International Journal of Industrial Ergonomics 48 (2015) 46e59

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International Journal of Industrial Ergonomics

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/ergon

Applying Kansei engineering to design logistics services e A case of

home delivery service
Mu-Chen Chen a, Chia-Lin Hsu b, *, Kuo-Chien Chang c, Man-Chi Chou d
a
Department of Transportation and Logistics Management, National Chiao Tung University, 4F, No. 118, Section 1, Chung Hsiao W. Road, Taipei 100, Taiwan
b
Department of International Business Administration, Chinese Culture University, 55, Hwa-Kang Road, Yang-Ming-Shan, Taipei 11114, Taiwan
c
Department of Leisure and Recreation Management, Chihlee Institute of Technology, No. 313, Sec. 1, Wunhua Rd., Banqiao Dist., New Taipei City 220,
Taiwan
d
DHL Supply Chain, Taiwan

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: Home delivery service (HDS) has grown fast in recent years because more and more customers engage in
Received 19 October 2013 Internet and television shopping. Moreover, due to the rising competition in the HDS sector, service
Received in revised form providers need to put more concentration on the continual improvement and differentiation of service to
6 April 2014
maintain the competitive advantage. After experiencing the current services, customers are always
Accepted 22 March 2015
Available online
expecting the new ones. Thus, the idea of new service design never ends. Designers always have to
insight into the real feelings of customers so that they could design the new service, which is able to
meet customers' expectation. Kansei engineering is a means to transform real voices of customers into
Keywords:
Kansei engineering
the product and service design. This method is able to quantify the relationship between feelings rep-
Service design resented by simple words and design elements. In this study, the Partial Least Square (PLS) is used to
Home delivery service analyze the relationships between the real feelings of customers and characteristics of HDS. Finally, this
Partial Least Squares study combines those characteristics, which are strongly related to important feelings, to obtain the
original idea of new design of HDS.
Relevance to industry: As stated in this abstract, our study offers an exemplification on applying Kansei
engineering to design service in service industries. Specifically, along with the application of Kansei
engineering, the research findings offer a technique for service design of service industries.
© 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction stages, namely, package pick-up service, package tracking service,

Given that the emergence of Internet and television shopping,
customers are able to order goods from the Internet and by tele-
phone or fax. The need for home delivery service (HDS) is
increasing, and it can add a great value to consumers as well as
enterprises. Customers can receive the ordered goods through HDS
from sellers' warehouses or cooperative third-party logistics (3 PL)
service providers to homes or assigned locations (Chen et al., 2011).
A popular HDS provided by a Taiwan's logistics company is taken as
an example to describe the HDS process as follows. This HDS is
derived from the technical cooperation contract signed with a Ja-
pan's logistics company. Its service process mainly includes three
* Corresponding author. Tel.: þ886 228610511x35322.
E-mail addresses: ittchen@mail.nctu.edu.tw (M.-C. Chen), xjl6@ulive.pccu.edu.
tw (C.-L. Hsu), kcchang@mail.chihlee.edu.tw (K.-C. Chang), lattetoyou@yahoo.com.
tw (M.-C. Chou).
and package delivery service. In terms of the package pick-up ser-
vice stage, senders can deliver their packages to the HDS company's
service stations and partner convenient stores, or request the HDS
company to pick up the package from their designated sites (e.g.,
home or office). As to the tracking service stage, senders can track
the status of the delivered package via telephone, mobile phone or
Internet. Finally, regarding the package delivery service stage, HDS
company has to deliver the package to recipients at the location
during the time slot designated by senders. Meanwhile, senders can
again change the time slot or location when recipients cannot
receive the package at that time or at that place. Thus, HDS plays a
crucial role in improving the convenience of the physical distri-
bution of goods and on-line transactions (Hsu et al., 2011). The idea
of better delivery process toward customers can serve as a way to
create a competitive advantage in dynamic markets has widely
discussed (e.g., Cairns, 1996; Chen et al., 2011; Punakivi and
Saranen, 2001). Samson and Terziovski (1999) proposed that

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ergon.2015.03.009
0169-8141/© 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
 M.-C. Chen et al. / International Journal of Industrial Ergonomics 48 (2015) 46e59
effective management on service delivery will be helpful to
improve organizational performance. To enable the efficient and
convenient transaction, HD companies require providing services
that satisfy the actual needs of customers.
Goebel et al. (2012) proposed that companies have made efforts
to develop services that acclimatize to main trends in consumer
behavior, an increasing number of products and services are being
integrated with human factors, and users are becoming very
influential in the design process (Abras et al., 2004). Human factors
(also known as ergonomics) is the study of how humans behave
physically and psychologically concerning particular environments,
products, or services (Rouse, 2005). Hendrick (2001) depicted good
ergonomics is good economics derived from some examples of
positive effects of human factors (ergonomics). Eikhout et al. (2005)
indicated that these positive effects such as productivity and
comfort. As defined by Cambridge Advanced Learner's Dictionary
(2005), productivity means “It is the rate at which a company or
country makes goods, judged in connection with the number of people
and the amount of materials necessary to produce the goods”. Vink
(2005) defined comfort as “The convenience experienced by the end
user during or just after working with the product”. Thus, taking
human factors (ergonomics) into consideration is possible to in-
crease sales or productivity in combination with better well-being
or comfort (Eikhout et al., 2005; Vink, 2005). Additionally, human
factors (ergonomics) are concerned with the match between the
user, equipment and their environments, and to achieve the match
between an individual and the engaged in activity, human factors
specialists or ergonomists can consider the activity being done and
the user's needs (Wiki, 2014). As indicated by Rubin (1994), this
consideration of human factors (ergonomics) enables designers to
create products and services that satisfy the needs of the users.
Specifically, the concept of human factors (ergonomics) has
extended from product design to service design. In the design of
service delivery, companies have to understand the reasons and
methods by which perceptions are formed, and further enable
designers to manage service encounters with customers (Cook
et al., 2002). Hence, this study brings the concept of human fac-
tors (ergonomics) to the logistics field, particularly focusing on the
HD sector. When companies are including the perceptions and
preferences of consumers into service design, they can hold the
hopes of creating services with individual characteristics and
market competitiveness. Once service design enables to fit with
customer's viewpoint, customer satisfaction will be improved
(Kimita et al., 2009). Therefore, service design is the application of
established design process and skills to develop new services.
Kansei engineering helps the design of products from a psycho-
logical perspective (Tsuchiya et al., 1996). Dahlgaard et al. (2008)
indicated that Kansei engineering could be used to design and
create new attractive products and services with a profound
affection on the users. Specifically, the purpose of the Kansei en-
gineering methodology is to design and develop products/services
that match customers' emotional, psychological feelings and needs.
Huang et al. (2012) proposed that the customers' emotional re-
quirements which are called as Kansei needs, have become one of
the crucial concerns in developing a product/service. Agost and
Vergara (in press) suggested that emotions have to be considered
into the generation of product preferences. Thus, for service design
purpose, Kansei engineering will be used to recognize the associ-
ated relationships between service design elements and customer
emotional perceptions to help operators and designers create a
systematic procedure for the design of services such as HDS.
Previous studies employing Kansei engineering have focused on
the design of physical products, such as automotive interiors
(Nagamachi, 1995), architectural exteriors (Nagasawa, 1997), tele-
phones (Yang et al., 1999), fabric (Lin et al., 2007), cameras (Yang,
47
2011), housing (Llinares and Page, 2011), beverage bottle (Luo
et al., 2012), mobile phone (Yang and Chang, 2012), sport shoes
(Shieh and Yeh, 2013), and notebooks (Huang et al., 2014). For the
most part, the design elements of these physical products can be
transformed into texts or images, enabling researchers to present
texts or images to stimulate test subjects prior to filling out the
questionnaire. The application of Kansei engineering in service
design is less common; For example, Rostlinger and Goldkuhl
(1999) used Kansei engineering to examine the services of de-
livery and installation of a washing machine. Nishino et al. (1999)
applied Kansei engineering to explore the Internet services, and
found has a much extensive applicability. Hartono (2012) proposed
an integrative framework of Kansei engineering including the Kano
model and QFD applied to luxury hotel services. Therefore, we
expect that such an application in the development of HDSs could
be considered as an application of Kansei engineering methodology
in a new area. This is one of the main contributions of this study.
In this study, two primary reasons of applying Kansei engi-
neering to serve as the service design method are as follows
(Nagamachi, 1989, 1995; Demirtas et al., 2009). One is that Kansei
engineering uses the presented vocabulary of individuals to express
user perceptions in the construction of a suitable framework.
Osgood et al. (1957) proposed that semantic differential (SD)
method is most commonly used to assess user perception of a
product/service in Kansei Engineering studies. In contrast, other
methods generally adopt terminology defined by product/service
development experts; For example, Chen et al. (2011) applied Kano
model to explore the categorization of home delivery quality ele-
ments derived from service convenience model and their impact on
customer satisfaction. Hsu et al. (2010) used SERVQUAL scale to
serve as the measurement instrument of the respondents' expec-
tations and perceptions of service offered by HDS providers. Chen
et al. (2014) analyzed a Taiwan's HD company and uses an NSD
model and quality function deployment (QFD) to develop a home
delivery service model. Therefore, compared to the methods used
in other works, Kansei engineering is able to better express the true
feelings of users. The other is that Kansei engineering can use the
interactive relationship between affective responses and design
features to establish a quantitative framework.
In summary, this study develops a Kansei Engineering based
procedure for logistics service design, which analyzes the associa-
tions between service design elements (property space) and cus-
tomers' Kansei perceptions (semantic space) to create a systematic
procedure for service design. Moreover, HDS is taken as the case of
logistics service design by using the Kansei Engineering based
procedure. Specifically, the Kansei Engineering based procedure is
developed to realize the characteristics of HDS that best meet
customers' needs and the important Kansei perceptions according
to customers' viewpoints. This procedure enables HDS providers'
managers and frontline personnel to become closer to customers
and provide services able to satisfy their needs. Additionally, the
knowledge of associations between logistics service design ele-
ments and customers' Kansei perceptions can help service enter-
prises formulate marketing activities and inspire new service
design concepts. With this knowledge, consumers' acceptance of
innovative services can be predicted before they are introduced to
the market to reduce the risk and the waste of resources. As well,
the marketing department can hold marketing activities based on
the Kansei perceptions to which customers attach the most
importance to maintain the existing customers and even to develop
a new customer base.
The rest of this paper is constructed as follows. In Section 2, we
describe the HDS and service design, as well as Kansei engineering.
Section 3 presents the research framework, questionnaire devel-
opment of Kansei, pilot test, sampling and data collection. Section 4
48 M.-C. Chen et al. / International Journal of Industrial Ergonomics 48 (2015) 46e59

presents the data analysis and results. Concluding remarks are establishing a systematic procedure for the design of logistics ser-
illustrated in Section 5, and Section 6 describes the research limi- vices, as in the HD services field. Zeithaml et al. (1990) proposed
tations and suggests directions for future research. that logistics companies have to constantly and actively seek for
ways to provide better service to their customers.
2. Literature review
2.2. Kansei engineering
2.1. Home delivery service and service design
Nagamachi (1995) pointed out Kansei engineering is one of the
Home delivery service (HDS) has become an important
main areas of ergonomics (human factors). Kansei, the Japanese
component of extended supply chains, which is designed to build
word, corresponds to feeling sensitivity or impression sensitivity,
stronger a relationship with customers (Boyer et al., 2003). The
and some kinds of emotion (Ishihara et al., 1997). Kansei Engi-
delivery process has been completed by logistics firms rather than
neering is defined as “a translation system for translating images or
by customers themselves, that is customers should not pick the
feelings into real design components” (Nagamachi, 1986). Kansei
goods or ship them in person.
Engineering is a method to transfer a customer's ambiguous image
HDS has regarded as one crucial part of the overall logistics
of product into a detailed design (Nagamachi, 1995; Ishihara et al.,
service. The excellent logistics service has a significant effect on
1997). It is a customer-oriented product development method, and
revenue and profitability such as the companies of Dehyuyll
it does not focus on the manufacturer's intention of the product, but
Computer Corporation, Nabisco, and Federal Express (Mentzer and
rather on the customer's feeling and needs (i.e. Kansei). Kansei
Williams, 2001). Thus, effectively harmonizing logistics services
engineering can help product designers by offering relationships
with marketing can facilitate a firm to gain an advantage over
among customers' feelings and corresponding designs. It also
competitors (Mentzer and Williams, 2001). In addition, sellers are
supports the consumer in choosing a product that fits his/her
expected to be able to provide more complete and integrated lo-
feeling among various products. Kansei engineering is a tool for
gistics services adapted and geared to the specific needs of cus-
product development utilized to convert the feelings of customers
tomers (Persson and Virum, 2001). Hsu et al. (2010) also proposed
toward the product into design elements within the product
that HD or D2D service could be developed to become one of the
(Nagamachi, 1995, 2002). Schutte et al. (2004) indicated that Kansei
main customized types of logistics services. Coyle et al. (2003)
engineering mainly copes with product development, and the word
indicated that the superior logistics could then play a value-
of ‘product’ derived from the Latin word ‘productum’, which im-
added role to enterprises instead of a cost-spent one.
plies result or gain. Rostlinger and Goldkuhl (1999) proposed that
We also acknowledge that customers are always looking for-
its expression nowadays also includes services. A few of previous
ward to new services, so service development is necessary to gear
studies have shown that Kansei engineering is capable of applica-
to the customers' changes in needs and preferences. Thus, to assure
bility on conducting investigations of the services. Thus, this study
the success of service design, one of the main determinants is the
conducts on HDSs confirming that Kansei Engineering can have a
detailed knowledge and understanding of customers' needs. The
much broader applicability.
importance of including customers' needs into service/product
Kansei engineering is a combination of various tools applied to
design has illustrated in previous studies (Gruner and Homburg,
derive the rules between product/service characteristics and user
2000; Magnusson et al., 2003). Additionally, Johne and Storey
Kansei (Schutte et al., 2004). The process of incorporating Kansei
(1998) indicated that a new service means an innovation that
engineering is briefly illustrated as follows (Schutte et al., 2004),
directly or indirectly alters a service offering on the form or quality.
and readers are also referred to Llinares and Page (2008) for the
Mansury and Love (2008) mentioned that new services are now
details. The basic concept of this process is to get two types of
often defined as activities directed at creating changes or trans-
descriptions (semantic descriptions and product/service charac-
formations of form, place or time of availability in some entities.
teristic descriptions) to develop two spaces before performing
New services have a positive impact on both financial such as the
synthesis on the two spaces to identify product/service character-
enhancement of sales and profitability of firms, and nonfinancial
istics that arouse semantic expressions. Validity test and subse-
performance such as customer loyalty, competitive advantage, and
quent analysis are then conducted, and the results of which are
firm reputation (Andrews and Smith, 1996; Chen et al., 2009). In
used to renew the vector space and perform a second synthesis. The
addition, as per the argument of Booz and Hamilton (1982), new
process is repeated until satisfying results are yielded, whereby a
services comprise six categories consisting of new-to-the-world
semantics and application space association model can be
services, new product lines, additions to existing service, im-
established.
provements and revisions to existing services, re-positioning, and
cost reductions. This categorization has often been discussed in
new service development (NSD) studies such as Johne and Storey 3. Methodology
(1998). NSD is broadly defined as the process of generating,
developing and launching new services in the market (Johnson 3.1. The Kansei Engineering based design procedure for HDS
et al., 2000). NSD has become a competitive imperative and sur-
vival necessity for all service firms (Johnson et al., 2000). Based on the Kansei engineering model presented in Schutte
In short, service design aims at corresponding with the cus- et al. (2004), the HDS design procedure is developed in this
tomer's viewpoint to enhance customer satisfaction (Kimita et al., study, and it is schematically illustrated in Fig. 1. The Kansei Engi-
2009). Service design is the application of established design pro- neering based design procedure for HDS is presented as follows.
cesses and skills to the development of new services. As proposed
by Peranginangin et al. (2009), service design is a creative and Step 1: Identify HDS as the design domain
practical way to improve existing services and to innovate new
ones. Hence, for the service design purpose, Dahlgaard et al. (2008) The HDS for documents and packages with a C2C trading pattern
indicated that Kansei engineering could be used to realize the is selected as the field of service design. HDSs for domestic drop-off
associated relationships between service elements and customer locations or recipient addresses and other large or bulk HDSs are
emotional perceptions to assist operators and designers in excluded.
 M.-C. Chen et al. / International Journal of Industrial Ergonomics 48 (2015) 46e59
Fig. 1. The HDS design procedure based on Kansei engineering (adapted from Schutte
et al. (2004)).
Step 2: Build the semantic space and service property space of
HDS
Step 2a: Span the semantic space of HDS
We collect Kansei words from home delivery advertisements
on television, internet videos, magazines, and so on. During the
first screening phase, we will eliminate words that are repeated
or similar in meaning as the adopted way in Llinares and Page's
(2011) study. During the second screening phase, the final
selected Kansei words are through discussions with the pro-
fessional senior manager in the sector to the HDSs and expert in
logistics.
Step 2b: Span the space of HDS properties
Design attributes from the studied HDS are collected. Some
possible values are pondered for every attribute. Attributes that
designers believe can have an impact on the emotional response
are selected. Consistent with the way of Almagro and Llabre s
(2011), this study displays a set of HDSs with different service
characteristics to respondents. In addition, for the Kansei engi-
neering study, the collection of products is the output from this
step. However, as stated by Almagro and Llabre s (2011), these
HDSs have to change in the properties just selected.
Step 3: Synthesize the HDS semantic space and HDS property
space
By means of statistical method such as Partial Least Squares
(PLS), the relationship between Kansei words (i.e. semantic space)
49
and HDS attributes (i.e. the space of properties) is created. Specif-
ically, SmartPLS 2.0 is employed to test the relationships between
HDS characteristics and customers' feelings. SmartPLS is a software
application for the designed models, and these models can be
measured with the method of PLS analysis (Hansmann and Ringle,
2004). PLS is a multivariate regression method, and also employs
the projection method to find the fewer number of factors (latent
variables) and to depict the overall variance level of data as pro-
posed by Shieh and Yeh (2013). They also stated that PLS aims to
diminish the number of data dimensions and contains information
about dependent variable Y in the process of converting the original
variable X into a latent variable. Therefore, PLS has the capability of
simultaneously conducting one or more dependent variables. Be-
sides, PLS is often utilized in the establishment and analysis of
correlations and associations between attributes (Tenenhaus et al.,
2005) and the processing of prediction (Aulinger et al., 2004).
PLS is an empirical research method increasingly applied in lo-
gistics service research (e.g. Kern et al., 2012; Saura et al., 2008). As
indicated by Kern et al. (2012), PLS is the most applicable analytic
method for our study for several reasons. First, PLS is most appli-
cable technique for analyzing the data, in which the sample size is
relatively small as indicated by Mitchell and Nault (2007). Second,
as noted by Chin (1997), PLS is more appropriate for predictive
applications, which are designed to explain variance. To ensure the
proper use of this technique, we follow the general procedures
described by Chin (1998) and Hulland (1999). In addition, the dis-
tribution of variables is not limited to a normal distribution
assumption constraint (Dijkstra, 2010), and additionally PLS is more
suitable for examining the relationships between multiple inde-
pendent variables and multiple dependent variables (Tarantino,
2008).
Step 4: Test the validity
Using the same way of Almagro and Llabre s (2011), factor
analysis is used to identify the key Kansei words and proceed the
validity analysis. Additionally, Cronbach's a is used to proceed the
reliability analysis.
Step 5: Build models for the relationship analysis
After being validated, three models are offered that relate the
HDS properties with each Kansei word. These three are related to
three HDS stages, namely, Model 1: package pick-up service, Model
2: package tracking service, and Model 3: package delivery service.
According to our results, our study offers an exemplification on
applying Kansei Engineering to design service in service industries.
Specifically, along with the application of Kansei Engineering, the
research findings offer a technique for service design of service
industries.
3.2. Questionnaire development of Kansei
The survey questionnaire is comprised of four parts. The Part 1 is
demographic data including gender, age, occupation, education
level, residency and income. After reviewing previous studies (e.g.
Chen et al., 2011; Chen et al., 2014; Hsu et al., 2010), we find that
these demographic variables have used to describe the profile of
respondents. In Part 2, we aim at understanding the use of HDSs,
especially the condition of respondents' package pick-up service.
Each respondent is asked to indicate and evaluate a HD company
that he/she had already frequently used. More precisely, they are
asked to specify the frequency of package pick-up service in the
most recent year and their experience toward package pick-up
service, what kinds of goods were delivered, as well as the HD
50 M.-C. Chen et al. / International Journal of Industrial Ergonomics 48 (2015) 46e59
company they mostly used. This clarifies how the respondent used
HD. In Parts 3 and 4, respondents are asked to respond to two
stimuli of HDS. In Part 3, the measures are designed to evaluate the
Kansei of the first stimulus, i.e., HDS, assigned to the respondent.
Specifically, we assemble 12 service stimulations (S1eS12), which
derive from three different stages of HDS (i.e., package pick-up
service, package tracking service and package delivery service),
using the 27 service characteristics (65 service attributes) shown in
Table 3. All 65 service attributes are included within the 12 stim-
ulations. As suggested by Nagamachi et al. (2008), it is suitable that
the total of stimuli including the benchmark is about 10e20.
Several previous studies (e.g. Huang et al., 2011; Llinares and Page,
2011; Schütte and Eklund, 2005) used less than 20 stimuli to collect
the survey data. Therefore, this study uses 12 stimuli including the
benchmark HDS to serve as the experimental materials. As shown
in Appendix, we provide one questionnaire version derived from
one of the stimuli. We randomly select 2 from the 12 stimulations,
deriving a total of 66 combinations. The first of the two indicated
the first type of HDS in the questionnaire; the other represented the
second type of HDS. For example, different characteristics and at-
tributes of HDS as stimulations (such as the presence or absence of
a channel of complaining) could be used to design Kansei ques-
tionnaires capable of revealing the depth of feeling that re-
spondents experience toward the 38 Kansei words after reading
various descriptions. After the respondents read the first stimula-
tion in the questionnaire, they are required to provide feedback on
the 38 Kansei question items. In Part 4, the measures are designed
to evaluate the Kansei of second stimulus assigned to the respon-
dent. Specifically, respondents are required to read the second
stimulation before providing feedback on the 38 Kansei question
items. In fact, Parts 3 and 4 are the main portions of the ques-
tionnaire, and also explain the order of the delivered stimulus. For
example, several respondents are asked to respond stimulus 1 (S1)
in Part 3, and after that respond stimulus 2 (S2) in Part 4. In
contrast, another several respondents are asked to respond stim-
ulus 2 (S2) in Part 3, and after that respond stimulus 1 (S1) in Part 4.
The delivered order of the others stimuli will also do so. The
questionnaire used five-point Likert-type items, anchored by
1 ¼ strongly disagree and 5 ¼ strongly agree, adopted from existing
scales.
3.3. Pilot test
Before conducting the formal survey, this study undertakes a
pilot test with a convenient sample. In the pilot test, there are 30
responses, of which 27 are complete, giving a response rate of 90
percent. Cronbach's reliability and factor analysis are used to obtain
the results of the pilot test. Cronbach's alpha indicator is utilized to
evaluate the initial reliability of the scales. The standard lower
bound for Cronbach's alphas is 0.70 (Hair et al., 1995). A factor
analysis is then completed to investigate whether the items pro-
duces the expected number of factors and whether the individual
item is loaded on their appropriate factor as expected. Hair et al.
(1995) considered a measure to be significant if its factor loading
is greater than 0.50. This criterion is used to investigate the item
loadings of all measures. The measurement is then refined by
removing items that did not load significantly onto the underlying
variables. Furthermore, modifications to refine the instrument are
made according to suggestions by respondents.
In addition, this study uses the method of Llinares and Page
(2011) to identify the Kansei words. The first step is trying to
collect as many Kansei words as possible, and as shown in Table 1,
33 adjectives (Kansei words) frequently used by people to express
their feelings to HDSs. These adjectives are collected from various
sources such as newspapers, internet, journals and magazines, etc.,
in order to accomplish the most complete semantic description
possible. The next step is to diminish the words collected, elimi-
nating any adjectives with similar meanings or which could be
considered less important for evaluation after discussing with the
professional senior manager in the sector to the HDSs and expert in
logistics. Finally, among original 33 adjectives (Kansei words) of our
study, only fourteen Kansei words are applied as indicator variables
for the stage of package pick-up service, only eleven Kansei words
are applied as indicator variables for the stage of package tracking
service, and only thirteen Kansei words are applied as indicator
variables for the stage of package delivery service.
Besides, this study uses the method of Almagro and Llabre s
(2011) to generate property space of HDS. Specifically, this study
collects data related to service elements with attributes from the
official websites and shipping forms of various HD companies in
Taiwan. Following a preliminary compilation, we interview one
professional senior manager in the sector to the HDSs and expert in
logistics to correctly obtain the service elements used in these
representative HD companies in Taiwan. Finally, a total of 27 service
characteristics with 65 service attributes. Stimulus design is based
on the aforementioned 27 service characteristics with 65 service
attributes, from which we obtain a design using 12 HD service
scenarios (from Stimulus 1 to Stimulus 12), as shown in Table 2.
3.4. Sampling and data collection
This study employs a web-based survey to keep respondents'
anonymity and overcome time and place constraints, thus helping
our study reach respondents more easily than with other survey
methods such as interviews and other self-administered survey
techniques as indicated in Wang and Emurian (2005) and Wilde
et al. (2004). The Internet questionnaire is completed by using
mySurvey system (http://www.mysurvey.tw/). The questionnaire
collection ran continuously for the eight-day length of the survey
period (May 12e20, 2012). The web-based survey is employed to
target senders of customer-to-customer (C2C) HDS. An invitation e-
mail with an embedded link to the website hosting the survey is
sent to the respondent to invite him/her to participate the survey. A
total of 158 questionnaires are collected, after the removal of
duplicate responses, 147 usable responses are included in the
sample for analysis. A profile of respondents is summarized in
Table 2. As to the information on use of HDS of respondents, it is
summarized as follows. Most respondents use HDS 2e3 times
within 1 year (48%), followed by greater than 7 times (20%). The
products delivered are mainly daily essentials (48%), followed by
documents/books (23%). Finally, the time of using HDSs as follows:
less than 1 year (16%), 1e2 years (24%), 3e4 years (29%), and over 5
years (31%).
4. Results and analysis
This study used SmartPLS 2.0 to test the relationships between
HDS characteristics and customers' feelings, and used SPSS 12.0 to
generate descriptive statistics, reliability and validity.
4.1. Findings for Kansei evaluation
When we design stimulus which includes service characteris-
tics, the stimulus 1 is designed as the benchmark service. Specif-
ically, when the service characteristics of stimulus are designed, we
subjectively choose the service characteristics which have quite
significant and positive impact on consumers' Kansei to form the
stimulus 1. As shown in Table 3, the results reveal that in spite of
which service stages, stimulus 1 actually has important potential
impact on consumers' Kansei due to its mean is highest compared
 M.-C. Chen et al. / International Journal of Industrial Ergonomics 48 (2015) 46e59 51

Table 1
Original Kansei words and Kansei words for describing the three service stages.

Original Kansei words Rapid, familiar, specialized, on time, high quality, convenient, kind, environment-friendly, immediate,
reliable, innovative, economical, save time, customized, expensive, cheap, complete, direct, general,
true, excellent, trustworthy, uniform, flexible, new, transparent, elaborate, omnipresent, localized,
efficient, safe, relieved, action-oriented
Kansei words for describing the stage of package pick-up service rapid, familiar, specialized, on time, high quality, convenient, kind, environment-friendly, immediate,
reliable, innovative, economical, save time, customized
Kansei words for describing the stage of package tracking service rapid, familiar, specialized, high quality, convenient, kind, immediate, reliable, innovative, save time,
customized
Kansei words for describing the stage of package delivery service rapid, familiar, specialized, on time, high quality, convenient, kind, environment-friendly, immediate,
reliable, innovative, save time, customized

to other stimuli. The results clarify that stimulus 1 is indeed a measure, the composite reliability of each construct and the
benchmark service. Furthermore, both stimulus 4 and stimulus 5 average variance extracted for each construct to evaluate the
have unimportant impact on consumers' Kansei due to its mean is convergent validity of the measurements (see Table 5). The item
lowest compared to other stimuli. Overall, the impacts of stimulus reliability of each measure is assessed using the factor loading of
1, 2, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10 and 12 on consumers' Kansei trend to be positive, the underlying construct (Shih, 2004). The results reveal that the
and in contrast, the impacts of stimulus 3, 4, 5 and 11 on consumers' factor loadings of all measures of the underlying constructs exceed
Kansei trend to be negative. 0.5 and thus conform to the test of item reliability (Hair et al., 1995).
Besides, the ranked first and second Kansei words in terms of Furthermore, in addition to Factor 4, the results confirm that the
mean for each stimulus are summarized in Table 4. For example, in composite reliabilities of each constructs exceed the 0.7 cut-off
the package pick-up service of stimulus 1, consumers' feelings are value as recommended by Fornell and Larcker (1981). Addition-
mainly convenient and high quality. As to the stage of package ally, it is found that the average variance extracted (AVE) from each
tracking service, participants' feelings are convenient and imme- construct exceeds 0.5, and thus shows convergent validity (see
diate. In the stage of package delivery services, participants' feel- Table 5) (Fornell and Larcker, 1981). Overall, the convergent validity
ings are primarily familiar and specialized. test indicates that the proposed constructs of the extended model
are adequate. Additionally, owing to the Cronbach's a and com-
posite reliability of Factor 4 fail to exceed the 0.7 cut-off value as
4.2. Test the validity: the factor analysis of Kansei words recommended by Fornell and Larcker (1981), Factor 4 is not
included into our analysis. On the other hand, the three factors (i.e.
This study uses factor analysis to explore consumers' Kansei. The Factor 1, Factor 2, and Factor 3) are included into our analysis and
results show that the factor loading of each item is greater than 0.5 have named as F1: tracking, F2: delivery, F3: pick-up.
as displayed in Table 5. Furthermore, to measure the internal con-
sistency of the constructs, the Cronbach's a is calculated and tested 4.3. Model testing: the relationship between Kansei and HDS
its reliability. As displayed in Table 5, in addition to Factor 4, the characteristics
Cronbach's a of each constructs is greater than 0.70, which in-
dicates a high reliability for our survey instrument (Nunnally, 1978). 4.3.1. PLS model 1: package pick-up service stage
Furthermore, this study applies three measures mentioned by This study uses SmartPLS 2.0 to examine the relationships be-
Fornell and Larcker (1981), including the item reliability of each tween HDS characteristics of package pick-up service and Kansei
words. As Table 6 shown, there are 22 variables (i.e. C1eC9, C11,
Table 2
C12, C17eC20, C23eC29) significantly related to Kansei words. In
Profile of the respondents. contrast, there are 7 variables (i.e. C10, C13eC16, C21 and C22) not
significantly related to Kansei words.
Gender Frequency Percentage (%)
In addition, the positive and negative relationships between
Male 56 38.1 characteristics items (C1 to C29) and Kansei words (K1 to K14) are
Female 91 61.9
shown in Table 7. Table 8 separately listed the top 5 service attri-
Age
Below 20 10 6.8 butes that are significantly positively and negatively related to each
20e30 93 63.3 Kansei word (p < 0.05). We rank the service attributes for each
31e40 34 23.1 Kansei word according to their degree of influence. If an HD com-
41e50 8 5.4
pany wishes to increase particular Kansei values, they can start by
51 and over 2 1.4
Education Level
making improvements in the attributes with greater influence.
High school or below 8 5.4
College 90 61.2 4.3.2. PLS model 2: package tracking service stage
Graduate school or above 49 33.4 Consistent with the way of PLS model 1, this study establishes
Occupation
Public servants 12 8.1
PLS model 2 to investigate the associations between HDS charac-
Manufacturing 20 13.6 teristics and Kansei words in the phase of package tracking service.
Business 35 23.8 PLS model 2 consists of three items of product characteristics as
Unemployed (e.g. student, retired, housewife) 80 54.5 independent variables and eleven Kansei variables as dependent
Monthly income (NT$)
variables. The results of PLS model 2 are displayed in Table 9 and
Under 20,000 72 48.9
20,001e30,000 13 8.9 Table 10. Specifically, as Table 9 shown, the results show that C30,
30,001e40,000 20 13.6 C31 and C32 are significant. Thus, HD companies should incorpo-
40,001e50,000 22 14.9 rate the concept of ‘Sender can undertake package tracking through
50,001e60,000 7 4.8 telephone, computer or APP’ into service design to induce con-
Over 60,001 13 8.9
sumers' feelings. In addition, as Table 10 shown, C30 and C31 are
52 M.-C. Chen et al. / International Journal of Industrial Ergonomics 48 (2015) 46e59

Table 3
The measure results of Kansei.

S1 S2 S3 S4 S5 S6

Avg. Std. Avg. Std. Avg. Std. Avg. Std. Avg. Std. Avg. Std.

Package pick-up service

K1: Rapid 4.05 0.95 3.80 0.95 2.88 0.91 2.71 1.00 3.08 1.06 3.59 0.93
K2: Familiar 4.36 0.79 3.65 0.93 3.12 0.86 2.54 0.88 2.96 0.95 3.56 0.93
K3 Specialized 4.50 0.67 3.85 0.88 3.12 0.99 2.71 0.75 3.08 0.72 3.78 0.75
K4 On time 4.18 0.80 3.85 0.93 3.12 0.77 2.63 0.77 3.08 0.83 3.56 0.80
K5 High quality 4.59 0.50 3.75 0.91 2.96 0.77 2.71 0.69 2.83 0.82 3.78 0.80
K6 Convenient 4.68 0.57 4.05 1.00 2.85 1.08 2.92 0.93 2.92 1.10 3.96 1.16
K7 Kind 4.36 0.85 3.45 0.89 2.77 0.71 2.71 0.95 2.63 0.88 3.52 0.94
K8 Environment-friendly 4.18 0.80 3.75 0.85 2.62 1.20 2.42 0.88 2.67 1.01 3.52 1.09
K9 Immediate 4.23 0.75 3.75 0.91 2.85 0.92 2.50 0.88 3.04 0.86 3.59 0.97
K10 Reliable 4.23 0.81 3.80 0.70 2.54 0.90 2.58 0.88 2.88 0.85 3.41 0.89
K11 Innovative 4.23 0.97 3.30 0.86 2.42 0.86 2.29 0.95 2.88 0.95 3.07 0.92
K12 Economical 4.18 0.80 3.20 0.95 2.69 0.88 2.54 0.72 2.88 0.95 3.56 0.89
K13 Save time 4.32 0.65 3.65 0.93 2.85 0.83 2.50 0.83 3.00 0.83 3.56 1.12
K14 Customized 4.27 0.88 3.60 1.05 2.77 0.99 2.17 0.92 2.58 0.88 3.63 1.04
Package tracking service
K15Rapid 4.41 0.80 4.05 1.00 3.42 1.06 2.08 1.06 2.04 1.00 3.93 1.14
K16 Familiar 4.45 0.86 4.05 0.83 3.96 0.66 1.83 0.96 1.75 0.79 4.22 0.97
K17 Specialized 4.41 0.85 4.10 0.91 3.96 0.77 1.92 1.02 1.92 0.88 4.26 0.81
K18 High quality 4.27 0.77 4.05 0.83 3.88 0.77 1.88 1.08 1.83 0.87 4.11 0.97
K19Convenient 4.59 0.80 4.35 0.81 4.08 0.93 1.92 1.10 1.83 0.82 4.33 1.04
K20 Kind 4.05 0.90 3.65 0.93 3.65 0.69 1.92 0.97 1.79 0.83 3.89 0.97
K21 Immediate 4.59 0.67 4.40 0.75 3.88 0.77 1.88 0.99 1.75 0.85 4.11 1.22
K22Reliable 4.32 0.72 4.05 0.89 3.81 0.69 1.92 1.02 1.83 0.82 3.59 1.05
K23 Innovative 4.05 1.21 3.95 0.83 2.92 0.89 2.00 1.06 1.88 0.95 3.63 1.08
K24Save time 4.45 0.80 4.05 0.83 3.58 0.70 2.04 1.12 1.83 0.87 4.04 1.13
K25Customized 4.18 0.91 3.60 1.10 3.46 1.03 1.92 1.10 1.71 0.95 3.89 1.25
Package delivery service
K26Rapid 4.41 0.85 3.10 0.85 3.04 0.77 2.29 0.95 3.13 1.08 3.85 0.99
K27 Familiar 4.77 0.43 2.60 0.75 2.65 0.94 2.08 0.83 2.83 0.96 3.37 1.24
K28 Specialized 4.64 0.49 3.20 0.89 2.81 0.75 2.38 0.97 3.13 0.95 3.67 0.96
K29On time 4.36 0.73 3.15 0.75 2.96 0.77 2.33 1.01 3.17 0.96 3.70 1.07
K30 High quality 4.64 0.49 2.65 0.81 2.58 0.76 2.17 0.87 2.96 1.00 3.33 1.07
K31Convenient 4.59 0.59 2.70 0.92 2.77 0.91 2.08 0.97 2.83 1.13 3.44 1.15
K32 Kind 4.45 0.74 2.80 1.01 2.54 1.03 2.00 0.98 2.67 0.96 3.37 1.04
K33 Environment-friendly 4.32 0.72 3.40 1.05 2.19 0.80 3.00 1.10 2.38 1.01 3.63 0.93
K34 Immediate 4.32 0.78 2.95 0.83 2.85 0.88 2.13 0.95 3.08 0.83 3.52 1.12
K35Reliable 4.41 0.73 2.70 0.98 2.81 0.98 1.92 0.88 3.13 0.80 3.48 0.94
K36 Innovative 4.18 0.91 2.70 0.80 2.35 0.94 2.04 0.91 2.88 0.90 3.04 0.94
K37Save time 4.27 0.70 2.85 0.93 2.58 0.70 2.08 1.02 2.83 1.05 3.48 1.05
K38Customized 4.27 0.88 2.70 0.80 2.62 0.90 1.96 1.00 2.79 1.06 3.22 1.19

S7 S8 S9 S10 S11 S12

Avg. Std. Avg. Std. Avg. Std. Avg. Std. Avg. Std. Avg. Std.

Package pick-up service

K1 Rapid 3.65 1.11 3.79 0.88 3.39 1.03 2.93 1.14 3.81 0.79 3.30 1.10
K2 Familiar 3.61 0.84 3.75 0.79 2.78 1.31 2.52 1.16 3.56 0.80 3.22 0.97
K3 Specialized 3.96 0.77 3.71 0.95 3.39 1.12 3.30 1.07 3.74 0.71 3.37 1.04
K4 On time 3.61 0.99 3.67 0.92 3.48 1.12 3.41 1.08 3.70 0.78 3.37 1.15
K5 High quality 3.61 0.89 3.71 0.62 3.43 0.99 3.07 1.11 3.41 0.69 3.19 0.96
K6 Convenient 3.70 1.06 4.04 1.08 3.22 1.35 2.52 1.22 3.96 0.76 3.41 1.15
K7 Kind 3.39 0.89 3.63 0.82 3.13 1.14 2.44 0.93 3.67 0.68 3.15 0.95
K8 Environment-friendly 3.65 0.93 3.38 1.06 2.65 1.27 2.74 1.06 3.22 0.89 3.52 1.12
K9 Immediate 3.52 0.85 3.75 0.94 2.96 1.22 2.74 1.20 3.56 0.75 3.48 0.85
K10 Reliable 3.91 0.85 3.46 0.66 3.30 1.22 3.44 1.05 3.41 0.75 3.26 0.90
K11 Innovative 3.43 0.99 3.21 1.06 3.00 1.45 2.70 1.17 3.37 0.79 2.85 0.77
K12 Economical 3.65 1.07 3.38 1.06 2.83 1.19 2.67 1.04 3.19 0.92 3.15 0.86
K13 Save time 3.70 1.06 3.42 0.83 2.70 1.15 2.63 1.11 3.67 0.88 3.19 1.21
K14 Customized 3.57 1.04 3.63 0.97 2.39 1.44 2.48 1.09 3.44 0.93 2.96 1.13
Package tracking service
K15Rapid 4.17 0.72 3.83 0.87 3.96 1.02 3.56 1.09 2.56 1.09 3.48 1.05
K16 Familiar 4.13 0.81 3.92 0.72 3.96 1.15 3.81 1.14 2.44 1.19 3.70 0.95
K17 Specialized 4.13 0.69 3.92 0.97 3.83 1.07 3.59 1.01 2.56 1.28 3.59 0.89
K18 High quality 4.09 0.73 3.88 0.85 3.78 0.95 3.67 1.11 2.52 1.12 3.59 0.97
K19Convenient 4.26 0.69 4.21 0.72 4.00 1.13 3.67 1.11 2.56 1.31 3.74 0.98
K20 Kind 3.78 0.85 3.63 0.88 3.83 0.98 3.63 1.04 2.44 1.01 3.41 1.01
K21 Immediate 4.17 0.72 4.25 0.85 4.13 1.06 3.70 1.32 2.56 1.28 3.63 1.04
K22Reliable 4.04 0.88 3.83 0.87 3.91 0.90 3.78 1.01 2.48 1.16 3.44 0.93
K23 Innovative 3.74 0.86 3.63 1.06 3.52 0.73 3.19 1.14 2.52 1.22 3.15 0.99
K24Save time 3.78 0.85 3.88 0.90 4.09 0.85 3.48 1.01 2.67 1.18 3.48 0.94
K25Customized 3.70 1.02 3.92 0.93 3.39 1.03 3.48 1.31 2.63 1.21 3.19 1.04
 M.-C. Chen et al. / International Journal of Industrial Ergonomics 48 (2015) 46e59 53

Table 3 (continued )

S7 S8 S9 S10 S11 S12

Avg. Std. Avg. Std. Avg. Std. Avg. Std. Avg. Std. Avg. Std.

Package delivery service

K26Rapid 3.83 1.03 3.79 0.93 3.61 1.03 3.70 1.07 3.26 1.02 3.26 1.29
K27 Familiar 3.43 0.90 3.67 1.01 3.57 1.08 3.70 1.17 2.85 1.06 3.11 1.22
K28 Specialized 3.70 0.97 3.75 0.85 3.65 1.19 3.74 1.06 3.15 0.99 3.15 1.10
K29On time 3.57 0.79 3.71 0.75 3.52 1.04 3.85 1.03 3.19 0.92 3.22 1.01
K30 High quality 3.48 0.85 3.67 0.76 3.39 1.16 3.78 1.01 2.93 1.07 3.19 0.96
K31Convenient 3.57 1.12 3.67 0.96 3.61 1.23 3.56 1.05 3.07 0.92 3.19 1.21
K32 Kind 3.35 0.93 3.25 0.99 3.52 0.99 3.63 1.18 2.85 1.03 3.04 1.16
K33 Environment-friendly 3.22 1.20 3.58 0.88 2.39 1.08 3.63 1.33 2.56 0.97 3.48 0.94
K34 Immediate 3.35 0.83 3.50 0.78 3.39 1.23 3.70 1.03 3.07 1.00 3.26 0.98
K35Reliable 3.48 0.99 3.38 0.88 3.57 1.34 3.96 1.02 2.89 1.01 3.37 1.08
K36 Innovative 3.17 0.94 3.21 0.83 3.04 1.15 3.26 1.23 2.67 0.78 2.93 0.96
K37Save time 3.52 0.95 3.38 0.77 3.22 1.13 3.48 1.01 3.00 0.96 3.11 1.19
K38Customized 3.22 1.13 3.67 0.96 3.00 1.38 3.52 1.31 2.78 1.01 3.00 1.07

Note: avg. means average; std. means standard deviation. Bold means the Kansei's evaluation is highest; italic means the Kansei's evaluation is lowest.

positively related to K15eK25. The association level of C30 is
greater than C31. C32 is negatively related to K15eK25, namely, HD
companies have no package tracking service can induce negative
Kansei, and thus they should avoid.
4.3.3. PLS model 3: package delivery service stage
Consistent with the way of PLS model 1 and 2, this study es-
tablishes PLS model 3 to investigate the associations between HDS
characteristics and Kansei words in the phase of package delivery
service. PLS model 3 consists of 33 items of product characteristics
(i.e., C33eC65) as independent variables and 13 Kansei variables as
dependent variables. The results show that characteristics items are
not significantly related to Kansei words, and thus this study does
not investigate cross-loading between independent variables and
dependent variables.
4.4. The analysis for the importance of package pick-up service and
package tracking service
As Table 11 shown, the results show that the most important
feeling of package pick-up service is familiar, followed by the
feelings of rapid, convenient, specialized, and immediate. Thus, K1,
K2, K3, K6 and K9 are the most important Kansei words which
enhance consumers' feelings toward the package pick-up services.
In addition, As Table 12 shown, the results show that the most
important feeling of package tracking service is immediate, fol-
lowed by convenient, specialized, high quality, and familiar. Thus,
K16, K17, K18, K19 and K21 are the most important Kansei words
which enhance consumers' feelings toward the package tracking
service. Besides, the three product properties of packaging services
for customers, insured services of shipment, and the way of services
payment would not take into analysis due to they do not included
any significant characteristics items. Finally, the characteristic as-
sociations of best HDSs are displayed in Table 13.
5. Concluding remarks
This study applies a Kansei engineering based service design
approach to design HDS through exploring the service character-
istics of HDS and user Kansei as well as the relationship in between.
More importantly, we include consumers' perceptions into the
procedure of service design of HD. By recognizing the service
characteristics and feelings to which users attach importance, HD
companies can improve the content of their existing services or
create new services.
HDS has been an important industry and become more
competitive because customers' engagement in Internet and tele-
vision shopping has increased rapidly. HDS companies continually
pay their attention on differentiation advantages that will enhance
their chances of survival. It is therefore important that HDS com-
panies truly realize the needs and feelings of consumers to
formulate customer-oriented service strategies.
The results of our first and second models show that the service
characteristics of HDS have a significant influence on the compre-
hensive Kansei variables of HDS. Hence, we verify that the service
characteristics adopted in the service stimulation of this study
effectively affect the Kansei variables in the questionnaire.
The first and second models in this study reveal significant re-
lationships between service attributes and service characteristics.
By calculating the cross loadings, we investigate the associations
between the 32 service attributes and the Kansei variables, from
which we obtain the mutual degree of influence related to specific

Table 4
The ranked first and second Kansei words for each stimulus.

S Package pick-up service stage Package tracking service stage Package delivery service stage

1 Convenient, high quality Convenient, immediate Familiar, specialized

2 Convenient, specialized Immediate, convenient Environment-friendly, non-familiar
3 Non-innovative, non-reliable Convenient, familiar Non-environment-friendly, non-innovative
4 Non-innovative, non-economic Non-familiar, non-immediate Non-customized, non-reliable
5 Non-kind, non-customized Non-immediate, non-customized Non-kind, non-environment-friendly
6 Specialized, convenient Convenient, specialized Rapid, on time
7 Specialized, reliable Convenient, rapid Rapid, specialized
8 Convenient, rapid Immediate, convenient Rapid, specialized
9 Non-customized, on time Immediate, save time Specialized, non-environment-friendly
10 Non-customized, non-kind Familiar, reliable Reliable, on time
11 Convenient, rapid Non-familiar, non-kind Non-innovative, non-environment-friendly
12 Environment-friendly, immediate Convenient, non-familiar Environment-friendly, reliable
54 M.-C. Chen et al. / International Journal of Industrial Ergonomics 48 (2015) 46e59

Table 5
The factor analysis of Kansei words.

Factor Kansei words Factor loading Eigenvalues Cumulative explained variances% AVE CR Cronbach's a

F1: tracking Package tracking service is on time 0.908 18.667 49.123% 0.741 0.969 0.979
Package tracking service is on time convenient 0.906
Package tracking service is on time specialized 0.896
Package tracking service is on time high quality 0.892
Package tracking service is on time kind 0.888
Package tracking service is on time is reliable 0.861
Package tracking service is on time is save time 0.853
Package tracking service is on time is familiar 0.843
Package tracking service is on time is rapid 0.832
Package tracking service is on time is customized 0.811
Package tracking service is on time innovative 0.768
F2: delivery Package delivery service is high quality 0.853 4.700 61.491% 0.603 0.951 0.964
Package delivery service is familiar 0.849
Package delivery service is specialized 0.819
Package delivery service is reliable 0.798
Package delivery service is convenient 0.797
Package delivery service is kind 0.796
Package delivery service is at time 0.792
Package delivery service is on time 0.790
Package delivery service is customized 0.778
Package delivery service is save time 0.774
Package delivery service is innovative 0.761
Package delivery service is rapid 0.743
Package delivery service is environment-friendly 0.480
F3: pick-up Package pick-up service is intimate 0.812 3.578 70.909% 0.531 0.931 0.947
Package pick-up service is rapid 0.763
Package pick-up service is convenient 0.763
Package pick-up service is specialized 0.760
Package pick-up service is on time 0.760
Package pick-up service is high quality 0.756
Package pick-up service is kind 0.745
Package pick-up service is save time 0.731
Package pick-up service is customized 0.721
Package pick-up service is on time 0.702
Package pick-up service is reliable 0.614
Package pick-up service is innovative 0.582
F4 Package pick-up service is environment-friendly 0.561 1.151 73.938% 0.287 0.446 0.667
Package pick-up service is economics 0.510

Note: AVE means average variance extracted; CR means composite reliability.

attributes and Kansei as well as their ranking. In summary, ac-
cording to our results, we suggest that HDS companies can include
this concept into their process of service design or build these
Kansei in corporate image with the Kansei engineering based
approach. Further, our study offers a procedure for service design to
be able to be applied to various service industries.
6. Managerial implications
The findings of our study provide insight into the relationship
between service attributes (Kansei) and service characteristics. We
suggest that HD companies include this concept into their process
of service design or develop the building of these Kansei in com-
pany image. In this way, they can substantially evoke consumers'
feelings. The most crucial six Kansei words are K1, K2, K3, K5, K6
and K9 in the package pick-up service stage, as well as additionally
K16, K17, K18, K19, K21 and K22, are most crucial six Kansei words
in the stage of package tracking service. Using these Kansei and the
collation in Model 1, we are able to determine that the attributes
most crucial to HDSs were C1, C9, C11, C17, C19, C23, C27 and C28.
Furthermore, using these Kansei and the collation in Model 2, we
are able to determine that the attributes most crucial to HDSs was
C30. These Kansei identify the service attributes capable of
increasing consumers' feelings. In addition to the above Kansei, HD
companies can arouse the Kansei of corporate customers in terms
of K4, K7, K8, K10, K11, K12, K13, K14, K15, K20, K23, K24 and K25.
Attributes such as C24 can induce negative Kansei, which HD
companies should avoid.
7. Limitations and directions for future research
Albeit the findings of this study have significant implications for
academics and practitioners, some limitations still need to be
addressed in future work. First, this study used the customers in
Taiwan as test subjects, and thus the results may not fully represent
the Kansei of HDSs in other countries. Future research can inves-
tigate whether the findings of this study apply to different coun-
tries. Second, the corporate field in this study was HDS of C2C. Our
results indicate that some Kansei variables might not be considered
in this study. We suggest that future studies widen the scope of
word collection including different parts of speech (such as nouns
or verbs) to overcome the shortcomings in this study. Third, some
service characteristics might not been included in the service
stimulation design of this study, such as crisis management capa-
bilities, service attitude and company visibility. These could also be
used in future stimulation design for HDS. Fourth, regarding the
form of stimulation, if permitted by time and economic factors, we
suggest the adoption of stimulation through audio or images. This
would enable subjects to realize the stimulation content more fully
and make the research results more consistent with actual expe-
rience. Finally, our study explores the perception of a given service
is produced by a specific characteristic rather than a combination of
characteristics. We acknowledge that a possible combination of
 M.-C. Chen et al. / International Journal of Industrial Ergonomics 48 (2015) 46e59 55

Table 6
PLS Model 1: factor loading, t-value and p-value of Kansei words.

Variables Factor loading t value p value

C1. Sender sends package to the receiving locations of service providers in person, 0.348 2.125 *
or informs the service providers to pick up package in the designated site by
using telephone, computer or APP, and additionally can appoint the time of
receiving package.
C2. Sender sends package to the receiving locations of service providers in person, 0.392 2.090 *
or informs the service providers to pick up package in the designated site by
using telephone, computer or APP, but cannot appoint the time of receiving package.
C3. Sender sends package to the receiving locations of service providers in person, 0.338 2.363 *
or informs the service providers to pick up package in the designated site by
using telephone and computer, and additionally can appoint the time of receiving package.
C4. Sender sends package to the receiving locations of service providers in person, 0.368 2.471 *
or informs the service providers to pick up package in the designated site by
using telephone and computer, but cannot appoint the time of receiving package.
C5. Sender sends package to the receiving locations of service providers in person, 0.392 2.373 *
or informs the service providers to pick up package in the designated site by
using telephone, and additionally can appoint the time of receiving package.
C6. Sender sends package to the receiving locations of service providers in person, 0.372 2.166 *
or informs the service providers to pick up package in the designated site by
using telephone, but cannot appoint the time of receiving package.
C7. Sender goes to the package receiving locations of service providers in person. 0.462 2.330 *
C8. Convenient stores or other locations 0.433 2.254 *
C9. Only convenient stores 0.599 2.436 *
C10. No cooperative package receiving locations 0.165 1.362
C11. Have year-round service 0.726 2.412 *
C12. Have no year-round service 0.726 2.412 *
C13. Providing packaging service to customers 0.085 0.697
C14. No providing packaging service to customers 0.085 0.697
C15. Providing package protection plus service 0.064 0.531
C16. No providing package protection plus service 0.064 0.531
C17. Providing the protection of privacy 0.475 2.220 *
C18. No providing the protection of privacy 0.475 2.220 *
C19. Providing the electronic consignment note 0.646 2.283 *
C20. No providing the electronic consignment note 0.646 2.283 *
C21. Single shipping fee calculation 0.013 0.134
C22. Multiple shipping fee calculation 0.013 0.134
C23. Providing reusable package to reduce the shipping fee 0.719 2.389 *
C24. No providing reusable package to reduce the shipping fee 0.719 2.389 *
C25. Using cash, e-ticketing and credit card to pay 0.315 2.012 *
C26. Using cash and e-ticketing to pay 0.386 2.152 *
C27. Using cash to pay 0.713 2.468 *
C28. Sender or receiver pays the shipping fee 0.801 2.377 *
C29. Sender pays the shipping fee 0.801 2.377 *

Note: *p < 0.05.

Table 7
PLS Model 1: the cross-loading and R2 between characteristics items and Kansei words.

K1 K2 K3 K4 K5 K6 K7 K8 K9 K10 K11 K12 K13 K14

C1 0.219 0.266 0.254 0.210 0.253 0.292 0.334 0.188 0.233 0.200 0.294 0.210 0.294 0.267
C2 0.026 0.113 0.068 0.018 0.048 0.066 0.036 0.023 0.033 0.024 0.052 0.064 0.121 0.156
C3 0.102 0.093 0.090 0.108 0.099 0.124 0.061 0.136 0.113 0.128 0.064 0.014 0.100 0.112
C4 0.069 0.089 0.128 0.045 0.064 0.048 0.049 0.122 0.058 0.171 0.105 0.143 0.120 0.112
C5 0.124 0.156 0.102 0.070 0.166 0.191 0.157 0.111 0.155 0.045 0.039 0.144 0.102 0.200
C6 0.180 0.105 0.198 0.166 0.239 0.231 0.233 0.214 0.164 0.290 0.169 0.160 0.137 0.164
C7 0.250 0.326 0.239 0.197 0.241 0.300 0.295 0.238 0.305 0.136 0.226 0.238 0.288 0.299
C8 0.089 0.025 0.098 0.115 0.076 0.025 0.025 0.005 0.012 0.083 0.009 0.013 0.014 0.083
C9 0.206 0.199 0.214 0.151 0.168 0.244 0.204 0.209 0.191 0.195 0.159 0.174 0.253 0.265
C11 0.225 0.336 0.259 0.207 0.244 0.284 0.293 0.215 0.250 0.184 0.231 0.199 0.294 0.336
C12 0.225 0.336 0.259 0.207 0.244 0.284 0.293 0.215 0.250 0.184 0.231 0.199 0.294 0.336
C17 0.156 0.111 0.229 0.217 0.267 0.124 0.136 0.153 0.132 0.329 0.213 0.136 0.104 0.143
C18 0.156 0.111 0.229 0.217 0.267 0.124 0.136 0.153 0.132 0.329 0.213 0.136 0.104 0.143
C19 0.146 0.230 0.217 0.176 0.179 0.148 0.126 0.146 0.177 0.164 0.176 0.165 0.234 0.284
C20 0.146 0.230 0.217 0.176 0.179 0.148 0.126 0.146 0.177 0.164 0.176 0.165 0.234 0.284
C23 0.255 0.353 0.312 0.225 0.356 0.366 0.331 0.406 0.366 0.312 0.250 0.343 0.330 0.392
C24 0.255 0.353 0.312 0.225 0.356 0.366 0.331 0.406 0.366 0.312 0.250 0.343 0.330 0.392
C25 0.128 0.002 0.097 0.114 0.059 0.043 0.006 0.010 0.051 0.153 0.089 0.024 0.044 0.059
C26 0.065 0.222 0.105 0.025 0.163 0.202 0.179 0.220 0.166 0.048 0.036 0.178 0.159 0.223
C27 0.195 0.228 0.205 0.141 0.225 0.249 0.189 0.234 0.220 0.204 0.127 0.206 0.207 0.287
C28 0.187 0.265 0.279 0.229 0.269 0.219 0.218 0.212 0.209 0.231 0.189 0.198 0.255 0.338
C29 0.187 0.265 0.279 0.229 0.269 0.219 0.218 0.212 0.209 0.231 0.189 0.198 0.255 0.338
R2 0.111 0.175 0.165 0.104 0.174 0.171 0.156 0.151 0.151 0.144 0.116 0.125 0.166 0.229
56 M.-C. Chen et al. / International Journal of Industrial Ergonomics 48 (2015) 46e59

Table 8 service, and package delivery service and immediately answer the
Top 5 service attributes with positive and negative related to each Kansei word. questions regarding Kansei perceptions individually as given below.
Kansei word Positive influence Negative influence

K1 Rapid C23, C11, C1, C9, C27 C24, C7, C12, C29, C6
(1) Package pick-up service
K2 Familiar C23, C11, C1, C28, C19 C24, C12, C7, C29, C20
K3 Specialized C23, C28, C11, C1, C17 C24, C29, C12, C7, C18 The home delivery service (HDS) provider A (hereafter called as
K4 On time C28, C23, C17, C1, C11 C29, C24, C18, C12, C7 Company A) provides the delivery service for ambient-
K5 High quality C23, C28, C17, C1, C11 C24, C29, C18, C12, C7
temperature packages. When senders intend to use the Company
K6 Convenient C23, C1, C11, C27, C9 C24, C7, C12, C6, C29
K7 Kind C1, C23, C11, C28, C9 C24, C7, C12, C6, C29 A's HDS, they can send their package to its operation stations or
K8 Environment-friendly C23, C27, C11, C28, C9 C24, C7, C26, C12, C6 agencies in person, or inform Company A to pick up the package
K9 Immediate C23, C11, C1, C27, C28 C24, C7, C12, C29, C20 from consignee, and also can appoint the time of package pick-up
K10 Reliable C17, C23, C28, C27, C1 C18, C24, C6, C29, C12
via telephone, Internet, or mobile applications (Application, APP).
K11 Innovative C1, C23, C11, C17, C28 C24, C12, C7, C18, C29
K12 Economical C23, C1, C27, C11, C28 C24, C7, C12, C29, C26
The agencies also include convenience stores and other locations
K13 Save time C23, C11, C1, C28, C9 C24, C12, C7, C29, C20 (e.g., hotels, transportation stations, restaurants, various shops,
K14 Customized C23, C28, C11, C27, C19 C24, C29, C12, C7, C20 etc.). Company A provides the year-round home delivery service.
The time senders can send their package depends on the operation
time of each operation station, for example, the operation time of
service characteristics may also influence perception. Thus, to general operation station is from morning to evening
obtain predictive models, future studies should establish relation- (08:00e20:00), the operation time of convenience stores is 24 h a
ships between the affective responses and the service characteris- day. Company A's HDS includes the packaging service for cus-
tics a sample of stimuli will be required that combines all the tomers and package insured service, and privacy protection ser-
potential characteristics in a balanced way. vice. For example, the data of senders and recipients is displayed in
a two-dimensional bar code and information security management
systems.
Appendix. One version of the questionnaires When senders send their package, Company A provides paper
consignment and electronic consignment (i.e. paperless consign-
To understand customers' true feelings when using home de- ment, the sender can use the Internet or APP to fill the consign-
livery services, please carefully read the following home delivery ment, and Company A provides electronic equipment for
service, which includes package pick-up service, package tracking recipients to sign the receiving document). The Company A's

Table 9
PLS Model 2: factor loading, t-value and p-value of characteristics items.

Number of items Loading T value P value

C30. Sender can undertake package tracking through telephone, computer or APP. 0.612 8.061 ***
C31. Sender can undertake package tracking through telephone and computer. 0.275 3.162 ***
C32. No package tracking service. 0.988 15.573 ***

Note: ***p < 0.001.

Table 10
PLS Model 2: the cross-loading and R2 between characteristics items and Kansei words.

K15 K16 K17 K18 K19 K20 K21 K22 K23 K24 K25

C30 0.363 0.380 0.385 0.373 0.388 0.316 0.360 0.312 0.352 0.347 0.288
C31 0.141 0.225 0.184 0.204 0.200 0.234 0.222 0.256 0.085 0.184 0.175
C32 0.563 0.673 0.634 0.642 0.655 0.610 0.646 0.630 0.489 0.590 0.514
R2 0.327 0.455 0.410 0.417 0.436 0.368 0.418 0.389 0.254 0.353 0.265

Table 11
The rank for the importance of package pick-up service.

Rank for the feeling of package pick-up service

K1. Package pick-up service is rapid 2

K2. Package pick-up service is familiar 1
K3. Package pick-up service is specialized 4
K4. Package pick-up service is on time 10
K5. Package pick-up service is high quality 6
K6. Package pick-up service is convenient 3
K7. Package pick-up service is kind 7
K8. Package pick-up service environment-friendly Does not belong to
K9. Package pick-up service is immediate 5
K10. Package pick-up service is reliable 11
K11. Package pick-up service is innovative 12
K12. Package pick-up service is economic Does not belong to
K13. Package pick-up service is save time 8
K14. Package pick-up service is customized 9
 M.-C. Chen et al. / International Journal of Industrial Ergonomics 48 (2015) 46e59 57

Table 12
The rank for the importance of package tracking service.

Rank for the feeling of Package tracking service

K15. Package tracking service is rapid 9

K16. Package tracking service is familiar 5
K17. Package tracking service is specialized 3
K18. Package tracking service is high quality 4
K19. Package tracking service is convenient 2
K20. Package tracking service is kind 8
K21. Package tracking service is immediate 1
K22. Package tracking service is reliable 6
K23. Package tracking service is innovative 11
K24. Package tracking service is save time 7
K25. Package tracking service is customized 10

Table 13
The characteristic associations of best HDSs.

Phase Characteristics of HDS Selected characteristics items

Package pick-up service P1. The way of service use C1. Senders can personally go to the location of service provider or cooperative
location to send their goods, or use telephone, computer, or Application (APP) to
inform service provider to receive package in sender location, and reserve the
time to receive the goods in senders' home.
P2. Cooperative location of package delivery C9. Convenient stores
P3. No restricted time C11. Yes
P6. Privacy protection C17. Yes, for example, the personal data of sender and receiver are showed by
using QR Code or introducing information safety management system.
P7. Electronic bill of lading C19. Yes, namely, paperless bill of lading. Sender can use computer or APP to
fill in bill of lading. Service provider uses e-equipment to serve as the signature
of receiver.
P9. Reusable packaging can give discount of shipping fee C23. Yes
P10. Payment style of shipping fee C27. Service provider only receives the cash payment.
P11. Payer of shipping fee C28. Sender can choose to pay himself/herself or pay by receiver.
Open time of send Depends on the package receiving locations
Package tracking service P12. Inquiring service of goods C30. Sender can inquiry the location or situation of goods by using telephone,
computer or APP.

service is charged according to a single criterion (one of the can track the status and location of their package at the same time
following criteria: delivered package size, weight or packing box via telephone, Internet or APP.
(envelope)). If the senders reuse the package, they can offset the (Note: 1 ¼ strongly disagree and 5 ¼ strongly agree)
charge. The payment schemes include paying by cash, electronic
ticket or card (credit card, debit card, etc. Senders also can
determine whether the service charge is paid by recipients or by
themselves.
(Note: 1 ¼ strongly disagree and 5 ¼ strongly agree) K1. Package tracking service is rapid? ,1 ,2 ,3 ,4 ,5
K2. Package tracking service is familiar? ,1 ,2 ,3 ,4 ,5
K3. Package tracking service is specialized? ,1 ,2 ,3 ,4 ,5
K4. Package tracking service is high quality? ,1 ,2 ,3 ,4 ,5
K5. Package tracking service is convenient? ,1 ,2 ,3 ,4 ,5
K6. Package tracking service is kind? ,1 ,2 ,3 ,4 ,5
K1. Package pick-up service is rapid? ,1 ,2 ,3 ,4 ,5
K7. Package tracking service is immediate? ,1 ,2 ,3 ,4 ,5
K2. Package pick-up service is familiar? ,1 ,2 ,3 ,4 ,5
K8. Package tracking service is reliable? ,1 ,2 ,3 ,4 ,5
K3. Package pick-up service is specialized? ,1 ,2 ,3 ,4 ,5
K9. Package tracking service is innovative? ,1 ,2 ,3 ,4 ,5
K4. Package pick-up service is on time? ,1 ,2 ,3 ,4 ,5
K10. Package tracking service is save time? ,1 ,2 ,3 ,4 ,5
K5. Package pick-up service is high quality? ,1 ,2 ,3 ,4 ,5
K11. Package tracking service is customized? ,1 ,2 ,3 ,4 ,5
K6. Package pick-up service is convenient? ,1 ,2 ,3 ,4 ,5
K7. Package pick-up service is kind? ,1 ,2 ,3 ,4 ,5
K8. Package pick-up service is environment-friendly? ,1 ,2 ,3 ,4 ,5
K9. Package pick-up service is immediate? ,1 ,2 ,3 ,4 ,5
K10. Package pick-up service is reliable? ,1 ,2 ,3 ,4 ,5 (3) Package delivery service
K11. Package pick-up service is innovative? ,1 ,2 ,3 ,4 ,5
K12. Package pick-up service is economical? ,1 ,2 ,3 ,4 ,5
K13. Package pick-up service is save time? ,1 ,2 ,3 ,4 ,5 When senders use Company A's HDS, as Company A needs de-
K14. Package pick-up service is customized? ,1 ,2 ,3 ,4 ,5 livery processing time, the package collected in the evening will be
considered as the next day shipment. Senders can specify the
package receiving location, operation stations or agencies. Senders
can specify the package receiving time and specify the same day or
(2) Package tracking service next day delivery. If the receiving time is not specified by senders,
Company A guarantees the next day delivery. If the package is
When senders use Company A's HDS, after delivering the collected before noon and will be sent to the neighboring area,
package, Company A provides the package tracking service. Senders Company A will actively identify it as the same day delivery.
58 M.-C. Chen et al. / International Journal of Industrial Ergonomics 48 (2015) 46e59

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