Title: A study of the influence of sustainable management activities on customer satisfaction and long-term orientation in the shipping industry: evidence from users of Korean flagged shipping service

Authors: Youngran Shin; Vinh V. Thai

Addresses: Nanyang Technological University, Singapore 639798, Singapore; Graduate School of Maritime Industry, Korea Maritime and Ocean University, Busan, Republic of Korea ' School of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Nanyang Technological University, 639798, Singapore

Abstract: Since the concept of sustainability emerged as a new business paradigm, sustainable management has become one of the main topics among academic researchers and business practitioners. It is widely agreed that supply chain capabilities play a pivotal role in meeting customers' needs better through well-balanced integration of green marketing and eco-friendly SCM. However, many of previous studies mainly focused on the environmental aspect of sustainable management, lacking of comprehensive insight into its impact on customer relationship. Aiming to fill this literature gap, this paper empirically investigates the influence of sustainable management activities (SMA) on customer satisfaction (CS) and long-term orientation (LTO). The data were collected from 214 users of Korean flagged shipping service (shippers, freight forwarders and third party logistics service providers in Korea) and structural equation modelling (SEM) was employed to test the hypothesised relationships. The findings in this study are expected to contribute to establishing the strategy for effective sustainable management to enhance customer satisfaction and retention.

Keywords: sustainable management; customer satisfaction; long-term orientation; structural equation modelling; SEM; shipping industry; South Korea; flagged shipping services; SCM; supply chain management; customer relationships; shippers; freight forwarders; third party logistics; 3PL service providers; customer retention.

DOI: 10.1504/IJSTL.2016.073312

International Journal of Shipping and Transport Logistics, 2016 Vol.8 No.1, pp.1 - 20

Accepted: 14 Nov 2014
Published online: 30 Nov 2015 *

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