Building social capital in cruise travel via social network sites

YesThe purpose of this study is to investigate what type of Facebook posts help cruise lines build bridging and bonding social capital. The study applies the Chi-Square Automatic Interaction Detection (CHAID) method to identify which types of posts establish bridging and bonding social capital. The analysis is conducted on an international cruise line’s official Facebook posts posted between 1 January 2018 and 1 January 2020 before the Covid-19 pandemic. The results highlight that media type, embedding passenger motivation, and a ship image help establish both bridging and bonding social capital, while content type helps establish bridging social capital. The paper is original because it helps understand how cruise lines can improve bonding and bridging social capital via social media. The paper also enhances understanding of social capital theory in the travel industry by investigating the relationship between Facebook post types and social capital in cruise shipping

Digitalization in Container Shipping Services:Critical Resources for Competitive Advantage

The container shipping market has been transforming into a digital era, in which many operations and marketing facilities are being digitalized. Digitalization offers several benefits to container lines, such as performance improvement, efficiency, and better integration with suppliers and customers' effectiveness. The importance of digitalization is particularly appreciated during the Coronavirus disease-2019 disruption. However, a successful digitalization process requires several resources and capabilities that carriers and forwarders should exploit. It is still not clear what these resources are and which of them is more important. Accordingly, this study aims to identify and rank the critical resources necessary for a successful digital transformation of services to achieve a competitive advantage. Identification of the resources was done using the underpinning theory of resource-based view (RBV) of the firm and conducting interviews. This study then implements an analytical hierarchical process method to rank the relevant digitalization resources. The results indicate that the organizational and collaboration resources are the most important main resources, while the organizational culture for learning and innovativeness, integration of digital services, and collaboration with suppliers are the most important sub-resources. This study aims to contribute to the digitalization literature in the shipping industry by identifying and ranking critical resources within the perspective of RBV of the firm

Social Media Engagement of Stakeholders:A Decision Tree Approach in Container Shipping

Social media provides a significant avenue for stakeholder engagement which is crucial to ensure loyalty and satisfaction of stakeholders who possess valuable resources that can influence the business outcomes. Container lines - imperative members of global supply chains and facilitators of international trade - utilize social media to engage their stakeholders due to environmental and commercial complexity of their business. However, not all social media posts generate the same amount of stakeholder engagement. This study aims to identify and examine the social media post characteristics that lead to higher stakeholder engagement in the container shipping market. The study applies Chi-Squared Automatic Interaction Detection method to categorize social media posts based on their engagement levels. The analysis is conducted on the tweets of four global container lines which are posted between 1 September 2018 and 31 January 2019. The results demonstrate that social media posts of container lines have varying effects on engagement level. We found that fluency of tweets, tangibility of company resources in the tweet, vividness level, content type, existence of a link, and existence of a call-to-action significantly influence the container lines' stakeholder engagement rate. This study is the first that finds out social media post classes based on the interaction between their characteristics and engagement rates by employing a decision tree methodology. The results are expected to help container lines in their social media management and stakeholder engagement policies. (C) 2019 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved

Benefit segmentation of the container shipping market in Turkey

Marketing policies have gained more importance in container shipping as the industry experiences challenges arising from commoditization. Market segmentation is fundamental to marketing policies, yet it needs a detailed analysis in container shipping. Accordingly, this paper aims to explore homogenous customer groups in container shipping by conducting a segmentation analysis, which can help container lines apply more efficient marketing policies. A survey study is conducted on 356 shippers in Turkey. The study develops five reliable and valid selection criteria factors and applies cluster analysis based on the selection criteria factors. The cluster analysis produces a total of six benefit segments which are differentiable. The segments are significantly identified by the demographic characteristics of shippers. The paper suggests several implications for the marketing policies of container lines

Market segmentation in container shipping services: a qualitative study

Purpose - Container shipping is a standardized business-to-business service market where carriers need to stay customer focused to survive. Market segmentation is an ideal solution to develop customized marketing programs for each segment, but container lines need personalized marketing programs for each customer. Hence, the purpose of this study is to develop a segmentation framework that can help container lines to profile each customer more efficiently considering their needs, strategic importance and demographics

Relational bonding strategies, customer satisfaction, and loyalty in the container shipping market

Purpose In recent years, the business of container lines has faced severe challenges such as overcapacity and low profitability. To survive in such a competitive market, container lines need to maintain long-term customer relationships by enhancing the satisfaction and loyalty of customers. The purpose of this paper is to adopt a social exchange theory (SET) approach and investigate the impact of relational bonding strategies on the satisfaction and loyalty of customers in container shipping. Design/methodology/approach Drawing on SET, a theoretical model that specifies the relationships between relational bonding strategies, customer satisfaction and loyalty was proposed. Survey data were collected from 175 freight forwarders. The obtained data were analyzed using structural equation modelling. Findings The results indicate that financial bonding strategies have the most significant direct effects on customer satisfaction, while social bonding strategies have the strongest direct impact on customer loyalty. Financial bonding strategies, on the other hand, have the strongest total effects on customer loyalty. Intermodal and basic operations are found to have the equal total effects on customer loyalty. Research limitations/implications - By identifying the most effective relational bonding strategies for enhancing customer satisfaction and loyalty, this study's findings allow container lines to better allocate their resources and implement effective relational marketing policies to satisfy and retain their customers. Originality/value This research analyses and validates the determinants of customer satisfaction and loyalty from a relational lens and empirically contributes to the field of relational marketing in the container shipping industry

An evaluation of competition and selection criteria between dry bulk terminals in Izmir

Port competition and selection studies have mostly focused on container shipping, and the competition among dry bulk terminals has been ignored in the literature. Thus, the purpose of this study is to explore terminal competition and selection criteria in the dry bulk market with a case study applied in Izmir, Turkey. A mixed methodology approach that combines qualitative and quantitative data is employed. The paper reveals seven main criteria for dry bulk terminal selection. One of them, the physical and technical capability of the terminal, is found to be a pre-condition that cannot be traded off. The importance weights of the other six selection criteria are ascertained using the fuzzy analytic hierarchy process (AHP) analysis. Cargo handling costs are the most important criterion, while the other criteria in rank order are damage/loss performance, location, handling speed, responsiveness, and storage facilities. The results indicate that dry bulk shippers have different rankings of selection criteria, thus suggesting that shippers' expectations are heterogeneous. Although dry bulk terminal selection criteria are similar to those in container shipping, the content is quite different. Another interesting result is that shippers in the dry bulk market are concerned with some similar issues as carriers in container shipping when selecting a port