How Shipping Company Satisfies Shippers Through Service Quality in South Korea: The Mediation Role of Trust

Purpose – This study aims to verify the direct causal relationship between cost competitiveness and global network competitiveness, which are the tangible service quality factors determined by the shipping company, which in turn affect the shipper’s customer satisfaction. Additionally, we empirically investigate the intangible, related service qualities determined by shipping companies, such as operational competitiveness and customer relationship quality, and how these then positively affect customer satisfaction through the formation of trust. Therefore, we examine the mediating effect of trust formation among different contractors for shipping services. Design/methodology – In order to examine the shipping company’s tangible and intangible servicequalities perceived by the shipper on customer satisfaction and the process of trust formation between contractors, we collected valid data from 114 respondents out of 200 distributed questionnaires. The respondents consisted of domestic freight forwarders who engage with domestic and international shipping and logistics agencies. Descriptive statistics, confirmatory factor analysis, reliability, convergent and discriminant validities, common method bias, and PLS-SEM (partial least square-structural equation model) were analyzed using the program STATA 16. Findings – The findings of this study are as follows. First, our results showed that all hypotheses assumed in this study had statistically significant supporting evidence. Second, it was found that the mediating effect of trust was significant in affecting the quality of intangible service- qualities for customer satisfaction. Third, through supplementary analysis, we found that the global network competitiveness of domestic shipping companies will increase in importance in the future. In conclusion, the theoretical and practical implications of these findings are presented. Originality/value – This study reaffirmed the traditional causal relationship between customer satisfaction and tangible service quality. Additionally, we also contribute to the literature on the understanding of the causal relationship between trust formation and customer satisfaction through intangible interactions from a long-term perspective.