A STUDY ON THE EVALUATION OF PORT SERVICE QUALITY = THE CASE OF EAST ASIAN PORTS

다국어 초록 (Multilingual Abstract)

In the light of fierce competition among container ports, service quality is recognised as a main factor influencing the competitive position and selection of ports. The primary objective of this study is twofold: to develop a measurement of port service quality and port service systems, and to evaluate the overall service levels of competitive container ports in Korea and China. The current study employs a series of focus group interviews to test contents validity of port service attributes and an exploratory factor analysis (EFA) to identify the major port service factors. In addition, this study adopts the analytic hierarchical process (AHP) to explore the relative importance among the service quality factors and service systems in container ports. Finally, the concept of “house of quality” is adopted to evaluate the overall port service level as well as the port service levels for each port service system. The Chinese ports represent a higher service level than the Korean ports due to their higher scores in reliability and cost advantage evaluated as most critical factors in port service quality.
The present empirical research implies that higher performance and competitiveness in container industry should be supported by superior differentiated service quality and activities. The current empirical study is a meaningful experiment integrating port service quality factors and port service systems and, consequently, can present more detailed and reliable information about the strengths and weaknesses of each port and provide some guidance to improve their service competitiveness.

목차 (Table of Contents)

• Abstract
• 1. INTRODUCTION
• 2. LITERATURE REVIEW
• 3. RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
• 4. EMPIRICAL ANALYSIS AND RESULTS
• 5. CONCLUSION AND IMPLICATIONS
• REFERENCES