The Swedish Container Shipping Industry: An Analysis of Service Quality Perception and its Measurement

Sammanfattning: Title: The Swedish Container Shipping Industry: An Analysis of the Service Quality Perception and its Measurement Purpose of the paper: The aim of this research paper is to gain a greater understanding of the container shipping industry. This way the notion of service quality can be brought to the given industry and acknowledge the perceptions of various actors regarding the aspects of quality in seaports. This study aims to analyze the service quality in a container terminal as well as confronting the views of service providers and their customers. Methodology: In order to complete the study, a qualitative approach have been used, composed of 11 interviews, completed by 1 focus group. The interviews could be assimilated as case studies due to the access of several documents, analyzed at a later stage. Findings: The findings of this research show that the academia relates a globally accurate image of the industry practices within the container shipping industry. However, several components of the service quality could be evaluated differently, including a better understanding of the Swedish market specificities, and the application of some of the following factors to the named market. The factors concerned by the gap between the academia and the industry practices are the lack of insights on consistency, flexibility, service encounter and relationships, and an over-developed interest for security and safety, certifications and measuring scales. Value: This thesis was written with the objective of associating the academia with industry practices. In addition, the perception of quality by different actors in the container shipping industry are confronted to enlighten the gaps around the concept of service quality. Research Implications: This research study attempts to bring new insights on the Swedish container shipping industry and confront the results of previous studied to this specific market. In addition, the confrontation of perspectives from the actors interviewed aims to increase the academic knowledge on the service quality perceptions in the container shipping industry. Practical implications: Industry wise, this research study attempts to give insights to industry practitioners and increase their understanding of components of service quality. Additionally, this thesis aims to reduce the perception gap between seaports service providers and their business customers, using seaport on a daily or regular basis. The ultimate objective is to reduce the gaps by providing a better cost-service balance.