Effects of switching costs on customer loyalty in the liner shipping industry

Shih-Liang Chao () and Bo-Chuan Chen ()
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Shih-Liang Chao: Department of Shipping and Transportation Management, National Taiwan Ocean University, 2. Pei-Ning Road, Keelung, 20224 Taiwan.
Bo-Chuan Chen: Department of Shipping and Transportation Management, National Taiwan Ocean University, 2. Pei-Ning Road, Keelung, 20224 Taiwan.

Maritime Economics & Logistics, 2015, vol. 17, issue 3, 358 pages

Abstract: In the liner shipping industry, controlling switching costs (SCs) is an important strategy for maintaining customer loyalty (CL). This study proposes a research model comprising four constructs and six hypotheses to examine how SCs helps prevent customers from switching their freight loads from one carrier to the other. Moreover, a sub-model is also proposed and tested by two sample sets, separated by the degree of customer satisfaction to further identify relationships between perceived service quality (PSQ), SCs and CL. This study confirms the existence of a mediation effect of SC between PSQ and CL in the liner shipping industry.

Date: 2015
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