The impact of corporate sustainable management activities on customer satisfaction and loyalty in the port sector : an empirical study on Singapore container port (PSA)’s shipping line customers

• Main Author: Zhao, Xiwei
• Other Authors: Thai Van Vinh
• Format: Final Year Project
• Language: English
• Published: 2015
• Subjects: DRNTU::Engineering::Civil engineering
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/10356/65826
• Institution: Nanyang Technological University

Corporate sustainability has been gaining popularity in the past years both in the academia and industry. With various researches done in different industries about corporate sustainability, there is a lack of such research in the port sector. This paper aims to study the relationship between corporate sustainable management activities (CSMA) and customer satisfaction (CS) and customer loyalty (CL). CSMA is defined as all the sustainable activities that are carried out by a company and it generally covers the three pillars of sustainability. In order to achieve the aim of this research, three hypotheses were brought out and research is carried out around these three hypotheses. The three hypotheses are as follow: H1: Shipping lines’ satisfaction with a port affects their loyalty to the port H2: CSMA of a port affect shipping lines’ satisfaction with the port. H3: CSMA of a port affect shipping lines’ loyalty to the port H4: CSMA of a port affect the port’s company reputation H5: A port’s company reputation affects shipping lines’ loyalty to the port Interviews and survey were done to collect data which was then used to test the hypotheses one by one. It was proven that customer satisfaction affects customer loyalty positively in the port sector and CSMA affects customer satisfaction positively as well. There is also relatively strong relationship between CSMA and CL but it is mere correlation instead of causal relationship. It was concluded that CSMA affects CL through the mediating effect of CS. This research also identify the key aspects that the port operator could work on to achieve the best result. Academic and managerial implications were also presented to provide guidance for similar researches in the future and contribute to the current business management world. Multiple definition of terms in the port sector are defined and added to the academic world. Customer satisfaction is also discovered as a mediating factor for the effect CSMA has on customer loyalty. There are also certain limitations of this research, for example the survey responses are very limited and it only studied PSA, so any generalization should be made with caution.