Abstract
This paper focuses on analysing the determinants of satisfaction (service quality, perceived value), as well as its possible influence on customer loyalty of freight forwarders to freight transport service providers (by road/maritime/air) in Spain. To this end, we propose a causal model tested using information from 205 freight forwarders collected through personal interviews. The model was estimated using the Partial Least Squares (PLS) approach. Moreover, the existence of differences in the perceptions on the analysed variables between transport modes is tested through ANOVA. Results show that service quality has an influence on customer satisfaction, both directly, as well as through perceived value. In turn, it is confirmed the relationship between satisfaction with the transportation company and customer loyalty. Furthermore, there are significant differences in quality dimensions and satisfaction between transport modes. This study confirms the importance of service quality and perceived value to promote the link between chain actors: freight forwarder and transport service provider. The main aim of this research is to go deeper into the study of satisfaction and loyalty of freight forwarders to freight transport service providers. Findings provide evidence about differences in the dimensionality of service quality between B2C and B2B settings and, even in the latter, differences between freight forwarding services and other industries are observed. The present paper is one of the few studies that obtains relevant information about several transport modes simultaneously and the findings reinforce the notion that perceptive processes in each of them are different.
Highlights
For many years, logistics and, goods transportation, were considered as an ancillary activity to business management
We checked that the companies included in the sample complied with two criteria: firstly, maintaining the proportion of companies located in geographical areas with the greatest concentration of freight forwarders in Spain in order to guarantee the sample representativeness, and secondly, according to the mode of transport of the main freight transport service provider, maintaining participation quotas for each mode of transport in the total goods transported in Spain
These data are presented segmenting the sample by transport mode of the transport company that each freight forwarder evaluated, to enable comparison of transport mode
Summary
Logistics and, goods transportation, were considered as an ancillary activity to business management. Increased competition has become a catalyst for the development of new long term oriented relationships between companies, built on pillars such as trust, commitment, satisfaction, and loyalty. In this context service excellence is considered one of the main objectives of the strategy of the companies providing logistics services, such as transport service providers, freight forwarders, shippers and consignees, ports, airports, cargo airlines, etc. In the services marketing literature, it is recognized that satisfaction is a good indicator, if not the best, of future firm profits. Research on the formation of variables such as service quality and satisfaction, as well as their consequents, is not conclusive (Kersten, Koch 2010). Notwithstanding, there are studies that raise service perceptions as one of the most persuasive variables for mode and
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