Deniz yolu lojistiği sektöründe ilişkisel pazarlama stratejilerinin ampirik bir analizi

Container shipping lines must build long-term, mutually beneficial business relationships with their profitable customers to survive in an ever-changing and highly competitive environment of the maritime logistics industry. Long-term close relationships enable container shipping lines to gain a competitive advantage in the industry, as well as increase their logistics performance by positively affecting supply chain integration. One of the best tools for building such a relationship is to create a special relationship marketing program for profitable customers. However, it is unclear which relationship marketing strategies will be included in this program and whether these strategies have an impact on customer loyalty and collaboration. This research investigates the dimensions of relationship marketing strategies, relationship quality and relationship marketing outcomes (i.e. customer loyalty and collaboration) in the maritime logistics industry and explores the impact of relationship marketing strategies on customer loyalty and collaboration. Additionally, this research examines the role of relationship quality in mediating the relationship between relationship marketing strategies, and customer loyalty and collaboration. This research employs both a qualitative and quantitative methods. The theoretical model is built based on through literature reviews of relationship marketing literature and service industry studies. The proposed research model is empirically tested with survey data using 208 responses from freight forwarders operate in Turkish maritime logistics industry by using structural equation modelling (SEM). The proposed model is statistically consistent, reliable, and valid, according to empirical results. As the result of the SEM analysis, it is found that the customer loyalty strategies and internal capability strategies performed by the container ship lines significantly affect the loyalty and collaboration of freight forwarders through the relationship quality.