IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/trapol/v61y2018icp26-35.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Differentiation of container shipping services in Turkey

Author

Listed:
  • Balci, Gökcay
  • Cetin, Ismail Bilge
  • Tanyeri, Mustafa

Abstract

Container lines have limited opportunities to differentiate their core service, port-to-port transportation, since it is based on standardization. Strategic alliances reduce the opportunities for differentiation even further because of the vessel-sharing between container lines. The container shipping, therefore, is becoming a commodity-like industry. The literature on commodity markets and other business-to-business markets suggests firms can differentiate themselves through the service attributes other than core offering. With this perspective, this study aims to explore effective service differentiators of container lines against their strategic alliance partners. We conduct a survey research with container lines and freight forwarders in Turkey and perform exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses. We create an inter-quartile display to illustrate differentiability and importance level of each service attribute. The results indicate that customer service and customer relations can be effective differentiators for container lines. This study suggests that more customer-focused business policies of the container lines may help them to develop and sustain their competitiveness in intra-alliance competition.

Suggested Citation

  • Balci, Gökcay & Cetin, Ismail Bilge & Tanyeri, Mustafa, 2018. "Differentiation of container shipping services in Turkey," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 61(C), pages 26-35.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:trapol:v:61:y:2018:i:c:p:26-35
    DOI: 10.1016/j.tranpol.2017.10.004
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0967070X16308484
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.tranpol.2017.10.004?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Avner Shaked & John Sutton, 1982. "Relaxing Price Competition Through Product Differentiation," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 49(1), pages 3-13.
    2. Claire Dennet't & ELIZABETH M. INESON & GRAHAM J. STONE & MARK COLGATE, 2000. "Pre-bookable Services in the Chartered Airline Industry: Increasing Satisfaction through Differentiation," The Service Industries Journal, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 20(2), pages 82-94, April.
    3. D. K. Ryoo & H. A. Thanopoulou, 1999. "Liner alliances in the globalization era: a strategic tool for Asian container carriers," Maritime Policy & Management, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 26(4), pages 349-367, October.
    4. V. Kannan & S.K. Bose & N.G. Kannan, 2011. "An evaluation of ocean container carrier selection criteria: an Indian shipper's perspective," Management Research Review, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 34(7), pages 754-772, June.
    5. Davies, J E, 1983. "An Analysis of Cost and Supply Conditions in the Liner Shipping Industry," Journal of Industrial Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 31(4), pages 417-435, June.
    6. Wolfgang Ulaga, 2003. "Capturing value creation in business relationships: A customer perspective," Post-Print hal-00484963, HAL.
    7. Reimann, Martin & Schilke, Oliver & Thomas, Jacquelyn S., 2010. "Toward an understanding of industry commoditization: Its nature and role in evolving marketing competition," International Journal of Research in Marketing, Elsevier, vol. 27(2), pages 188-197.
    8. Lu, Chin-Shan, 2000. "Logistics services in Taiwanese maritime firms," Transportation Research Part E: Logistics and Transportation Review, Elsevier, vol. 36(2), pages 79-96, June.
    9. Trevor D Heaver, 2002. "The Evolving Roles of Shipping Lines in International Logistics," Maritime Economics & Logistics, Palgrave Macmillan;International Association of Maritime Economists (IAME), vol. 4(3), pages 210-230, September.
    10. Andreas Eggert & Wolfgang Ulaga & Franzizka Schultz, 2006. "Value creation in the relationship life cycle: A quasi-longitudinal analysis," Post-Print hal-00482487, HAL.
    11. Benacchio, Marco & Ferrari, Claudio & Musso, Enrico, 2007. "The liner shipping industry and EU competition rules," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 14(1), pages 1-10, January.
    12. Wolfgang Ulaga & Andreas Eggert, 2006. "Value-Based Differentiation in Business Relationships: Gaining and Sustaining Key Supplier Status," Post-Print hal-00482456, HAL.
    13. Lu, Chin-Shan, 2003. "The impact of carrier service attributes on shipper-carrier partnering relationships: a shipper's perspective," Transportation Research Part E: Logistics and Transportation Review, Elsevier, vol. 39(5), pages 399-415, September.
    14. Gebauer, Heiko & Gustafsson, Anders & Witell, Lars, 2011. "Competitive advantage through service differentiation by manufacturing companies," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 64(12), pages 1270-1280.
    15. Maximilian Rothkopf & Andreas Wald, 2011. "Innovation In Commoditized Services: A Study In The Passenger Airline Industry," International Journal of Innovation Management (ijim), World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., vol. 15(04), pages 731-753.
    16. Brian Slack & Claude Comtois & Robert McCalla, 2002. "Strategic alliances in the container shipping industry: a global perspective," Maritime Policy & Management, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 29(1), pages 65-76, January.
    17. Panayides, Photis M. & Wiedmer, Robert, 2011. "Strategic alliances in container liner shipping," Research in Transportation Economics, Elsevier, vol. 32(1), pages 25-38.
    18. Peter C. Wong & Hong Yan & Colin Bamford, 2008. "Evaluation of factors for carrier selection in the China Pearl River delta," Maritime Policy & Management, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 35(1), pages 27-52, February.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Song, Zhuzhu & Tang, Wansheng & Zhao, Ruiqing, 2021. "Liner alliances with heterogeneous price level and service competition: Partial vs. full," Omega, Elsevier, vol. 103(C).
    2. Fonseca, Tiago & Lagdami, Khanssa & Schröder-Hinrichs, Jens-Uwe, 2021. "Assessing innovation in transport: An application of the Technology Adoption (TechAdo) model to Maritime Autonomous Surface Ships (MASS)," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 114(C), pages 182-195.
    3. Vural, Ceren Altuntaş & Göçer, Aysu & Halldórsson, Árni, 2019. "Value co-creation in maritime logistics networks: A service triad perspective," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 84(C), pages 27-39.
    4. Anurag Kulshrestha & Abhishek Yadav & Himanshu Sharma & Shikha Suman, 2024. "A deep learning‐based multivariate decomposition and ensemble framework for container throughput forecasting," Journal of Forecasting, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 43(7), pages 2685-2704, November.
    5. Mohammad Ghorbani & Michele Acciaro & Sandra Transchel & Pierre Cariou, 2022. "Strategic alliances in container shipping: A review of the literature and future research agenda," Maritime Economics & Logistics, Palgrave Macmillan;International Association of Maritime Economists (IAME), vol. 24(2), pages 439-465, June.
    6. Yuen, Kum Fai & Wang, Xueqin & Wong, Yiik Diew & Ma, Fei, 2019. "A contingency view of the effects of sustainable shipping exploitation and exploration on business performance," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 77(C), pages 90-103.
    7. Li, Sujuan & Liu, Jiaguo & Kong, Yudan, 2021. "Pilot free trade zones and Chinese port-listed companies performance: An empirical research based on quasi-natural experiment," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 111(C), pages 125-137.
    8. Yuen, Kum Fai & Wang, Xueqin & Wong, Yiik Diew & Li, Kevin X., 2020. "The role of stakeholder participation and sustainability integration in maritime transport: A structure-conduct-performance analysis," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 99(C), pages 44-53.
    9. Balci, Gökcay, 2021. "Digitalization in container shipping: Do perception and satisfaction regarding digital products in a non-technology industry affect overall customer loyalty?," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 172(C).
    10. Huang, Dong & Grifoll, Manel & Sanchez-Espigares, Jose A. & Zheng, Pengjun & Feng, Hongxiang, 2022. "Hybrid approaches for container traffic forecasting in the context of anomalous events: The case of the Yangtze River Delta region in the COVID-19 pandemic," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 128(C), pages 1-12.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Yang, Ching-Chiao & Marlow, Peter B. & Lu, Chin-Shan, 2009. "Assessing resources, logistics service capabilities, innovation capabilities and the performance of container shipping services in Taiwan," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 122(1), pages 4-20, November.
    2. Daniele Crotti & Claudio Ferrari & Alessio Tei, 2020. "Merger waves and alliance stability in container shipping," Maritime Economics & Logistics, Palgrave Macmillan;International Association of Maritime Economists (IAME), vol. 22(3), pages 446-472, September.
    3. Chieh-Hua Wen & Wei-Wei Lin, 2016. "Customer segmentation of freight forwarders and impacts on the competitive positioning of ocean carriers in the Taiwan--southern China trade lane," Maritime Policy & Management, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 43(4), pages 420-435, May.
    4. Mohammad Ghorbani & Michele Acciaro & Sandra Transchel & Pierre Cariou, 2022. "Strategic alliances in container shipping: A review of the literature and future research agenda," Maritime Economics & Logistics, Palgrave Macmillan;International Association of Maritime Economists (IAME), vol. 24(2), pages 439-465, June.
    5. Song, Zhuzhu & Tang, Wansheng & Zhao, Ruiqing, 2021. "Liner alliances with heterogeneous price level and service competition: Partial vs. full," Omega, Elsevier, vol. 103(C).
    6. Professor Anil Keskar & More Pranay, 2018. "Relationship Value –A Study of Various Published Articles," Indian Journal of Commerce and Management Studies, Educational Research Multimedia & Publications,India, vol. 9(2), pages 96-112, May.
    7. Michael J. Maloni & David M. Gligor & Ioannis N. Lagoudis, 2016. "Linking ocean container carrier capabilities to shipper–carrier relationships: a case study," Maritime Policy & Management, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 43(8), pages 959-975, November.
    8. Dung-Ying Lin & Chien-Chih Huang & ManWo Ng, 2017. "The coopetition game in international liner shipping," Maritime Policy & Management, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 44(4), pages 474-495, May.
    9. Severin Oesterle & Arne Buchwald & Nils Urbach, 2022. "Investigating the co-creation of IT consulting service value: empirical findings of a matched pair analysis," Electronic Markets, Springer;IIM University of St. Gallen, vol. 32(2), pages 571-597, June.
    10. Rau, Philipp & Spinler, Stefan, 2017. "Alliance formation in a cooperative container shipping game: Performance of a real options investment approach," Transportation Research Part E: Logistics and Transportation Review, Elsevier, vol. 101(C), pages 155-175.
    11. Jianfeng Zheng & Ziyou Gao & Dong Yang & Zhuo Sun, 2015. "Network Design and Capacity Exchange for Liner Alliances with Fixed and Variable Container Demands," Transportation Science, INFORMS, vol. 49(4), pages 886-899, November.
    12. Chen, Kee-Kuo & Ho, Hui-Ping & Chang, Ching-Ter, 2015. "Estimating attributes importance for container shipping industry by closing the listening gap with maximum convergent validity," Transportation Research Part E: Logistics and Transportation Review, Elsevier, vol. 79(C), pages 145-163.
    13. Kindström, Daniel & Kowalkowski, Christian & Sandberg, Erik, 2013. "Enabling service innovation: A dynamic capabilities approach," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 66(8), pages 1063-1073.
    14. Christian Homburg & Moritz Tischer, 2023. "Customer journey management capability in business-to-business markets: Its bright and dark sides and overall impact on firm performance," Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, Springer, vol. 51(5), pages 1046-1074, September.
    15. Timothy Kiessling & Lars Isaksson & Burze Yasar, 2016. "Market Orientation and CSR: Performance Implications," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 137(2), pages 269-284, August.
    16. Sebastian Heise, 2019. "Firm-to-Firm Relationships and the Pass-Through of Shocks: Theory and Evidence," Staff Reports 896, Federal Reserve Bank of New York.
    17. Aletta Sophia Tolmay, 2018. "An Investigation Into the Personal Interaction Items Which Best Explain the Variation in Trust Within Automotive Supply Chains," International Journal of Information Systems and Supply Chain Management (IJISSCM), IGI Global, vol. 11(2), pages 77-91, April.
    18. Worm, Stefan & Srivastava, Rajendra K., 2014. "Impact of component supplier branding on profitability," International Journal of Research in Marketing, Elsevier, vol. 31(4), pages 409-424.
    19. Quartieri, Federico, 2017. "Are vessel sharing agreements pro-competitive?," Economics of Transportation, Elsevier, vol. 11, pages 33-48.
    20. Brzustewicz, Paweł & Escher, Iwona & Hatami, Akram & Hermes, Jan & Keränen, Anne & Ulkuniemi, Pauliina, 2022. "Emergence of social impact in company–NGO relationships in corporate volunteering," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 140(C), pages 62-75.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:trapol:v:61:y:2018:i:c:p:26-35. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/journaldescription.cws_home/30473/description#description .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.