Do corporate sustainable management activities improve customer satisfaction, word of mouth intention and repurchase intention? Empirical evidence from the shipping industry

Abstract

PurposeAs the concept of corporate sustainable management activities (CSMA) has become an increasingly important element of corporate management, much attention has been paid to its impact on customer relationship. Although there exists many studies concentrating mainly on the environment aspect of CSMA, only a few address the three dimensions of CSMA (environmental, social and economic) and examine their comprehensive impact on relationship marketing. In an attempt to fill this gap, the purpose of this paper is to empirically investigate the influence of CSMA on customer satisfaction (CS), word of mouth intention (WOMI) and repurchase intention (RI).Design/methodology/approachThe data come from 214 shipping industry practitioners (shippers, freight forwarders and third party logistics service providers in South Korea). Structural equation modeling (SEM) is employed to test the impact of CSMA on CS, WOMI and RI.FindingsBased on a survey conducted in South Korea, the findings indicate that environmental and economic aspects of CSMA play a significant role in enhancing CS and the enhanced CS positively affects WOMI and RI.Research limitations/implicationsAs the field data were obtained from only one industry, future replication of the findings to other industries should consider industry-specific factors, if applicable.Practical implicationsThe results highlight several implications for shipping industry practitioners to consider when establishing the strategy for effective corporate sustainable management to enhance CS.Originality/valueThis study is one of the first empirical attempts to explore how CSMA affects CS in the shipping industry. In addition, this paper empirically investigates the influence of CS on WOMI and RI.