processes, and institutions which citizens and groups use to express their concerns, exercise their legal rights and obligations, and show their differences (UNDP 1997). It also comprises the institutional environment in which citizens interact with each other and with government agencies and officials. It is how power executes to manage economic and social resources for the development of a nation. It refers to the operational quality of institutions responsible for formulating, implementing, and ensuring the implementation of coherent policies in an effective, efficient, and equitable manner (ADB 2005). In addition, it also implies the execution of power through the political, economic, and social institutions of a country and the exercise of its political, administrative, and economic powers to manage its national affairs at all levels (World Bank 2006). The concept of good governance mainly focuses on its components to perform effective management. In essence, it is concerned with behavioral standards that help ensure that a government gives its citizens what it says it will deliver. (ADB 2005).

Good governance depends on the institutional structure, economic resources available, and the right institutions (Roy and Tisdell 1998). It opens up new intellectual space to the possibility that groups that are in society but outside the government may play a more crucial role in solving national matters (Graham et al. 2003). It can be viewed as the ideal foundation for achieving a sustainable development strategy. This decentralization is seen as the effective mechanism underpinning good governance, alongside accountability, predictability, and transparency (Al-Sharafi et al. 2019), the elections parameter and the rule of law (Bakkar and Ogcem 2020).

Good governance is the perfect basis for achieving a sustainable development strategy. In turn, decentralization is an effective mechanism underpinning good governance, in addition to accountability, predictability, and transparency (Al-Hemiary 2010). It affects both the growth and distribution of income (Khan 2009). In essence, it is a set of principles and criteria for social management to maximize public benefits, to promote and ensure harmonious and sustainable country development (Giao 2021). In other words, it is both the ideal state and the goal that many countries’ government reform efforts have been aiming towards, as well as the guiding principles for the state and government, or the entire system’s designs and operations. The factors that need to be treated as serious are: demographic challenges that pose a potential risk to the country’s socio-economic development and stability (Bakkar and Ogcem 2020), partnerships taking into account the geopolitical challenges of integration (Kerikmäe and Chochia 2016), and the legal boundaries and possibilities that are imperative for extending local self-governance (Ruohonen et al. 2021).

The dependency of today’s society on information and communication technologies increases every day; over the past decade, these have changed and impacted almost every aspect of our lives (Peráček et al. 2019). The barriers to good governance are the absence of public disclosure of: organizations’ strategic plans, budget linkage, accurate work performance evaluation, most organizations’ output indicators, analysis of different resources allocated, and results achieved, as well as domestic political rigidity. This fact presents challenges and potential obstacles to some systems measuring institutional effectiveness (Folscher 2007). Corruption, inefficient bureaucracy, and inefficient law enforcement agencies weaken institutional capacity and make it difficult for good governance to develop sustainably (Roy and Tisdell 1998). The lack of decentralization leads to a deficiency of foundation for good governance, making it hard to achieve sustainable development and harmony between central and local governments (Ali 2008).

2.2. Good Governance in Vietnam

From 1986 until now, Vietnam’s governance has transformed from traditional public administration to public management, new public management, and finally a basis of good governance principles to improve the state’s management, create conditions for socio-economic development, and better serve the people. There is no field of human activity that is more important than governance. The rise or fall of a nation closely depends on the issue of state governance, which has fundamental functions such as policymaking, organization, leadership, and control aiming towards building a dynamic, lean, transparent, highly efficient administration (Thu 2018). Besides this, it also performs its state function to serve the people, rather than to rule, as in traditional public administration (Giao 2021). That fundamental development and transformation is the innovation of democratic management, the wide application of the methods, skills, and techniques of the governance of the private sector to the public sector, and the close cooperation between the public and private sectors in solving national matters. When researching the results of good governance in Vietnam, many studies have found that national management helps to increase the government’s accountability and civil servants’ integrity and responsibility (Long 2020; Thu 2018). Citizens’ greater participation makes government decisions more feasible (Ngoc-Tan and Gregar 2018; Long 2020).

Good governance in Vietnam has contributed to preventing corruption, enhancing publicity and transparency (Thu 2018), reducing monopolies (Ngoc-Tan and Gregar 2018; Phan 2019), promoting the capacity to exploit resources, and supporting the socio-economic development of the country and each locality. In addition, it helps to remove legal barriers and unnecessary transaction costs for local businesses, increase the competitiveness of enterprises, and create a unique competitive advantage for each locality and its businesses.

Good governance has an appropriate, practical, and meaningful impact on Vietnam’s socio-economic growth strategy. It enables the government and businesses to focus on community development concerns such as job creation, poverty reduction, housing issues, urbanization, education, etc. When these challenges are resolved, they will have a significant impact on the local community’s socio-economic growth (My and Hanh 2018). Furthermore, they encourage citizen engagement as subjects of local governance. They promote voluntary involvement in implementing socio-economic development plans in each municipality (My and Hanh 2018). They also encourage non-governmental groups to participate in and boost government synergy, thereby improving the country’s and the locality’s status and image (Giao 2021; My and Hanh 2018).

Policy formulation cannot be effectively implemented without good governance or achieved without appropriate institutions. Therefore, sustainable development requires good policies and an efficient supply of institutions conducive to good governance. (Roy and Tisdell 1998).

2.3. Good Governance and the People’s Satisfaction

Good governance has a favorable effect on people’s overall satisfaction (Beshi and Kaur 2020; My and Hanh 2018); It strengthens their lives and happiness (Helliwell et al. 2014; Youssef and Diab 2021) and improves the quality of their democracy and contentment (Christmann 2018). Moreover, it helps develop their trust and satisfaction (Bouckaert and Van de Walle 2003; Christensen and Lægreid 2005) and creates their overall satisfaction about the relationship between good governance practices and public trust in the government. Not only does it produce higher levels of happiness, but it also reduces inequalities in happiness among citizens (Ott 2011). However, it faces numerous obstacles that result in contradictory aims, such as economic expansion that may or may not lead to job creation, which may be at the expense of resources and the environment (Prabhu 2017).

From the literature review, the authors have built a research model as shown in Figure 1 below:

The following hypotheses have been proposed based on the research model:

Hypothesis 1 (H1).

Accessibility (c_access) has a positive and significant impact on people’s satisfaction.

Hypothesis 2 (H2).

Administrative procedures (procedures) have a positive and significant impact on people’s satisfaction.

Hypothesis 3 (H3).

Civil servants’ ethics and capacity (c_officers) positively and significantly affect people’s satisfaction.

Hypothesis 4 (H4).

The procedure handling (handle) outcome has a positive and significant impact on people’s satisfaction.

Hypothesis 5 (H5).

The receipt and handling of comments, reflections, and recommendations (outcome) have a positive and meaningful impact on people’s satisfaction.

3. Research Method

3.1. Surveyed Area

In September 2020, the survey was carried out at administrative offices in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City, in which there were over 100 headquarters of Vietnam’s administrative apparatus. Participants in the survey directly handled administrative processes for the individuals and organizations they represented.

3.2. Research Samples and Methods

To carry out this study, the authors investigated two steps, which were preliminary and formal, to collect the opinions of the study participants.

3.3. Preliminary Investigation

The scale was built based on the modification of the SIPAS scale issued under Decision No. 225/QD—Tt, dated 4 February 2016, of the Prime Minister of Vietnam, and Decision No. 2640/QD-BNV approving the project on measuring the satisfaction of the people and organizations about the services of state administrative agencies in the period 2017–2020 (Long and Pham 2016). The scale consists of five variables: (1) access to services; (2) administrative procedures; (3) civil servants’ ethics and capacity; (4) service results; (5) the reception and settlement of comments, reflections, and recommendations. (Anh and Manh 2017). The opinions, satisfaction, and expectations of people and organizations about public administrative services provided by state administrative agencies are the measurement content.

The questionnaire was designed based on the findings of the literature review and the opinions of experts, and divided into two sections, the first of which is used to gather demographic information from participants such as age, gender, and occupation. Part 2 collects their other information, which includes six factors: accessibility (five items), administrative procedures (six items), civil servants’ ethics and capacity (seven items), results of handling procedures (four items), reception and handling of comments, reflections, and recommendations (five items), and people’s satisfaction levels (five items). A 5-point Likert scale is utilized, from (1) strongly disagree to (5) strongly agree.

This final version was pre-tested on 40 people chosen to be demographically representative in terms of age, gender, education, and occupation. They perfected this final version during the evaluation. The final Vietnamese version was made suitable for inclusion in the official survey after reinforcing the questionnaire framework for better comprehension by adjusting some minor mistakes.

3.4. Official Investigation

The participants in this study are from Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City, they are ordinary people, small private business managers (small business), managers of non-governmental organizations (manager), workers, teachers who have full-time jobs in private schools. None of the study participants receive a salary from the state. They deal with civil servants as individuals or represent their organizations on related administrative procedures. The questionnaires were sent directly to them using a non-random sampling method. As a result, 500 satisfied votes were gathered, yielding a response rate of 100%.

Table 1. Demographic characteristics of survey participants.

		Occupation
		Manager		Small Business		Teacher		Worker
		Count	Row N %	Count	Row N %	Count	Row N %	Count	Row N %
Age	20–39 years	35	21.6%	40	24.7%	41	25.3%	46	28.4%
	30–49 years	17	26.2%	12	18.5%	25	38.5%	11	16.9%
	50–59 years	18	23.4%	21	27.3%	18	23.4%	20	26.0%
	60–70 years	23	28.0%	20	24.4%	17	20.7%	22	26.8%
	Above 70 years	22	19.3%	33	28.9%	35	30.7%	24	21.1%
Gender	Female	62	24.7%	60	23.9%	65	25.9%	64	25.5%
	Male	53	21.3%	66	26.5%	71	28.5%	59	23.7%
Education	Bachelor degree	0	0.0%	126	100.0%	0	0.0%	0	0.0%
	College	115	100.0%	0	0.0%	0	0.0%	0	0.0%
	Postgraduate degree	0	0.0%	0	0.0%	136	52.5%	123	47.5%

shows their demographic information.

4. Research Results

The R programming language was used to analyze the scale reliability (Cronbach’s Alpha), exploratory factor (EFA), correlation, and multivariate linear regression. Some observable variables could be deleted or merged, according to the findings, to help the scale analyze concepts more precisely.

4.1. Analyzing the Reliability of the Scales

The purpose of assessing the scales using the Cronbach’s Alpha reliability coefficient is to discover and eliminate junk variables while avoiding the creation of deceptive factors while studying exploratory factors. Cronbach’s Alpha coefficient has a variable value in the interval [0, 1]. If a measuring variable has a correlation coefficient of the total of Corrected Item—Total Correlation 0.3, it fulfills the criteria (Cronbach 1951; Taber 2019). The verification criterion is that Cronbach’s Alpha coefficient must be greater than 0.6, and the correlation coefficient of the sum variable in each scale must be greater than 0.3 (Hair et al. 2010).

Table 2. Summary of reliability and relative minimum variables of scales.

Scales	Number of Variables Observed	Reliability Coefficients (Cronbach Alpha)	The Correlation Coefficient of the Smallest Total Variable
c_access	5	0.809	0.556
procedure	6	0.834	0.583
c_officers	7	0.850	0.776
handle	4	0.799	0.787
outcome	4	0.786	0.581
satisfaction	5	0.808	0.775

shows that the factor scales all meet the standards. Therefore, they are reliable and utilized for subsequent factor analysis.

After examining Cronbach’s Alpha, the authors apply the EFA analysis approach to assess the scales’ unidirectional, converging, and discriminant values. EFA was used by extracting the principal components analysis factor and varimax rotation to group them. With a sample size of 500, the factor loading of the observed variables must be greater than 0.5; variables converge on the same factor and are distinguishable from other factors. In addition, the Kaiser–Meyer–Olkin coefficient (KMO) is the index used to consider the suitability of factor analysis must be within 0.5 KMO ≤ 1 (Cerny and Kaiser 1977; Kaiser 1974). The results in

Table 3. Exploratory factor analysis.

Principal Components Analysis
	Standardized Loadings (Pattern Matrix) Based upon Correlation Matrix
Call: Principal (Factors = 6, Rotate = “Varimax”)	Item	RC1	RC3	RC2	RC4	RC6	RC5	h2	u2	com
c_officers1	12	0.74						0.62	0.3784	1.3
c_officers5	16	0.71						0.56	0.4416	1.3
c_officers3	14	0.69						0.53	0.4748	1.2
c_officers2	13	0.67						0.53	0.4719	1.3
c_officers4	15	0.67						0.50	0.5035	1.2
c_officers6	17	0.65						0.50	0.4988	1.4
c_officers7	18	0.63						0.52	0.4817	1.7
procedure1	6		0.73					0.59	0.4095	1.3
procedure6	11		0.70					0.56	0.4360	1.3
procedure5	10		0.69					0.54	0.4649	1.2
procedure4	9		0.68					0.55	0.4462	1.4
procedure3	8		0.68					0.56	0.4439	1.4
procedure2	7		0.67					0.53	0.4656	1.4
handle	21			0.92				0.99	0.0056	1.3
handle2	20			0.77				0.68	0.3162	1.3
handle4	22			0.76				0.66	0.3397	1.3
handle1	19			0.75				0.69	0.3106	1.5
c_access2	2				0.72			0.59	0.4114	1.3
c_access5	5				0.71			0.61	0.3932	1.4
c_access4	4				0.68			0.58	0.4188	1.5
c_access1	1				0.68			0.57	0.4307	1.5
c_access3	3				0.64			0.52	0.4845	1.5
satisfaction3	29					0.70		0.56	0.4414	1.3
satisfaction5	31					0.70		0.59	0.4093	1.5
satisfaction4	30					0.67		0.57	0.4298	1.5
satisfaction1	27					0.66		0.58	0.4212	1.7
satisfaction2	28					0.65		0.55	0.4527	1.6
outcome3	25						0.74	0.63	0.3700	1.3
outcome2	24						0.72	0.62	0.3821	1.4
outcome1	23						0.72	0.60	0.3981	1.4
outcome4	26						0.69	0.60	0.4004	1.5
SS loadings		3.78	3.37	2.97	2.85	2.83	2.46
Proportion Var		0.12	0.11	0.10	0.09	0.09	0.08
Cumulative Var		0.12	0.23	0.33	0.42	0.51	0.59
Proportion Explained		0.21	0.18	0.16	0.16	0.15	0.13
Cumulative Proportion		0.21	0.39	0.55	0.71	0.87	1.00

Note: Mean item complexity = 1.4. Test of the hypothesis that 6 components are sufficient. The root mean square of the residuals (RMSR) is 0.04 with the empirical chi-square of 807.84 with probability of <1.7 × 10⁻⁴⁹. Fit based upon off-diagonal values = 0.98. KMO = 0.935. Bartlett’s test of sphericity (approximate chi-square = 5,735,377; df = 465; Sig = 0.000). Total variance explained = 57,292%.

denote that all factor loading coefficients of the observed variables are greater than 0.5; Bartlett test with Sig meaning = 0.000 with KMO coefficient = 0.935. All 31 items, when using EFA, are extracted into six factors with eigenvalues = 1.408 and cumulative variance percent = 57.292%. Thus, the research model, which includes five independent and one dependent variable, is utilized for linear regression analysis and subsequent hypothesis testing.

4.2. Pearson Correlation Analysis

The authors used Pearson correlation to analyze the interrelation between quantitative variables. Figure 2 displays that the correlation coefficient at the 5% significance level demonstrates that their relationship gains statistical significance (Sig. < 0.05). The magnitude of the correlation coefficients assures that there is no multicollinearity. Other statistics, therefore, might be utilized to validate the relationship between them.

4.3. Regression Analysis

Next, the authors conducted multivariable linear regression analysis on the relationship between one independent variable, satisfaction, and five dependent ones, namely c_access, procedure, c_officers, handle, and outcome to determine their effects on the independent variable. As shown in

Table 4. The results of multiple linear regression analysis.

Dependent Variable	Satisfaction
c_access	0.200 ***/(0.043)
procedure	0.206 ***/(0.042)
c_officer	0.228 ***/(0.045)
handle	0.150 ***/(0.040)
outcome	0.194 **/(0.040)
Constant	0.366 **/(0.146)
Observations	500
R2	0.406
Adjusted R2	0.400
Residual Std. Error	0.615 (df = 494)
F Statistic	67.473 *** (df = 5; 494)

Note: ** p < 0.05; *** p < 0.01.

, the multivariable linear regression model with R² = 0.406 designed matches the dataset = 0.406%. Therefore, it shows that all five independent variables have a statistically significant impact on the dependent one.

Table 4 reveals that our hypotheses are all accepted with a 95% confidence level. Specifically, the c_officers variable has the highest impact on the satisfaction one with β = 0.228, the second is the procedure variable with β = 0.206, the c_access variable with β = 0.200, the handle variable with β = 0.150, and the lowest outcome variable with β = 0.194.

5. Discussion and Conclusions

Firstly, the research results show that the hypothesis H1 is accepted. It means that the accessibility to work services factor has a positive and significant impact on people’s satisfaction. This result is consistent with the findings of Binh (2021); good governance in Vietnam in recent years has achieved many outstanding results, increasing people’s satisfaction. This result is similar to the findings of Long (2020), Ha (2019), My and Hanh (2018), and Ott (2011). This result proves that the Vietnamese government in recent years has had a fundamental transformation in terms of democratic management, strongly applying the methods, skills, and techniques of good governance in the public sector; with close cooperation between the public and private sectors to effectively deal with issues that people are interested in (Giao 2021; Long 2020; Thu 2018). However, the impact of the accessibility to public services factor on people’s satisfaction is still at a low level, regression coefficient β = 0.200. This result shows that the Vietnamese government needs to develop a mechanism for people to participate more in good governance, as making government decisions more feasible (Ngoc-Tan and Gregar 2018; Long 2020) will increase people’s satisfaction.

Second, the research results show that hypothesis H2 is accepted. It means that procedural factors have a positive and significant impact on people’s satisfaction. This result is similar to the findings of Anh and Manh (2017). When the ethics and capacity of civil servants are significantly improved, the efficiency of handling administrative procedures also improves. This result proves that in the past time, the Government of Vietnam has made significant improvements in administrative procedure reform. This shows that the administrative procedure factor has a positive and meaningful impact on people’s satisfaction, following the capacity and ethics factor of civil servants. Compared with other factors in the research model, the impact of procedural factors on people’s satisfaction is quite high, regression coefficient β = 0.206, ranking second compared to other factors in the model research. However, the procedural factor still depends on other factors, such as institutions, organizational culture, etc., so other studies need to be carried out (Binh 2021; Tran et al. 2017).

Third, the research results show that hypothesis H3 is accepted. It means that the ethical factors and civil servants’ capacity have a positive and meaningful impact on people’s satisfaction. This result shows that in recent years, the Vietnamese government has had policies to contribute to preventing corruption, ensuring and enhancing publicity and transparency (Thu 2018), reducing the monopoly of civil servants. (Ngoc-Tan and Gregar 2018; Phan 2019). Regression coefficient β = 0.228 is the highest compared to other factors in the research model. This result reflects the logic that when the ethics and capacity of civil servants and administrative procedures are reformed, it leads to the ability to access administrative procedures, as well as the effectiveness of administrative procedures (Ha 2019). The ethical and civil servant capacity factors have received the greatest attention from the Vietnamese government in the reform of public administrative services in recent years (Thu 2018; Phan 2019; Ha 2019).

Fourth, the research results show that hypothesis H4 is accepted. It means that the outcome factor of administrative procedures has a positive and significant impact on peo-ple’s satisfaction. This result proves that over time, the Vietnamese government has gradually removed administrative barriers (Long 2020). As long as many institutional barriers still exist, it will hinder the relationship between the government and the people and make the people dissatisfied with the government. With this result, it proves that the Vietnamese government has improved the way in which people’s comments, feedbacks, and recommendations are received and handled (Ngoc-Tan and Gregar 2018; Phan 2019), making people satisfied with the government. However, the regression coefficient β = 0.150 is very low compared to other factors in the model. This result proves that the results of administrative procedures of the Vietnamese government in recent times are still low. The Government needs more efforts to be made in reforming the method of handling administrative procedures in future (Giao 2021; Long 2020; Thu 2018; Phan 2019).

Finally, the research results show that hypothesis H5 is accepted. It means that the factor of receiving and processing people’s comments, reflections, and recommendations has a positive and meaningful impact on people’s satisfaction. This result shows the efforts of the Vietnamese government in recent years to remove legal barriers so that people can access civil servants more conveniently and easily (My and Hanh 2018). This result proves that in the past, the Vietnamese government has promoted the ability of people to consult on socio-economic development policies of the country and each locality (Long 2020; Giao 2021; Thu 2018), showing that citizens play a huge role in governance innovation in Vietnam. However, the regression coefficient β = 0.094 is the lowest compared to other factors in the model, showing that the Vietnamese government still lacks capacity in receiving and handling the comments, reflections, and petitions of the people. This result implies that in the future, the Vietnamese government needs to have some solutions to improve people’s satisfaction, such as improving administrative institutions; being interested in improving administrative processes; building trust among the people; building a team of friendly and respectful civil servants, and increase its sincerity and support for the people (My and Hanh 2018; Ha 2019; Mai et al. 2016).

These results show that good governance in Vietnam has had an initial impact. The Vietnamese government needs to maintain good governance in the coming years. The Vietnamese Government needs to develop an overall strategy on good governance (Phung et al. 2021), considering the model of good governance, in which there are policies and solutions to increase people’s satisfaction and overcome barriers in institutions, policies, ethics, and the capacity of civil servants that not only hinder the implementation of development policies, but also the risk of promoting inequality and other unforeseen negatives (Andrews 2008; Dosch and Vuving 2008).

6. Limitations

As with other experimental studies, this research has several limitations, which should be addressed when analyzing its research findings. To begin with, one of our survey methods reflects the respondents’ subjective views. Subjective data has some inherent drawbacks that are hard to avoid in surveys (Pakpour et al. 2014). Our data, collected over a single period, can cause certain shortcomings in the analysis and interpretation of the findings (Xin et al. 2019). Furthermore, with a small sample size (n = 500) and R² = 0.406, there is a considerable effect on the research findings. Future studies should combine cross-sectional and longitudinal findings.

The purposeful sampling method has certain limitations and does not yet fully mirror population characteristics (Lin et al. 2016; Strong et al. 2018). Our survey was conducted in a Vietnamese cultural context, and therefore more general statements are needed by applying development research models and research conclusions to other countries and cultures (Sun et al. 2012).