Ascertaining the impact of e-service quality on e-loyalty for the e-commerce platform of liner shipping companies

Focusing on the e-commerce platforms provided by major global liner shipping companies (LSCs), this study explores how e-service quality (e-SQ) influences e-loyalty (e-LY) and establish benchmarks for individual customers. We initially employed structural equation modeling to develop a research framework, and then we transformed this framework into a network data envelopment analysis model. Our findings revealed that the e-SQ of LSCs has a significant positive impact on the e-satisfaction (e-SA) and e-LY of their customers. Additionally, we observed that trust plays a significant moderating role in the relationship between e-SA and e-LY. Through benchmark analysis, we found that for small-scale shippers, virtually no slack exists between their benchmark and actual perception. However, the slack increased as the scale of the shipper increased, implying that LSCs have provided an e-SQ that exceeds the expectations of their large-scale customers. Meanwhile, it’s crucial for LSCs to pay attention to specific aspects such as the architecture of e-commerce platforms and privacy protection because the slacks of these e-SQ items are relatively small. Furthermore, the large slacks in e-LY for large-scale shippers imply that their e-LY leaves much room for improvement compared with that of small-scale shippers. Overall, our study underscores the importance of maintaining or elevating e-SQ standards to reinforce e-LY while considering the mediating and moderating effects of e-SA and trust in the context of the e-commerce platforms provided by major LSCs.