Quality risk assessment model for airline services concerning Taiwanese airlines

Whereas most studies have focused on elevating the service quality of airlines, few have explored quality risks from the viewpoint of customer dissatisfaction caused by poor service. For this study, we designed a quality risk assessment model that measures quality risk for airline services by integrating the Kano model, degrees of importance and satisfaction, and the failure mode and effects analysis. Data were collected for Taiwanese airlines through a questionnaire. The application of the proposed quality risk assessment model revealed several high-risk services, such as employee service attitudes, the ability of employees to manage customer complaints, the comfort of airplane seats, in-flight snack services, and flight punctuality. Finally, this study presents a discussion on the managerial implications and recommends directions for future research.     

Airline services marketing by domestic and foreign firms: differences from the customers’ viewpoint

Based on a survey of 1014 passengers of five European airlines, this paper reveals differences between passengers on the Turkish domestic airline and those on four foreign airlines on the same flight destinations with respect to demographic profiles, behavioral characteristics, understanding of airline service dimensions, and satisfaction levels. Differences between the two passenger groups are highlighted in terms of age, sex, education, occupation, sector affiliation, location of domicile, travel purpose, travel frequency, service expectations, and satisfaction levels. It is concluded that the differences in consumer profiles and expectations are valuable clues for domestic and foreign airline firms in understanding their consumers and in designing their marketing strategies.     

Determinants of port centrality in maritime container transportation

This paper adapts Freeman’s measures of degree, closeness and betweenness centrality and applies them to assessing: port centrality in relation to direct connectivity; accessibility to all ports in the network (direct and indirect routes) and; as an intermediary between other ports. An additional parameter added to the formulae ensures that the relative importance of available shipping capacity and foreland market coverage are also accounted for. Validation of this adapted measure is provided by the results obtained from an empirical application. These reveal that foreland market coverage exerts a particularly strong influence on a port’s demand and closeness centrality.     

Vertical integration and exclusivities in maritime freight transport

A key recent theme in maritime freight transport is the involvement of shipping lines in terminal management. Such investments are costly but allow liners to provide better service. Most of these new terminals are dedicated terminals but some are non-exclusive and let rivals access them for a fee. In this paper, we show that a shipping line that builds its own terminal finds it strategically profitable (i) to continue routing part of its cargo through the open port facilities, and (ii) to keep its terminal non-exclusive. In this way, the liner investor pushes part of the rival’s freight from the open to the new terminal. Besides, under non-exclusivities, the shipping lines offer a wider variety of services, total freight increases and the resulting equilibrium fares are higher than with a dedicated terminal.     

Competition and horizontal integration in maritime freight transport

This paper models competition for freight transport between the road and maritime sectors. Operators offer differentiated services and there are economies of scale in the oligopolistic shipping line sector. Two types of integration between shipping lines are considered: in one of them the liners production processes remain separate (like in an alliance); in another economies of scale are further exploited. Typically maritime freight post-merger goes down. However, it may increase if the merger exploits further economies of scale, they are important and transport services are sufficiently differentiated. An empirical application to the routes Valencia–Antwerp and Valencia–Genoa is undertaken to confirm the predictions of the model. It is shown that, for both types of merger, user surplus increases when transport services are weakly differentiated and economies of scale are sufficiently small. These conditions also guarantee that a merger is socially beneficial.     

A method for estimating world maritime employment

Compared with technical research on ships, there is lack of systematic data and research on maritime labour, their number, education and manning efficiency. Due to the high mobility of the profession and complication of jurisdictions, there is no exact figure of the number of seamen worldwide. This paper establishes a method to estimate maritime labour worldwide as well as on open-registry fleets.     

Marketing practice in small tourism and hospitality firms

There has been a paucity of research into the marketing practices and approaches of small tourism and hospitality firms, until the 1990s. This paper goes some way towards improving knowledge in this area by reporting the findings of the first national survey of small tourism and hospitality firms in the UK. Four key areas of marketing practice are highlighted: marketing planning, promotion methods, pricing methods and marketing research. The paper concludes that although a great deal of small hospitality and tourism firm marketing may be characterised as haphazard and unsophisticated, there is much to commend it in the UK. Copyright © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The waves of containerization: shifts in global maritime transportation

This paper provides evidence of the cyclic behavior of containerization through an analysis of the phases of a Kondratieff wave (K-wave) of global container ports development. The container, like any technical innovation, has a functional (within transport chains) and geographical diffusion potential where a phase of maturity is eventually reached. Evidence from the global container port system suggests five main successive waves of containerization with a shift of the momentum from advanced economies to developing economies, but also within specific regions. These waves are illustrative of major macroeconomic, technological and sometimes political shifts within the global economy. They do not explain the causes, but simply the consequences in the distribution in container traffic and growth (or decline). Yet, they provide strong evidence that containerization has a cyclic behavior and that inflection points are eventually reached, marking the end of the diffusion of containerization in a specific port or port range. Future expectations about the growth of containerization thus need to be assessed within an economic cycle perspective instead of the rather linear perspectives.     

Container yard template planning under uncertain maritime market

A yard template determines the assignment of spaces in a yard for arriving vessels. Fluctuation of demand for freight transportation brings new challenges for making a robust yard template when facing uncertain maritime market. A model is proposed for yard template planning considering random numbers of containers that will be loaded onto vessels that visit the port periodically. Traffic congestions and multiple schedule cycle times for vessel arrival patterns are also considered. Moreover, a meta-heuristic method is developed for solving the model in large-scale cases. Numerical experiments are conducted to validate effectiveness and efficiency of the model.     

An utility-based decision support sustainability model in slow steaming maritime operations

This paper analyses slow steaming sustainability initiatives and generalizes the traditional discrete cost-based decision support model into novel continuous utility-based models. Two models based on logarithmic and linear utility functions are developed for risk-averse and risk-neutral decision makers respectively. The models, considering fuel consumption, carbon emission, and on time delivery, are applied to a Trans-pacific trade service route. A sensitivity analysis is conducted on parameters of sailing distance, expected transit time, quantity, and emission policies. The model contributes to ship liners on the optimal speed decisions in continuous utility-based slow steaming operations.     

逆向物流在循环物流系统中的价值探讨

循环物流系统在我国的经济发展中已发挥着重要的作用,而该体系中产品销售过程所产生的逆向物流也受到各方面的重视。通过分析逆向物流在循环系统中的价值,可使企业充分认识其重要性,从而带动整个物流系统的良性循环。     

Global maritime networks: The case of Maersk

Two contrasting approaches to the provision of maritime services are frequently presented: one based on direct port to port services, the other characterised by a hub and spoke network. We demonstrate there is no contradiction between these two models, that in fact they are complementary. Integrating direct services with a hub structure is necessary for assuring a wider geographical coverage. The complementarity is explained by analysing the world’s largest container shipping line, Maersk, which over the last 30 years has created a global shipping network.     

大连沈铁港口物流公司SWOT分析及发展措施

大连沈铁港口物流有限公司是以沈阳铁路局为投资主体的国有独资公司,是隶属于沈阳铁路局投资管理中心的独立法人企业,并在大连、营口、锦州、丹东等港口城市设有分公司.     

一句话新闻

“首都经济圈”内仓储物业受机构青睐·中国今后拟放宽航运业的外资准入·华南城联手马可波罗入局电商机会,叫板阿里·DHL在华布局多式联运铁路运输·中远与淡水河谷签约,40万吨级大船靠泊中国港口预期增强·上海外高桥物流中心将建设国际中转集拼平台·传化智能公路港落户长沙,节省40％以上物流成本·浙江萧山空港经济区打造千亿级智慧物流·     

中华人民共和国国家标准GB/T18354-2001物流术语(下)

5物流技术装备与设施术语5.1仓库warehouse保管、储存物品的建筑物和场所的总称.5.2库房storehouse有屋顶和围护结构,供储存各种物品的封闭式建筑物.     

安得，践行绿色物流

作为国内第三方物流企业的卓越代表之一,安得物流从2008年就开始了绿色物流探索之路,先后成立了安得物流工程技术分中心和环保与职业安全专项管理委员会,有计划地开展物流工程领域的技术创新：按照1S014001要求,提倡资源有效利用与环境保护,不断提供物流技术仓帱斤能力,节约社会资源,提高服务水平。     

区域物流

顺丰集团投入巨资打造的华东仓和华南仓近日正式启用,顺丰优选开通常温商品配送的城市从9个扩展到了37个,生鲜商品配送城市从2个扩展到11个。据顺丰优选相关人士透露,冷链宅配快递业务很快将从顺丰优选重新回归至l集团,并会更系统地发展该业务。     

Global hierarchy of maritime clusters: Stability and reconstruction

In contrast to traditional research that is limited to individual maritime clusters, a holistic perspective is employed in this study to investigate the global hierarchy of maritime clusters. To conceptualize the global hierarchical stability of maritime clusters, Porter's diamond model is used to develop a general analytical framework and both empirical and theoretical analyses are conducted. The results of empirical analyses indicate that the global hierarchy of maritime clusters tends to remain stable. And the following conceptual discussions attribute such stability to historical effects, weakening prerequisite effects, and game effects. Further theoretical analysis reveals that governance restructuring, a novel innovation type, can disrupt the global hierarchical stability of maritime clusters and facilitate the leapfrog development of emerging maritime clusters.     

Patterns of maritime supply chains: slot capacity analysis

This paper offers a tool for analysing patterns of maritime supply chains. The study uses empirical data on slot capacity deployed by container shipping lines for analysing ports (as nodes) and routes and shipping lines (as links) that are embedded within the maritime supply chain. The ports of Singapore and Hong Kong are chosen to illustrate the respective transhipment and gateway perspectives. Findings reveal that geographical location and changes in the constitution of players can have reverberations on the maritime supply chain dynamics that traverse the port. Furthermore, evidence from trade route data also shows that maritime supply chain dynamics associated with transhipment and gateway ports could be governed by different levels of scope economies, demand complementarity and market power. The paper illustrates the abundant potential of slot capacity analysis for academic and industry/market research. Thus, future research can be pursued in various contexts and for different applications.     

Managing valuable Taiwanese airline passengers using knowledge discovery in database techniques

Taiwanese domestic airline passenger loads have declined over the past decade, and the inauguration of the Taiwan high-speed rail service in 2007 has further intensified the competition facing the airlines. Gaining and retaining valuable passengers thus has become essential in maintaining domestic airline profits in the increasingly competitive transportation market. This study develops a knowledge discovery in database process, including the recency, frequency, and monetary model and the C5.0 decision tree. The former is used to assess passenger value, while C5.0 is used to mine demographic, travel behavior, and critical service quality information for valuable passengers. The results identify valuable passenger characteristics that can help Taiwanese airlines maximize their number and retention.