• Asia pacific journal of information systems
• /
• v.18 no.1
• /
• pp.97-115
• /
• 2008

Introduction The e-government is concerned with using Internet and Web technologies to exchange information and services with citizens, businesses and other related organizations, and it centers on three functions, namely informational, interactive, and transactional [UN, 2001]. Many developed countries like the U.S. have been actively involved in e-government projects, since they enable both more effective public services for citizens and more efficient internal operations. Korea is among these leading countries that are planning to leverage computer and communication technologies to provide for integration of work processes and information as well as convenient access to information and services. For this reason, evaluating e-government projects is becoming a crucial issue for both researchers and policy-makers. However, most research to date has primarily focused on a model of success of an e-government system designed for citizens, overlooking internal systems specifically created for employees working in a public organization. This paper is intended to propose a model to measure the success of a Web-based information system designed for use by internal users at Chungwadae, the executive branch of Korea's central government. The paper is also aimed at applying the model to the assessment of the present system being used at Chungwadae in comparison with the preceding system. Evaluating an e-Government System The most widely cited model of information systems success today is that of DeLone and McLean[1992, 2003, 2004]. The original model states that the success of an information system can be measured using six dimensions, including system quality, information quality, use, user satisfaction, individual impact, and organizational impact. Although the ultimate success of an information system may be reflected in the impact that the system has upon individuals as well as an organization, aspects of using the system such as system use and user satisfaction can play an important role in determining the system success, because the system would be a sheer failure if users don't like and use the system. As a response to criticisms given by numerous researchers, the authors adapted their model to fit the emerging Web-based environment. The revised model[DeLone and McLean, 2003] they offered included an additional quality dimension, namely service quality, and combined individual and organizational impacts into net benefits which can also influence user satisfaction. The e-government system success model can be built around this updated model. Our model incorporates information quality, system quality, and service quality as in the DeLone and McLean model. However, the 'system use' dimension has been replaced by perceived usefulness, as suggested by Seddon[1998]. In addition, because the e-government systems that this paper focuses on are internal public systems used in government agencies, the 'net benefits' dimension has been replaced by perceived work efficiency. Based on the proposed model, a total of nine hypotheses have been formulated which we tested using an empirical analysis. Methods A questionnaire form has been created with items that are designed to examine the relationships among the variables in the model. The questionnaire has been handed over, in person, to 65 members of Chungwadae staff who are now actively using the E-Support System, the present information system created to support internal work at Chungwadae. We made arrangements to meet with each individual who agreed to participate in our survey, and helped to fill out the survey form with explanations. Of the 65 copies that were delivered, only 33 were returned, and 30 responses of these have been adopted for our analysis, since three were not valid. The extremely small sample size was due to the limited number of staff members who had adequate experience required of this study. Results We gathered data from the questionnaire survey and analyzed them using a regression analysis to test the hypotheses. As shown in the table below, the results indicated that all three dimensions of an information system’s quality are positively related to user satisfaction. However, information quality and system quality were found to be positively related to perceived usefulness, while service quality was not. In addition, perceived usefulness is not positively related to user satisfaction, implying that a user may find a system useful, but may not be satisfied with it. Finally, user satisfaction and perceived usefulness both are positively related to perceived work efficiency. This suggests that workers' positive experience with the system is important to guarantee favorable work efficiency. Conclusions We conclude that the proposed model proved useful in measuring the success of an internal information system used by a government agency. To demonstrate the applicability and usefulness of the model in the paper, we applied the model to the assessment of the present internal system used at Chungwadae in comparison with the preceding system. The results showed that the present system outperforms the preceding one in a statistically significant way. Future research will have to focus on applying the model to Korea's governmental agencies other than Chungwadae and examine whether it proves applicable in different types of governmental organizations.

• Journal of Korean Academy of Nursing Administration
• /
• v.4 no.2
• /
• pp.307-319
• /
• 1998

This study is an empirical investigation and study on the measurement of nursing service quality as perceived by patients. A series of H1. H2. H3 alternative hypotheses were tested using a sample of 250 patients in Taegu City. Korea. HI hypothese were tested for application of five component of service quality (SERVQlTAL and SE RPERF : tangiblity. reliability. responsiveness. accessibility. understandability) in Taegu area Hospitals. Validity test - the five components of service quality were rearranged into two components of service quality (personal factor. nonpersonal factor). Although SERVQUAL was verified in USA. application for five components of service quality in Korea indicated that it need more analytical studies. Nobody can deny the fact that the recent growth of the nursing service quality is one of the most important driving forces of hospital management. In many hospitals. the nursing quality charges more than 50% of the medical service quality. As a result. many hospital managers should be enormous interests in the investment potentiality of the nursing service. However. doesn't many researchers invest their time and effort on the research of the quality control in nursing service. Nursing service management is the process to satisfy customer's desires and expectations through the various service activities. Presently nursing service are being faced with three Common tasks of improving quality of nursing service. competitively differential advantage and productivity because of quantitative expansion of Nursing service. Such a phenomenon is also found in our medical service industry. resulting from increasing demands for medical service owing to national medical insurance policy and consumer's attitude change emphasizing prevention of illness. excessiveness of medical facilities in large cities and increasing medical lawsuits due to influence of consumerism. Therefore. under such circumstances. this research on nursing service is conducted from nursing managements to improve the nursing service quality problems faced by medical institutions. The results of this theoretical/empirical research are as follows: 1. Nursing service Quality is regarded as patients' perceived quality and evaluated on the basis (5 dimension) of technical and functional quality. 2. Nursing service Quality is a concept of patients evaluation on the measurable multi-dimensions intrinsic and extrinsic attributes of service. 3. Nursing service Quality is conceptually defined as the difference between the perceived service and the expected service. 4. Korean consumers trend to evaluate nursing service quality based on such dimensions as responsiveness and reliability. understandability. accessibility. tangibility. 5. After analyzing whether or not there are some differences in respective medical institution. it was found that there are significant difference on understandability. reliability. communicability. courtesy. competence. 6. After analyzing the difference between the expected nursing service and the nursing perceived service, it was found that the expected nursing service is higher than the perceived service in every medical institution. 7. HI hypothesis was tested with regard to the validity test between SERVQUAL and SERVPERF in nursing service quality. The result of validity test between SERVQUAL and SERVPERF was found to have differential result. That is the R2 of SERVPERF is higher than that of SERVQUAL. Therefore. HI was verified in nursing management. H2. H3 hypotheses were tested whether or not the nursing service quality and patient satisfaction is the preceding variable. The result of H2 hypothes is that the nursing service quality is the preceding variable of patient satisfaction and the patient satisfaction is that of revisiting intention. After analyzing whether or not there is any differences on the demographic variable of five nursing service quality factor. it was found that there are statistically significant differences on communicability and courtesy at the sex. understand ability. accessibility and tangibility at the age. understandability at the academic background respectively.

• The Journal of Asian Finance, Economics and Business
• /
• v.8 no.4
• /
• pp.971-982
• /
• 2021

The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between information quality, Online Travel Agency (OTA) trust, and continuous usage intention provided by OTA through the application of the SOR(Stimulus-Organism-Response) model. To achieve the purpose of the study, 234 responses were used for analysis, and the hypotheses were tested through the SPSS v.21 program and AMOS v.21 programs. The research results can be classified into the following three categories. First, it was determined that accuracy, timeliness, and usefulness among the factors for information quality had a significant positive effect on OTA trust and continuous usage intention. Second, it was determined that OTA trust was found to have a significant positive effect on continuous usage intention. Third, it was determined that OTA trust had an indirect effect on the relationship between accuracy, timeliness, usefulness, and continuous usage intention among the factors for information quality. This study looked at the lower dimension of information quality, which was insufficient in the field of OTA. This study can be used as basic data to, in practice, build a user-centered informational provision environment by identifying the factors that promote the continuous usage intention of consumers, which is linked to the revenue of online travel agencies.

• Journal of Global Scholars of Marketing Science
• /
• v.20 no.3
• /
• pp.269-277
• /
• 2010

Previous studies have shown that the most important factor affecting customer loyalty in the service industry is service quality. However, on the subject of whether service quality has a direct or indirect effect on customer loyalty, scholars' views apparently vary. Some studies suggest that service quality has a direct and fundamental influence on customer loyalty (Bai and Liu, 2002). However, others have shown that service quality not only directly affects customer loyalty, it also has an indirect impact on customer loyalty by influencing customer satisfaction and perceived value (Cronin, Brady, and Hult, 2000). Currently, there are few domestic articles that specifically address the relationship between service quality and customer loyalty in the mobile communication industry. Moreover, research has studied customer loyalty as a whole variable, rather than breaking it down further into multiple dimensions. Based on this analysis, this paper summarizes previous study results, establishes an effect mechanism model among service quality, customer satisfaction, and customer loyalty in the mobile communication industry, and presents a statistical test on model assumptions by using customer investigation data from Heilongjiang Mobile Company. It provides theoretical guidance for mobile service management based on the discussion of the hypothesis test results. For data collection, the sample comprised mobile users in Harbin city, and the survey was taken by random sampling. Out of a total of 300 questionnaires, 276 (92.9%) were recovered. After excluding invalid questionnaires, 249 remained, for an effective rate of 82.6 percent for the study. Cronbach's ${\alpha}$ coefficient was adapted to assess the scale reliability, and validity testing was conducted on the questionnaire from three aspects: content validity, construct validity. and convergent validity. The study tested for goodness of fit mainly from the absolute and relative fit indexes. From the hypothesis testing results, overall, four assumptions have not been supported. The ultimate affective relationship of service quality, customer satisfaction, and customer loyalty is demonstrated in Figure 2. On the whole, the service quality of the communication industry not only has a direct positive significant effect on customer loyalty, it also has an indirect positive significant effect on customer loyalty through service quality; the affective mechanism and extent of customer loyalty are different, and are influenced by each dimension of service quality. This study used the questionnaires of existing literature from home and abroad and tested them in empirical research, with all questions adapted to seven-point Likert scales. With the SERVQUAL scale of Parasuraman, Zeithaml, and Berry (1988), or PZB, as a reference point, service quality was divided into five dimensions-tangibility, reliability, responsiveness, assurance, and empathy-and the questions were simplified down to nineteen. The measurement of customer satisfaction was based mainly on Fornell (1992) and Wang and Han (2003), ending up with four questions. Based on the study’s three indicators of price tolerance, first choice, and complaint reaction were used to measure attitudinal loyalty, while repurchase intention, recommendation, and reputation measured behavioral loyalty. The collection and collation of literature data produced a model of the relationship among service quality, customer satisfaction, and customer loyalty in mobile communications, and China Mobile in the city of Harbin in Heilongjiang province was used for conducting an empirical test of the model and obtaining some useful conclusions. First, service quality in mobile communication is formed by the five factors mentioned earlier: tangibility, reliability, responsiveness, assurance, and empathy. On the basis of PZB SERVQUAL, the study designed a measurement scale of service quality for the mobile communications industry, and obtained these five factors through exploratory factor analysis. The factors fit basically with the five elements, indicating the concept of five elements of service quality for the mobile communications industry. Second, service quality in mobile communications has both direct and indirect positive effects on attitudinal loyalty, with the indirect effect being produced through the intermediary variable, customer satisfaction. There are also both direct and indirect positive effects on behavioral loyalty, with the indirect effect produced through two intermediary variables: customer satisfaction and attitudinal loyalty. This shows that better service quality and higher customer satisfaction will activate the attitudinal to service providers more active and show loyalty to service providers much easier. In addition, the effect mechanism of all dimensions of service quality on all dimensions of customer loyalty is different. Third, customer satisfaction plays a significant intermediary role among service quality and attitudinal and behavioral loyalty, indicating that improving service quality can boost customer satisfaction and make it easier for satisfied customers to become loyal customers. Moreover, attitudinal loyalty plays a significant intermediary role between service quality and behavioral loyalty, indicating that only attitudinally and behaviorally loyal customers are truly loyal customers. The research conclusions have some indications for Chinese telecom operators and others to upgrade their service quality. Two limitations to the study are also mentioned. First, all data were collected in the Heilongjiang area, so there might be a common method bias that skews the results. Second, the discussion addresses the relationship between service quality and customer loyalty, setting customer satisfaction as mediator, but does not consider other factors, like customer value and consumer features, This research will be continued in the future.

• International Journal of Computer Science & Network Security
• /
• v.22 no.3
• /
• pp.77-88
• /
• 2022

In response to the significant COVID-19 outbreak, countries have enforced the use of E-learning systems as an alternative to traditional learning; to contain the virus and minimize the infection rate while maintaining the continuity of the learning experience. However, the effective adoption of E-learning systems requires a well-understanding of critical factors, especially in times of crisis. In this regard, this study intends to assess the success of the E-learning system adoption by Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) during the crisis of COVID-19 by utilizing the Information Systems Success (ISS) model. This study's adopted model consists of nine interdependent dimensions, namely: Technical System Quality, Information Quality, Service Quality, Learner Quality, Perceived Satisfaction, Perceived Usefulness, System Use, Intention to Use, and System Success. An electronic survey was distributed among higher education students from different universities in Saudi Arabia to explore each model's dimension. Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) has been applied via SmartPLS software to test the causal relationships between dimensions. This study's main results revealed that students' Service Quality, Learner Quality, and the Intention to Use by students are essential drives for E-learning System Use during the Covid-19 pandemic. Meanwhile, the Intention to Use the system is significantly influenced by Perceived Satisfaction and Perceived Usefulness dimensions. Further, Perceived Satisfaction, Perceived Usefulness, and System Use are interdependent, and all three have a significant positive impact on E-learning System Success.

• The Journal of Asian Finance, Economics and Business
• /
• v.8 no.1
• /
• pp.1063-1069
• /
• 2021

The purpose of this study is to explore and empirically analyze the factors affecting transparency and public accountability in local government, which have not been sufficiently researched in terms of human resource management, and good governance implementation. In particular, this study intends to examine human resource management activities focusing on the government effectiveness dimension. This study uses a qualitative approach and phenomenological method to examine the phenomenon of participant experience along with documents that are in the setting under study. Participants consisted of nine people from the Regional Government Work Unit of Tasikmalaya City, the private sector, and the community. The researcher divided data analysis into three sub-indicators, including effectiveness and efficiency, responsiveness, and public service. The Results show Regional Financial and Asset Management Agency (BPKAD) of Tasikmalaya City as sufficient in terms of human resources, this can be verified from the number of leaders and staff, which amounts to 58 people, of which 80% are economic graduates. Although the quantity is adequate, the quality of human resources in BPKAD in Tasikmalaya City is still weak. In Conclusion of this study it is inferred that the application of the government effectiveness dimension in BPKAD Tasikmalaya City is not optimal and need adequate training to improve employee performance in financial management.

• Journal of Distribution Research
• /
• v.15 no.3
• /
• pp.111-137
• /
• 2010

The basic purpose of this study is to investigate perceived quality and service personal value affecting the result of long-term relationship between service buyers and suppliers. This research presented a constructive model(perceived quality affecting the service personal value and the moderate effect of NFC) in the on off line and then propose the research model base on prior researches and studies about relationships among components of service. Data were gathered from respondents who visit at the education service market. For this study, Data were analyzed by AMOS 7.0. We integrate the literature on services marketing with researches on personal values and perceived quality. The SERPVAL scale presented here allows for the creation of a common ground for assessing service personal values, giving a clear understanding of the key value dimensions behind service choice and usage. It will lead to a focus of future research in services marketing, extending knowledge in the field and stimulating further empirical research on service personal values. At the managerial level, as a tool the SERPVAL scale should allow practitioners to evaluate and improve the value of a service, and consequently, to define strategies and actions to address services for customers based on their fundamental personal values. Through qualitative and empirical research, we find that the service quality construct conforms to the structure of a second-order factor model that ties service quality perceptions to distinct and actionable dimensions: outcome, interaction, and environmental quality. In turn, each has two subdimensions that define the basis of service quality perceptions. The authors further suggest that for each of these subdimensions to contribute to improved service quality perceptions, the quality received by consumers must be perceived to be reliable, responsive, and empathetic. Although the service personal value may be found in researches that explore individual values and their consequences for consumer behavior, there is no established operationalization of a SERPVAL scale. The inexistence of an established scale, duly adapted in order to understand and analyze personal values behind services usage, exposes the need of a measurement scale with such a purpose. This need has to be rooted, however, in a conceptualization of the construct being scaled. Service personal values can be defined as a customer's overall assessment of the use of a service based on the perception of what is achieved in terms of his own personal values. As consumer behaviors serve to show an individual's values, the use of a service can also be a way to fulfill and demonstrate consumers'personal values. In this sense, a service can provide more to the customer than its concrete and abstract attributes at both the attribute and the quality levels, and more than its functional consequences at the value level. Both values and services literatures agree, that personal value is the highest-level concept, followed by instrumental values, attitudes and finally by product attributes. Purchasing behaviors are agreed to be the end result of these concepts' interaction, with personal values taking a major role in the final decision process. From both consumers' and practitioners' perspectives, values are extremely relevant, as they are desirable goals that serve as guiding principles in people's lives. While building on previous research, we propose to assess service personal values through three broad groups of individual dimensions; at the self-oriented level, we use (1) service value to peaceful life (SVPL) and, at the social-oriented level, we use (2) service value to social recognition (SVSR), and (3) service value to social integration (SVSI). Service value to peaceful life is our first dimension. This dimension emerged as a combination of values coming from the RVS scale, a scale built specifically to assess general individual values. If a service promotes a pleasurable life, brings or improves tranquility, safety and harmony, then its user recognizes the value of this service. Generally, this service can improve the user's pleasure of life, since it protects or defends the consumer from threats to life or pressures on it. While building upon both the LOV scale, a scale built specifically to assess consumer values, and the RVS scale for individual values, we develop the other two dimensions: SVSR and SVSI. The roles of social recognition and social integration to improve service personal value have been seriously neglected. Social recognition derives its outcome utility from its predictive utility. When applying this underlying belief to our second dimension, SVSR, we assume that people use a service while taking into consideration the content of what is delivered. Individuals consider whether the service aids in gaining respect from others, social recognition and status, as well as whether it allows achieving a more fulfilled and stimulating life, which might then be revealed to others. People also tend to engage in behavior that receives social recognition and to avoid behavior that leads to social disapproval, and this contributes to an individual's social integration. This leads us to the third dimension, SVSI, which is based on the fact that if the consumer perceives that a service strengthens friendships, provides the possibility of becoming more integrated in the group, or promotes better relationships at the social, professional or family levels, then the service will contribute to social integration, and naturally the individual will recognize personal value in the service. Most of the research in business values deals with individual values. However, to our knowledge, no study has dealt with assessing overall personal values as well as their dimensions in a service context. Our final results show that the scales adapted from the Schwartz list were excluded. A possible explanation is that although Schwartz builds on Rokeach work in order to explore individual values, its dimensions might be especially focused on analyzing societal values. As we are looking for individual dimensions, this might explain why the values inspired by the Schwartz list were excluded from the model. The hierarchical structure of the final scale presented in this paper also presents theoretical implications. Although we cannot claim to definitively capture the dimensions of service personal values, we believe that we come close to capturing these overall evaluations because the second-order factor extracts the underlying commonality among dimensions. In addition to obtaining respondents' evaluations of the dimensions, the second-order factor model captures the common variance among these dimensions, reflecting the respondents' overall assessment of service personal values. Towards this fact, we expect that the service personal values conceptualization and measurement scale presented here contributes to both business values literature and the service marketing field, allowing for the delineation of strategies for adding value to services. This new scale also presents managerial implications. The SERPVAL dimensions give some guidance on how to better pursue a highly service-oriented business strategy. Indeed, the SERPVAL scale can be used for benchmarking purposes, as this scale can be used to identify whether or not a firms' marketing strategies are consistent with consumers' expectations. Managerial assessment of the personal values of a service might be extremely important because it allows managers to better understand what customers want or value. Thus, this scale allows us to identify what services are really valuable to the final consumer; providing knowledge for making choices regarding which services to include. Traditional approaches have focused their attention on service attributes (as quality) and service consequences(as service value), but personal values may be an important set of variables to be considered in understanding what attracts consumers to a certain service. By using the SERPVAL scale to assess the personal values associated with a services usage, managers may better understand the reasons behind services' usage, so that they may handle them more efficiently. While testing nomological validity, our empirical findings demonstrate that the three SERPVAL dimensions are positively and significantly associated with satisfaction. Additionally, while service value to social integration is related only with loyalty, service value to peaceful life is associated with both loyalty and repurchase intent. It is also interesting and surprising that service value to social recognition appears not to be significantly linked with loyalty and repurchase intent. A possible explanation is that no mobile service provider has yet emerged in the market as a luxury provider. All of the Portuguese providers are still trying to capture market share by means of low-end pricing. This research has implications for consumers as well. As more companies seek to build relationships with their customers, consumers are easily able to examine whether these relationships provide real value or not to their own lives. The selection of a strategy for a particular service depends on its customers' personal values. Being highly customer-oriented means having a strong commitment to customers, trying to create customer value and understanding customer needs. Enhancing service distinctiveness in order to provide a peaceful life, increase social recognition and gain a better social integration are all possible strategies that companies may pursue, but the one to pursue depends on the outstanding personal values held by the service customers. Data were gathered from 284 respondents in the korean discount store and online shopping mall market. This research proposed 3 hypotheses on 6 latent variables and tested through structural equation modeling. 6 alternative measurements were compared through statistical significance test of the 6 paths of research model and the overall fitting level of structural equation model. and the result was successful. and Perceived quality more positively influences service personal value when NFC is high than when no NFC is low in the off-line market. The results of the study indicate that service quality is properly modeled as an antecedent of service personal value. We consider the research and managerial implications of the study and its limitations. In sum, by knowing the dimensions a consumer takes into account when choosing a service, a better understanding of purchasing behaviors may be realized, guiding managers toward customers expectations. By defining strategies and actions that address potential problems with the service personal values, managers might ultimately influence their firm's performance. we expect to contribute to both business values and service marketing literatures through the development of the service personal value. At a time when marketing researchers are challenged to provide research with practical implications, it is also believed that this framework may be used by managers to pursue service-oriented business strategies while taking into consideration what customers value.

• Journal of Korea Water Resources Association
• /
• v.55 no.5
• /
• pp.357-370
• /
• 2022

This study aims to analyze the differences in performance according to various operation methods (direct management, public consignment, and private agency) of public sewage treatment facilities and derive the most efficient and high level of sewage treatment services to the public based on the research results. To this end, economic performance indicators (sewage treatment cost, sewerage rate) and social performance indicators (water quality, number of civil complaints) were selected, and cross-sectional analysis and longitudinal analysis were used to verify the difference between the averages of three or more groups through one-way ANOVA. As a result of the analysis, cross-sectional analysis, there was no difference in economic performance dimension according to the operating method, but in terms of social performance dimension, it was found that there was a difference according to the operating method. In the case of water quality indicators, the results were superior to those directly managed by public consignment and private agencies in the number of civil complaints. In the longitudinal analysis examining the improvement of performance indicators, there was no significant difference by operation method in most performance indicators. In order to improve the efficiency of public services and improve the service level, various approaches suitable for the characteristics of each service are required in addition to the logic of public consignment or introduction of private agency. In the future, when local governments promote public consignment or private agency, it is necessary to understand and promote the nature of the service, the specificity of each local government, and the needs of service users.

• Journal of Distribution Science
• /
• v.18 no.8
• /
• pp.113-125
• /
• 2020

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to investigate the effect of interaction between product category (fresh vs. indulgent product) and shopping options (shipping charge and delivery time) on customer satisfaction and purchase intent in an e-commerce context. When ordering groceries online, consumers begin to allocate a larger share of their grocery budget toward product categories that generally contain healthier items at the expense of product categories that generally contain more indulgent products. Moreover, customers are extremely sensitive to shipping options such as shipping charges and delivery time. Therefore, this research investigates the issue at a more segmented level to focus on the impact that one dimension of logistics service quality - product category, shipping charge, and delivery time have on customer satisfaction and purchase intent. Research design, data, and methodology: To test the theoretically derived priori hypotheses concerning product category, shipping charges, delivery time, satisfaction, and purchase intent, this research presented a scenario-based experiment. Eight treatment groups were assigned by the method of product category (fresh produce vs. indulgent product), shipping charge (free vs. paid), and delivery time (one-day vs. two to three days). A total of 240 subjects were divided into groups and exposed to one of the eight scenarios. Participant's purchase intention was the dependent variable, and ANOVA and L-matrix were used to analyze for main and interactive effects between factors. Conclusions: Results indicated that in tests 1 and 2, free shipping and fast delivery time increased consumer satisfaction as well as purchase intent, and fast delivery moderated the impact of free shipping on consumer satisfaction and purchase intent. Test 3 showed that the effect of free shipping on consumer satisfaction and purchase intent moderated by fast delivery for indulgent products. In contrast, fast delivery for fresh products moderated the effect of paid shipping on consumer satisfaction and purchase intent. Consistent with this proposed mechanism, the relative importance of fresh produce versus indulgent products highlights the effect of shipping options on consumer satisfaction and purchase intent when ordering the target product in an e-commerce context. We conclude with a discussion of the theoretical and practical implications of our findings.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Navigation
• /
• v.18 no.2
• /
• pp.91-109
• /
• 1994

Technological and organisational changes in transport system have introduced new dimension into port system development and inter-port competition. The quality of service now required by the customer is costly and not easily provided by small shipping companies and small ports. It has been suggested that in the future container shipping may be concentrated by space-sharing arrangements or actual mergers into the hands of a few mega-operators with the investment potential to provide total logistics networks. In order to compete effectively, high load factors will be essential and port concentration inevitable. A fa-voured few ports will become the load centres and other ports will assume a secondary feeder role. In this study, three questions are raised and attempts are made to answer them : (a) what is the new role of ports today ; (b) why should ports be engaged in this new role ; and (c) how can ports play this new role. In short, a modern port should be a service centre and a logistic platform for international trade and transport-a third generation port. Ports, in particular, have to make every effort to be competitive in the cost and quality of services and to make the port a transport and distribution service centre. For most ports, this is not an option but a must ; an essential requirement for survival in this win or lose situation. The best way to win is to maintain a close contact with port users, listen to them, discuss with them, help them and satisfy them. That is port marketing. Starting from the findings of port marketing, it is es-sential to work out appropriate development plans and marketing targets and to improve port competitive-ness. As an alternative method, a port competitiveness model is suggested, which may help port managers to make appropriate improvements.