The impact of logistics service quality (LSQ), relationship marketing (RM) and
relationship power (RP) on customer satisfaction in the Jordanian third party
logistics (3PL) industry from customers’ perspective.
Logistics Service Quality (LSQ), Relationship Power (RP) and Relationship Marketing (RM)
are regarded as the most important criteria leading to customer satisfaction in the third-Party
Logistics (3PL) industry. This research investigates the impact of trust and commitment as the
major relationship marketing constructs used to examine the quality of relationship between
the 3PL provider and the 3PL customer, namely business-to-business context. Also, the study
explores the effect of coercive power and reward power as the major dimensions of relationship
power on customer satisfaction. In addition, the study investigates the effect of ordering
procedures and personnel contact quality as the main variables of logistics service quality on
customer satisfaction. The objectives of this study are to investigate the effects of personnel
contact quality, ordering procedures, trust, commitment, coercive power and reward power on
customer satisfaction in the third-party logistics industry in Jordan.
A quantitative approach has been conducted in this study, using questionnaires to collect data
from 243 third-party logistics customers in Jordan. The findings of the research indicate that
there is a positive relationship between relationship marketing (trust, commitment) and
customer satisfaction in the Jordanian third-party logistics industry. The same goes for logistics
service quality (personnel contact quality, ordering procedures). For the relationship power,
the results demonstrate that reward power has a positive impact on customer satisfaction,
whereas there is a negative relationship between coercive power and customer satisfaction. The
dimensions of relationship marketing (trust and commitment) have the strongest impact on
customer satisfaction in the third-party logistics market in Jordan and it is followed by reward
power. The study contributes to knowledge as it is the first study that explores the effect of
relationship power on customer satisfaction in the third-party logistics industry. The
managerial implications resulting from this study are beneficial to practitioners willing to work
in the third-party logistics in Jordan or those working currently in this industry in Jordan