The effects of marketing competence on customer satisfaction and loyalty in container shipping services

Abstract

The container shipping industry is facing fierce competition and challenges over the past years. Despite the concept of competency has been widely emphasized in the strategic management, it seems relative few researches examined the impact of marketing competency on customer satisfaction and customer loyalty in the container shipping service context. Drawing on the resource-based view (RBV), marketing competency can be divided into resource and marketing capabilities. This study aims to examine critical resources and marketing capabilities, and its influence on customer satisfaction and customer loyalty in the container shipping services. A structural equation modelling (SEM) was conducted. Using survey data collected from 178 container shipping companies, shipping agencies and forwarders. An exploratory factor analysis was used to identify marketing capabilities, namely: service, price, promotion, and place. Results indicated that resource positively influenced marketing capabilities, whereas marketing capabilities in terms of service and promotion positively influenced customer satisfaction. The research finding also found that customer satisfaction positively influenced on customer loyalty. Specifically, this research demonstrated that customer satisfaction played a mediating role in the relationship between marketing capabilities and customer loyalty based on the bootstrap test. However, the direct influence of marketing capabilities on customer loyalty was not evidenced in this study. The research findings reveal that resource and marketing capabilities are crucial sources of superior customer satisfaction and loyalty. It is necessary for shipping managers to assess the strengths and weaknesses in their marketing capabilities relative to their competitors and to deploy resources and constantly enhance their firms' marketing capabilities to gain competitive advantages.