Title: Service recovery and customer satisfaction in container liner shipping industry - an ordered logit approach

Authors: Enna Hirata

Addresses: Graduate School of Business Administration, Kobe University, 2-1, Rokkodai-cho, Nada, Kobe 657-8501, Japan

Abstract: This paper assesses the responsiveness of service recovery process to customer satisfaction in container liner shipping (CLS) industry. The research deals with real-world business events, conducted using a survey method, in which customers evaluate service recovery scenario and complete a questionnaire with respect to CLS carriers they had recently patronised. Estimated by ordered logit regression method, the results show that timeliness of communication is the most significant service recovery attribute. It also finds that customers in different segments prefer receiving recovery resources in different ways; effective service recovery could help improve customer satisfaction and service recovery paradox exists in the industry. The findings contribute to the understanding of theoretical explanation of service recovery attributes and provide managers with useful guidelines for establishing effective recovery process. Unlike other research, this paper draws on data from actual customers in CLS industry and therefore benefits from increased external validity.

Keywords: container liner shipping; CLS; service recovery; beneficial cargo owners; BCOs; customer satisfaction; freight forwarders; FFWs; service recovery paradox; ordered logit model; survey; recovery attributes; external validity.

DOI: 10.1504/IJSTL.2020.111116

International Journal of Shipping and Transport Logistics, 2020 Vol.12 No.6, pp.563 - 575

Received: 21 Mar 2019
Accepted: 30 Apr 2019

Published online: 10 Nov 2020 *

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