The key factors impact on customer loyalty in APL logistics VIETNAM luận văn thạc sĩ

1

Ministry of Education and Training
University of Economics Ho Chi Minh City

Nguyễn Thị Hạnh

THE KEY FACTORS IMPACT ON
CUSTOMER LOYALTY IN APL
LOGISTICS VIETNAM

ECONOMICS MASTER THESIS

Ho Chi Minh city - 2010


2

Ministry of Education and Training
University of Economics Ho Chi Minh City

Nguyễn Thị Hạnh

THE KEY FACTORS IMPACT ON
CUSTOMER LOYALTY IN APL
LOGISTICS VIETNAM

Major: Business Administration
Major Code: 60.34.05

ECONOMICS MASTER THESIS

Supervisor: Dr. Trần Hà Minh Quân
Ho Chi Minh city - 2010


Acknowledgement
I would like to express my heartfelt gratitude and deepest
appreciation to my research Supervisor, Dr. Tran Ha Minh
Quan

for

his

ceaseless

precious

encouragement

guidance,
and

share

highly

of

experience,

valuable

suggestions

throughout the course of my research.
My

special

Faculty

of

gratitude

is

Business

extended

to

Administration

all
and

instructors

at

Postgraduate

Faculty, University of Economics Ho Chi Minh City (UEH) for
their support and the valuable knowledge during my study in
UEH.
Many thanks to all my classmates in MBA class, Batch 16 for
their valuable and enthusiastic support for this research
study.
Last but not least, the deepest and most sincere gratitude
go to my beloved parents, my husband for their boundless
support,

abundant

love

and

encouragement

throughout

my

period of study. I, therefore, dedicate this work as a gift
to them all.
Tp Ho Chi Minh, 2010
Nguyen Thi Hanh

2

Abstract
This study reports on the research results to find out what are the factors
impacts to customer loyalty in APL logistics Vietnam.
A study of 212 respondents from their customer was testing. Multiple linear
regression technique was used to test the hypotheses and research model.
According to the results, there are three factors impact to APLL customer
loyalty including: service quality and proactive improvement and the trust.
They have been confirmed to have positive impacts on customer loyalty in
APLL.
This study will help to APLL board of management can consider their
operation, knowing what factor need to improve to keep their customer in the
competitive market

Key word: APLL, customer loyalty, service quality, proactive improvement


3

TABLE OF CONTENT

Acknowledgement ..................................... ............................................. 1
Abstract............................................ ....................................................... .2
Table of contents........................................ .............................................. 3
List of figures.. ......................................................................................... 5
List of table................................................................................................6
Chapter 1: Introduction

1.1 Introduction.............................. .......................................................... 7
1.2 Research background........................ ................................................10
1.3 Research questions........................................................................... 11
1.4 Research methodology......................................................................13
1.5 Scope and Limitation .................................................... .................. 13
1.6 Implications of research........................ ............................................13
1.7 Structure of the study............................................ ............................14
Chapter 2. Literature Review.................................................. ................16
2.1 Customer loyalty……………… .......………………………….…. 16
2.1.1 Definition ………………………… .......……………….………..16
2.1.2 Effect of customer loyalty ………………………...................….17
2.2 Factors impact on customer loyalty ……………… ..……………...18
2.2.1 Service quality…………………………………… ......………….24
2.2.2 Proactive improvement………………………… ..................……25
2.2.3 The trust…………………………………………………… ...…..27
2.3 Research model .......................……………………………………..30
Chapter 3: Methodology .........................................................................31
3.1 Research process………………………… .......................................32
3.2 Research design………………………………………… ......……..33
3.2.1 Research object………………………………… ..................……33
3.2.2 Research method…………………………… ..........……………..33
3.3 Questionnaire design…………………………………..........……...34
3.3.1 Questionnaire for service quality factors…… ......……………….34
3.3.2 Questionnaire for proactive improvement factor………......…….35
3.3.3 Questionnaire for the trust factor………… ..........……………….36
3.3.4 Questionnaire for customer loyalty factor………… ......………...37


4

3.4 Pretest interview……………………………………….......……….37
3.5 Sample……………………………………………...........…………38
3.6 Survey method …………………………………………… ..……...38
3.7 Data analysis techniques …………… ..................…………………39
3.8 Conclusion …………………………………… ..........…………….39
Chapter 4: Research result ……… ..............………………………….. 40
4.1 Introduction ……………………… ..............………………………40
4.2 Descriptive statistics of sample ……..........………………………..41
4.2.1 Final sample ……………………………… ..........………………41
4.2.2 Characteristics of sample ……………………………… ..............41
4.2.3 Descriptive statistics of variable ………………… ......………….42
4.3 The construct measurement scale … .......………………………….44
4.3.1 Reliability testing ………………………………… ......…………46
4.3.2 Exploratory factor analysis for factor impact to customer loyalty.48
4.3.3 Verify research model …………………………………............. 51
4.3.4 Linear regression analysis …………………………...............…..51
4.3.5 Testing the hypothesis ………………...........……………………54
Chapter 5: Conclusion................……………………………………….56
5.1 Summary ………………… ......……………………………………56
5.2 Conclusion from the research ……………………… ..……………57
5.3 Discussion of the research findings ........…………………………..58
5.4 Managerial implications …………………………...............………61
5.5 Recommendations for further research … ...........………………….62
List of References ……………………………… ..................…………63
APPENDIX 1: Questionnaire ………………………………… ............67
APPENDIX 2: SPSS result.. …………………………………..............70


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LIST OF FIGURES
Figure 1.1 Logistics process ……………………...……………………..9
Figure 2.1: Factors impact on customer loyalty …...…………………..24
Figure 3.1: Research process …………… .......………………………..32
Figure 4.1: The structure of chapter 4 ………...........………………….40
Figure 4.2 Main business between customer & APLL ......……………41
Figure 4.3: Kind of APLL customer ……… ..............…………………42
Figure 4.4: Confirm model of research ……..........……………………52


6

LIST OF TABLES
Table 2.1: Determinants of customer loyalty in empirical research ......20
Table-3.1. Adaptation of “service quality” ………….… ..........……….35
Table 3.2: Adaption of proactive improvement …… .......……………. 36
Table 3.3: Adaption of the trust ………… ...............…………………..37
Table 3.4: Adaption of customer loyalty

..…………………… 37

Table 4.1: Descriptive statistics …… ...........…………………………..43
Table 4.2: Reliability statistics ….......…………………………………47
Table 4.3: Exploration factors analysis.............………………………..50
Table 4.4: Dimension of customer loyalty........................……………..51
Table 4.5: Linear regression analysis.........…………………………… 52
Table 4.5: Coefficients analys………………....................................….52


7

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION
1. Introduction:
Customer loyalty is widely accepted by market as being something that's
worth nurturing, with many previous analysts and researchers are showing the
value of loyalty programmers in terms of greater spending and satisfaction,
more profitable customer behavior, reduced defection levels, and unique
competitive advantages. But what are the main business factors that directly
influence the loyalty of your customers?
Investigation therefore about the factors that in influent to customer loyalty
gained importance then classic marketing paradigm with its instrumental and
transactional oriental proved unsuitable in the context of longer term business
relationship.
Just like other business, logistics service provider are faced with increasing
competitive pressure that urges them to concentrate is not only on operational
business processes but also on an efficient and effective customer
management.
In Vietnam, the 3PL industry gained 15-20% GDP, GDP Vietnam in 2006 is
about US 57 billion and logistics revenue is US 8 – 11 billion. It can be shown
that there is a big revenue in logistics industry that our business should
concentrate it. Therefore logistics is a major role in our industry & there are
many foreign companies access to our countries to develop this field such as:
DAMCO, NYK logistics, APL logistics …


8

APL Logistics is established from NOL group. NOL began life in 1968 as
Singapore's national shipping line, wholly owned by the Singapore
government, just as it was becoming clear that containerization was the way of

the future.
In 1997 NOL bought America's oldest shipping company, American President
Lines (APL).
APL was nearly twice the size of NOL and was over of 150 years old. Now
fully integrated, the NOL Group has more than 10,000 staff globally and
operates two core businesses: APL, a global top-10 container transportation
company and APL Logistics, which provides international end-to-end logistics
services in more than 130 cities and 56 countries.
APL and APL Logistics serve the international transportation and logistics
needs of a diverse customer base, ranging from multinationals with highly
complex supply chains to small and medium-sized importers and exporters.
APL Logistics designs and operates global supply chains that deliver products
to everywhere you need them. Our innovative end-to-end solutions use data
connectivity for greater visibility and control. APL Logistics provides the
resources necessary to support your supply chain. Services include shipment
consolidation and deconsolidation, global freight forwarding and customs
management, regional warehousing and distribution networks and IT solutions
that increase supply chain performance and reduce costs.
APL Logistics' predecessor companies pioneered trade in China and
throughout Asia more than a century and a half ago and today we are
recognized as a leading innovator in worldwide logistics and technology
management. With more than 300 offices serving over 55 countries, our 4,500
seasoned logistics professionals offer local expertise throughout a truly global


9

network. As an independent unit, APL Logistics' revenues have grown to
nearly $1.3 billion (USD). As a wholly owned subsidiary of the $8.2 billion
NOL Group, APL Logistics offers strength and experience you can rely on.

Major customer: Nike, Gap, Deichman, Charming Shoppes, Restoration
Hardware, Warner Brother, 3M, Birds-Eye, Bobcat, Colgate-Palmolive, Dell
Computer, General Motors, Newell Rubbermaid, Nike, Procter & Gamble,
Hornbach, …
Customer vendors: Li & Fung, Hungfung, Wellsum, Smart Elegant, …

Figure 1.1 : Logistics process
In Vietnam, APL logistics officially established in 1995 with 100 per cent
foreign owned enterprise although NOL group has already entered to Vietnam
market since 1992. The offices of APL logistics are located in the key markets
like Hai Phong, Hanoi, Da Nang and Ho Chi Minh City. Until now, the
company has 13 years of local business experiences and holds 74 full time
employees with average of 3 years experience and 70 per cent employees who
are under the age of 30.


10

APLL group investments in Vietnam also include Vietnam International
Container Terminals (VICT), the first dedicated container port in Ho Chi Minh
City.
2. Research background
Since the beginning of the 1990s, customer loyalty has gained importance both
relationship marketing research and in business. In business, this can be
attributed to changing the market and competition-environments (Prit-chard,
Havitz, and Howard 1999, p333). Due to a shift from a seller to a buyer market
and because of an increasing degree to globalization, most industries find
themselves confronted with new challenges. In a first phase, firms tried to face
these challenges by focusing on their internal processes and organizational
structures, trying to achieve cost reductions by concentrating on internal

improvements. A second phase external focus follows, where firms directed
attention to their customers, trying to retain existing ones and to win over new
ones (churning). Since “acquiring new customers is much more expensive than
keeping them” (Stone, Woodcock, and Wilson, 1996), loyalty customer is the
bedrock of any business” (Caruana 2000, p.811). According to Fornell (1992,
p.7) and Fourier and Yao (1997, p.251) market shares have to be secured by
retaining customers in markets facing low growth-rates and high competition.
To Aaker (1996, p.106), “a loyalty customer base represents a barrier to entry,
a basis for a price premium time to respond to competitor innovation, and
bulwark against deleterious price competition.” Baldinger and Rubinson
(1997, p.14) show that “loyalty is critical to brand volume, is highly correlated
to market share; consequently, understanding loyalty appears critical to any
meaningful analysis of marketing strategy.”


11

3. Research question.
This present study is making to find out the factors that influence to customer
loyalty in the APLL Vietnam, and that will help APLL have a overview about
their customer evaluation & expectation as well as put forward strategy to
improve their service & keeping their customer in the competitive
environment as well as crisis economic at the moment.
Therefore, this study intends to address two issues:
Q1: What are the factors impacts on customer loyalty in APLL.
Q2: Which factor is main impact to customer loyalty at APLL

3.1 Hypothesis
Until now, there are many researchers have investigated about the factors
impact to customer loyalty. According to Peter Clark, co-editor of The Wise

Marketer and co-author of The Loyalty Guide report series, there are six major
factors that play key roles in influencing the loyalty and commitment of
customers. There are core offering, satisfaction, and elasticity level, share of
wallet, the market place and demographics. Besides, Fassnacht and Daus 2004,
p.5-7 have structured in three dimensions: firstly, company-related
determinants refer to the supplier itself or to the goods or services offered. It is
a prerequisite for the existence of customer loyalty that the offered goods or
services create utility for the customer and that they are available. In this
respect, an assessment is usually performed by examining quality. In order to
evaluate the price-performance ratio, customers will pay attention to prices.
Customer loyalty will also be influenced by the reputation a company has and


12

ultimately by customer loyalty programs offered. Secondly, relationshiprelated determinants play a significant role in long-term relationships. Factors
regarding the interaction between supplier and customer, such as relationship
quality, previous experiences, and trust are important. Commitment, which
provides evidence of emotional closeness and moral or normative feelings of
obligation, takes a central role in relationships. Specificity and dependence can
lead to economic, psychological and social switching barriers. Thirdly,
customer-related

determinants

are

mainly

influenced

by

customers’

characteristics. In this respect, affect and involvement, and consequently also
the importance of the good or service to the customer, are important. In
addition, the effects of the market environment and competition are
researched, as is the link between satisfaction and loyalty, which plays an
important role in the research of customer loyalty and is often placed in one of
the three dimensions. However, as most other determinants influence
satisfaction, it cannot be clearly separated and should therefore be listed as a
distinct category.
Base on above analyst the importance of customer loyalty & the necessary
finding the main factors, we suppose below hypothesis to service this present
study:
H1. Service quality has a direct positive effect on customer loyalty in
APLL
H2. Proactive improvement has a direct positive on customer loyalty in
APLL
H3: Trust has a direct positive on customer loyalty in APLL


13

As above hypotheses, we will implement to research whether those factors are
importance roles to impact on customer loyalty & what is the most importance
factors to APLL to help APLL board of manager have correct strategy to keep
their customers.

4. Research methodology
This research is implementing through two steps: preliminary research &
official research. Preliminary research is making by interview to 10 customers.
This research will help to complete the research method & edit the suitable
questionnaire. Especially, official research by using questionnaire survey to
interview clients for collect necessary data’s. The collected data is processed
& draw the result by SPSS tool.

5. Scope and limitation
Due to limit time & capacity, this research is only focus on the main internal
factors impact to customer loyalty and has not yet come to external factors
impact to the customer loyalty such as the situation of economic, human
resource, … Besides, there has not yet compared with other competitors to
know clearly about competitors. Therefore, the further research in external
factors & competitors will be carrying out when necessary.

6. Implication of this research:
As outlined in the preceding sections, logistics industry is confronting with
diverse management challenges that result from continuous growth


14

globalization and customer diversity. The aim of the present study therefore is
to determinants the factors influent to the customer loyalty.
Firstly, this present study also helps board of manager in APLL knowing the
main factors that influence to their customers loyalty, have an overview about
their customer evaluation about their service quality. Then they will have
strategy in marketing & their operation to keep & develop the customer
loyalty.

Secondly, the present study is positioned at the interface of marketing and
logistics and is intended to contribute not only to logistics research but also to
research in marketing, customer loyalty & cultural studies.

7. Structure:
This research is structured into 5 chapters.
Chapter 1: Introduction introduces the research including research
background, research questions, hypotheses, a brief research methodology
overview, implications and limitations of research.
Chapter 2: Literature Review provides a literature review of service quality,
proactive improvement, trust.
Chapter 3: Methodology discusses methodology utilized in the research,
details the research methodology design, research procedures and justification
of the data analysis. Chapter 3 also supplies details of questionnaire and the
development of the survey.
Chapter 4: Research Results describes sampling and processing data, presents
analyzing the data collected and the findings of the research.


15

Chapter 5: Conclusion and Implication points out conclusion and implication
from the findings of this research project, based on the research questions and
hypotheses. This chapter also discusses the implications, contributions and
limitations of the research in the world of business administration. In addition,
the recommendations for further research are provided.


16

CHAPTER TWO: LITERATURE REVIEW
In this section, determinants of customer loyalty, as proposed in chapters one
will be conceptualized. These are service quality, ‘proactive improvement,
trust. Below information gives an overview of the determinants discussed in
this chapter.

2.1 Customer loyalty
2.1.1 Definition
As Balding and Rubinson (1997): Customer loyalty is the feelings or attitudes
that would incline a customer to consider the re-purchase of a particular
product, service or brand.
Since the beginning of the 1990s, customer loyalty has gained importance both
in relationship marketing research and in business. In business, this can be
attributed to changing market- and competition-environments (Pritchard,
Havitz, and Howard 1999, p. 333). Due to a shift from a sellers’ to a buyers’
market and because of an increasing degree of globalization, most industries
find themselves confronted with new challenges. In a first phase, firms tried to
face these challenges by focusing on their internal processes and
organizational structures, trying to achieve cost reductions by concentrating on
internal improvements. A second phase of external focus followed, where
firms directed attention to their customers, trying to retain existing ones and to
win over new ones (churning). Baldinger and Rubinson (1997, p. 41) show
that “loyalty is critical to brand volume, is highly correlated to market share,
and can be used as the basis of predicting future market share; consequently,


17

understanding loyalty appears critical to any meaningful analysis of marketing
strategy”.

As a result of the focus on relationships in marketing research, customer
loyalty gained importance within research. The next section will be shown
what the affection of customer loyalty to our business.
2.1.2. Effects of customer loyalty
As per Reichheld, Markey and Hopton (2000, p.135) state the following three
effects that customer loyalty induces:
a. “Revenues and market share grow as the best customers are
swept into the company‘s book of business, building repeat sales
and referrals”.
b. Costs shrink as the expense of acquiring and serving new
customer and replacing old one decline.
c. Employee retention increases because job pride and job
satisfaction increase, in turn creating a loop that reinforces
customer retention through familiarity and better service to the
customer.

Increased

productivity

results

from

increasing

employee tenure.
And we can see that customer loyalty has effects both on costs and on
revenues, any company has to gear its effort towards the acquisition of new
customers and retention of existing ones. However, companies have to bear in

mind that customer loyalty also leads to cost arising from measures aimed at
increasing customer loyalty, but also product improvement that increase
service quality and eventually customer loyalty (Reinartz, Thomas and Kumar


18

2005). Therefore, customer loyalty can only be assumed to have a positive
impact on success, if its utility is in proportion to its cost (Wallenburg 2004,
p.27)
So, all of manager in all companies in Vietnam should be identify the main
factors that influent to their customer in our competitive economic. They have
development strategy to cut the cost & increase their revenue.

2.2. Factors impact on customer loyalty
In order to be able to gear marketing activities towards the creation of
customer loyalty, its determinants and their precise effects have to be known.
Accordingly, many researchers have investigated this topic. In order to gain an
overview of the determinants identified in these works, they can be structured
in three dimensions (Fassnacht and Daus 2004, p. 5-7):
(1) Company-related determinants refer to the supplier itself or to the goods or
services offered. It is a prerequisite for the existence of customer loyalty that
the offered goods or services create utility for the customer and that they are
available. In this respect, an assessment is usually performed by examining
quality. In order to evaluate the price-performance ratio, customers will pay
attention to prices. Customer loyalty will also be influenced by the reputation a
company has and ultimately by customer loyalty programs offered.
(2) Relationship-related determinants play a significant role in long term
relationships. Factors regarding the interaction between supplier and customer,
such as relationship quality, previous experiences, and trust are important.

Commitment, which provides evidence of emotional closeness and moral or
normative feelings of obligation, takes a central role in relationships.


19

(3) Customer-related determinants are mainly influenced by customers’
characteristics. In this respect, affect and involvement, and consequently also
the importance of the good or service to the customer, are important.
In addition, determinations impact to customer loyalty have been research in
many empirical researches & listed as below:


Bitner (1990)

X
X

X

X

X

Fornell (1992)

X

X

Anderson and Sullivan (1993)

X

X

x

X

X

X

X

Boulding et al. (1993)

X

x

X

Ping (1993)

X

Rust and Zahorik (1993)

X

X

Selnes (1993)

X

x

Ganesan (1994)
x

Bloemer and Kasper (1995)
Keaveney (1995)

X

X
X

X
X

X

X

Zeithaml, Berry, and Parasuraman
Macintosh and Lockshin (1997)

X

X

Fornell et al. (1996)
Hallowell (1996)

X
X

Taylor and Baker (1994)

X
x

x

x
x

X
x

X

X

x

X

X

Oliver, Rust, and Varki (1997)

X
X

X

Sharp and Sharp (1997)
Bolton (1998)

Proactive improvement

X

Bloemer and Lemmink (1992)

Biong (1993)

Attractiveness of Competitios’ Offers/Incentives to Change

X

Sriram and Mummalaneni (1990)
Cronin Jr. and Taylor (1992)

Utility from Consumption/Business Relationship

Expectations

Pattern of Customers’ Behavior

Importance of the Product for the Customer

Involvement

Affect

Sociodemographic Customer Attributes

Psychological and Social Barriers to Switching

Economic Switching Barriers

Commitment

Trust

Own Experiences and Recommendations from Others

Intensity and Quality of Business Relationship

Customer Loyalty Programs

Image and Reputation

Product Line, Availability, Accessibility

Product and Service Quality

20

X
X

x

X

x

Table 2.1: Determinants of customer loyalty in empirical research

x

x

x

x


de Ruyter, Wetzels, and Bloemer

X
x

Bloemer, de Ruyter, and Wetzels

X

X

x

X

X

X

x

X

X

de Ruyter and Bloemer (1999)

X

Garbarino and Johnson (1999)

X

Mittal, Kumar, and Tsiros (1999)
Pritchard, Havitz, and Howard

(1999)
Reynolds and Beatty (1999)
Bolton, Kannan, and Bramlett
(2000)
Gronholdt, Martensen, and
Kristensen

x
X

X

X

x
X

X

X

X

X

x

X

X

Chaudhuri and Holbrook (2001)
De Wulf, OdekerkenSchröder(2001)
Mittal and Kamakura (2001)

Proactive improvement

Attractiveness of Competitios’ Offers/Incentives to Change

Utility from Consumption/Business Relationship

Expectations

Pattern of Customers’ Behavior

Importance of the Product for the Customer

Involvement

Affect

Sociodemographic Customer Attributes

Psychological and Social Barriers to Switching

Economic Switching Barriers

Commitment

X

Mittal, Ross, and Baldasare (1998)
Bloemer and de Ruyter (1999)

Trust

Own Experiences and Recommendations from Others

Intensity and Quality of Business Relationship

Customer Loyalty Programs

Image and Reputation

Product Line, Availability, Accessibility

Product and Service Quality

21

x

X

X

X
x

X

X

X

X

X

X

X

Too, Souchon, and Thirkell (2001)
Olsen (2002)
Roehm, Pullins, and Roehm Jr.
(2002)
Sirdeshmukh, Singh, and Sabol
(2002)

X

x

X

X
X

X

Hellier et al. (2003)
Homburg, Giering, and Menon
(2003)
Ranaweera and Prabhu (2003)

X

X

X

x

x

x
x

x

X

Table 2.1: Determinants of customer loyalty in empirical research (cont)

X
X

X

Shankar, Smith, and Rangaswamy

X

x

Proactive improvement

Attractiveness of Competitios’ Offers/Incentives to Change

Utility from Consumption/Business Relationship

Expectations

Pattern of Customers’ Behavior

Importance of the Product for the Customer

Involvement

Affect

Sociodemographic Customer Attributes

Psychological and Social Barriers to Switching

Economic Switching Barriers

Commitment

Trust

Own Experiences and Recommendations from Others

Intensity and Quality of Business Relationship

Customer Loyalty Programs

Image and Reputation

Product Line, Availability, Accessibility

Product and Service Quality

22

X

Verhoef (2003)
Yen and Gwinner (2003)

X

X

Yi and Jeon (2003)
Bansal, Irving, and Taylor (2004)
Beerli, Martín, and Quintana
(2004)

X

X

X

X

X

X

X

X

X

x

X

X

Guenzi and Pelloni (2004)
Verhoef (2003)
Harris and Goode (2004)

X

X

x

X

X

x

X

X
X

Hennig-Thurau (2004)

X

Lam et al. (2004)

X

Lewis (2004)
Ngobo (2004)

X
X

X
X

X

Venetis and Ghauri (2004)
Wallace, Giese, and Johnson
(2004)
Agustin and Singh (2005)
Algesheimer, Dholakia, and
Herrmann

X

X

x

X

x

X

X

X

Bell, Auh, and Smalley (2005)
Borle et al. (2005)

X

X

X
X

x

X
X

x

Fullerton (2005)
Gustafsson, Johnson, and Roos

X
X

X

X

Homburg and Fürst (2005)

X

Jiang and Rosenbloom (2005)

Lin and Ding (2005)

X

X
x

X

X

X

Table 2.1: Determinants of customer loyalty in empirical research (cont)
***Adapted from Fassnacht and Dauer 2004, pp. 8-9 and extended for 2004-2005. ***

X

X
X


23

The above presented deliberations show that there is a multitude of potentially
relevant factors determining customer loyalty. Table 2-1 therefore provides an
overview of empirical studies concerned with the analysis of customer loyalty
determinants, which is based on a meta-analysis conducted by Fassnacht and
Daus (2004). Determinants that were research by a considerable amount of
studies which has shown that there are mainly factors impact on customer such

as product & service quality, trust and proactive improvement.
Especially, in the research of David L. Cahill based on Wallenburg research
with topic “Customer loyalty in third party logistics relationship”, he has
found out that there are two factors display the strongest effect on customer
loyalty. They are service quality & proactive improvement.
Besides, APLL is the service company and if they want to keep their customer,
they have to build the trust into their customer. The trust is also play
importance role in logistics business, so this study will be added one more
factor, the trust to check it effect to APLL customer loyalty.
Therefore, this study will base on that to use those factors to check these
effects on customer loyalty in APLL.
So this study is created to check if below factors impact on customer loyalty at
APL Logistics in Vietnam & what does the factor play best importance to
them.