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Article history: Electronic commerce (e-commerce) is one of the fastest-growing businesses in the retail sector, espe-
Received 3 October 2022 cially in Asia. Owing to intense competition, retailers seek to consolidate all customer touchpoints into a
Received in revised form single channel to enhance customer shopping experience. The omnichannel has emerged as a key
12 January 2023
strategic weapon in e-commerce retail business because its adoption hinges on customer perceptions of
Accepted 19 March 2023
omnichannel logistics service quality. By drawing on an integrated importance-performance analysis,
Available online 3 April 2023
and a three-factor theory framework, this study examines how customers perceive and assess this
quality. A leading e-commerce retailer in Thailand was used in the empirical study. Through a
Keywords:
Omnichannel
comprehensive literature review, 19 omnichannel logistics service quality attributes were determined
OCLQ based on customer shopping journeys. The attributes were categorized into four quadrants using
E-commerce importance-performance analysis and three-factor theory. As a result, attributes in each quadrant
IPA required different management schemes. Furthermore, performance benchmarking in customer satis-
Three-factor theory faction with omnichannel logistics service quality attributes between the case study and its best
competitor was conducted using a performance ratio analysis. This study contributes to the omnichannel
logistics literature in terms of assessing customer satisfaction; for e-commerce retail businesses, it
provides insights into how managers can win customer satisfaction in the omnichannel logistics
competition. Other business sectors that aim to improve customer satisfaction can also apply the
framework proposed herein.
© 2023 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. on behalf of College of Management, National Cheng Kung
University. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/
licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apmrv.2023.03.003
1029-3132/© 2023 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. on behalf of College of Management, National Cheng Kung University. This is an open access article under the CC
BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).
D. Sumrit and K. Sowijit Asia Pacific Management Review 28 (2023) 531e543
receive them from nearby brick-and-mortar stores. Fig. 1 illustrates retail market in Thailand has seen a remarkable upward trend in
the concept of an OC. total parcel delivery (see Fig. 2). This is mainly due to the shift to-
The ultimate goal of the omnichannel is to create a seamless ward digital online shopping behavior. Accordingly, we target the
customer shopping experience (Cheah et al., 2020). Owing to fierce omnichannel implemented by a leading Thai e-commerce retailer
competition in e-commerce businesses, retailers are forced to as our case study.
employ this method in order to interact with their customers (Gao In summary, the objectives of this study are to: 1) determine
et al., 2021; Lee et al., 2019). The adoption of omnichannel by re- OCLQ attributes along the customer shopping journey; 2) develop a
tailers boosts overall sales growth, increases market share, and customer satisfaction assessment framework applying IPA and
improves after-sale services, thereby enhancing customer experi- three-factor theory; 3) elucidate customer satisfaction assessment
ence and competitive advantage (Jo et al., 2020; Park & Kim, 2021). toward OCLQ from Thailand insights; and 4) conduct a benchmark
In this scenario, logistics service functions need to be expanded to study of customer satisfaction in OCLQ attributes between the case
accommodate across channels (Pereira & Frazzon, 2021). study firm (focal firm) and the best business competitor in the
Logistics and supply chains are the backbones of an omni- omnichannel business.
channel strategy; thus, the success of its deployment hinges on We further believe that our study contributes immensely to the
customer perception of omnichannel logistics service quality literature established on this subject. Research on omnichannel
(OCLQ) (Cotarelo et al., 2021). There is scarce literature on OCLQ; logistics is emergent (Asmare & Zewdie, 2021); thus, studies on
most existing studies are qualitative in nature (Jo et al., 2020), with customer satisfaction with OCLQ attributes have rarely been
little exploration of the role of logistics service quality in the explored. Unlike previous research that characterizes OCLQ based
omnichannel context (Hajdas, Radomska, & Silva, 2020), despite its on the five dimensionsdreliability, assurance, tangibility, empathy,
reputation for improving customer experience and retention and responsivenessdof the SERVQUAL model (Mathong et al.,
(Cotarelo et al., 2021). OCLQ in customer shopping journeys is also 2020; Parasuraman et al., 1985), we characterize attributes ac-
rarely discussed in academia (Lemon & Verhoef, 2016). cording to customer shopping journey processes because customer
To overcome the gaps in the literature, we propose a compre- experience can be captured at all service touchpoints along the
hensive framework to assess customer satisfaction with OCLQ at- shopping journey.
tributes and benchmark them with the best competitors in the e- Our integrated IPA and three-factor theory framework for
commerce market. We applied an integrated importance- analyzing customer satisfaction with OCLQ can resolve the short-
performance-analysis (IPA), underpinned by three-factor theory, comings of traditional IPA, which assumes that attribute perfor-
to assess customer satisfaction with OCLQ. mance and attribute importance are independent of each other and
Traditional IPAs have two drawbacks established by literature that there is a linear and symmetrical relationship between attri-
(Back, 2012): one, “attribute efficiency and attribute importance are bute performance and overall performance (Milosava et al., 2021).
independent of each other,” and the other, “the relationship be- Note also that omnichannel logistics research and practices are
tween attribute performance and overall customer satisfaction primarily focused on countries in mature e-commerce markets (Lee
(OCS) is linear and symmetrical.” However, the relationship be- et al., 2019; Cheah et al., 2020), and few scholars seem interested in
tween the performance scores of the attributes and the OCS can be empirical investigations of emerging markets. Our focus on
asymmetrical. The satisfaction performances of various attribute Thailand, which has an ascendent e-commerce market, is thus
types have different effects on the OCS as well (Matzler et al., 2003; refreshing, and offers insights for researchers working on similar
Milosava et al., 2021). This makes the use of traditional IPAs yield emerging markets.
improper performance or importance scores of attributes that can Finally, our study provides a benchmark for customer satisfac-
lead to incorrect improvement decisions (Albayrak, 2016; Sohn tion with OCLQ attributes between a case study (focal firm) and the
et al., 2017). best competitor in the omnichannel retail market. The insights
We resolve the aforementioned drawbacks through partial gained into OCLQ performance benchmarking should help com-
correlation analysis between attribute performance and OCS to panies better understand their market positions and discover
obtain implicit performance. Further, the three-factor e-commerce possible opportunities to leverage omnichannel logistic strategies.
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D. Sumrit and K. Sowijit Asia Pacific Management Review 28 (2023) 531e543
Fig. 2. E-commerce parcels delivery Trend in Thailand year 2014e2024 F* (Frost & Sullivan, 2016).
The remainder of the paper is organized as follows: Section 2 et al., 2020). We particularly focus on OCLQ attributes during a
provides the theoretical background, including OCLQ, customer customer shopping journey.
satisfaction, IPA, and three-factor theory. Section 3 describes the
research methodology. Section 4 presents the application of this 2.2. Importance-performance analysis
method to a case study and its results. The discussion is presented
in Section 5. Finally, conclusions and future research are presented IPA, as noted in Section 1, is an effective tool for identifying the
in Section 6. product or service attributes offered by a company that require
prioritization in order to increase customer satisfaction (Das &
2. Theory Basu, 2020; Martilla & James, 1977). Customer satisfaction sur-
veys on product or service attributes can help us create a two-
In this section, we review the extant literature using accepted dimensional matrix, or IPA matrix. In this matrix, the importance
scientific academic databases such as Scopus, Web of Science, Sci- of each product or service attribute is plotted along the abscissa
enceDirect, and Emerald. The relevant theoretical knowledge is axis (x axis), whereas their performance is plotted along the (y
summarized as follows. axis).
Conventionally, there are two approaches to measuring the
2.1. OCLQ and customer satisfaction importance of a product or service attribute based on its explicit
importance (self-stated) and implicit importance (Ha & Park, 2021).
Retailers are shifting to omnichannel strategies to respond to The explicit importance (self-stated) can be evaluated by rating
changing customer needs and expectations (Shi et al., 2020). scales, whereas implicit importance can be derived by multiple
Omnichannels are designed to provide integrated shopping chan- regression coefficients (Rial et al., 2008), partial correlation co-
nels, services, and processes (Hickman et al., 2020). They allow efficients (Sever, 2015), and structural equation modelling (Cao &
customers to switch through channels during their shopping Cao, 2017), among others. The IPA matrix is categorized into four
journey (Cheah et al., 2020), and are considered a customer-centric quadrants using the means of performance and importance (Chu &
strategy that blurs channel boundaries in order to provide a smooth Guo, 2015), as depicted in Fig. 3, and the direction of the manage-
customer journey and a seamless customer shopping experience ment scheme for attributes in each quadrant is described below.
regardless of the channel (Lemon & Verhoef, 2016). Attributes located in quadrant I (QI) are characterized by high
Omnichannels can benefit both the customer and the organi- performance and importance evaluation. QI indicates the strength
zation (Hossain et al., 2020). Indeed, omnichannels improve sales of the organization in achieving customer satisfaction with the
and revenue growth, brand loyalty, and purchase frequency service offering. QI attributes are defined as “Keep up the good
(Mishra et al., 2021; Sun et al., 2020). A seamless customer shop- work,” meaning that organizations should maintain a high level of
ping experience in omnichannel retail depends on the efficiency performance for such attributes to sustain their competitiveness.
and effectiveness of logistics (Cotarelo et al., 2021). Here, OCLQ is The attributes located in quadrant II (QII) are characterized by
crucial to achieving customer satisfaction in e-commerce retail high performance and low importance. These attributes are the
businesses (Jo et al., 2020). minor strengths of organizations. QII attributes are defined as
There exists a positive correlation between OCLQ and the level “Possible overkill,” meaning that organizations should pay less
of customer satisfaction (Sun et al., 2020). However, the quality attention to these attributes. The resources allocated to improving
characteristics of the OCLQ are multifaceted. E-commerce cus- these attributes could be “overkill,” and instead should be trans-
tomers often demand quality logistics services during their shop- ferred to other business areas.
ping journey, starting with information search, order, delivery, Attributes located in quadrant III (QIII) are characterized by low
pick-up, and return. The quality attributes are typically related to performance and low importance. These take low priority for
on-time delivery, flexible delivery, real-time delivery tracking, improving the service performance. QIII attributes are defined as
reliability and order-discrepancy handling, sufficient pick-up sta- “Low priority,” meaning that organizational performance is weak,
tions, and return management (Cheah et al., 2020; Davis-Sramek but these attributes do not require additional effort.
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D. Sumrit and K. Sowijit Asia Pacific Management Review 28 (2023) 531e543
Attributes located in quadrant IV (QIV) are characterized by low different effect on customer satisfaction (Patil & Bagodi, 2021).
performance and high importance. These attributes are major Based on Kano's model, the three-factor theory introduces quality
weaknesses of organizations. QIV attributes are defined as attributes as basic, performance, and excitement factors (see Fig. 4)
“Concentrate here,” meaning that these attributes require imme- (Matzler & Sauerwein, 2002; Ting & Chen, 2002). Albayrak et al.
diate improvement actions to close the gap. An organization's (2016) offer concise definitions for each factor.
failure to improve these features can threaten its position in the The basic factor, or dissatisfier, affects the dissatisfaction of the
market and result in a decline in consumer satisfaction. customers when it cannot be delivered. Conversely, it has no effect
As mentioned above, the attributes in QIV are of utmost on customer satisfaction when fulfilled or exceeded. Therefore,
importance for immediate improvement efforts. Controversially, performance degradation for this attribute has a greater influence
attributes in QI are the main organizational competencies that on overall satisfaction than positive performance. The excitement
should be highly maintained, utilized, and promoted. factor, or satisfiers, greatly enhances customer satisfaction when it
Despite the recent popularity of IPA in real-world applications is able to fulfill requirements, but does not cause dissatisfaction
and several fields of research, we find a preponderance of the when it cannot be fulfilled. Thus, attributes with positive perfor-
traditional framework, such as in the analysis of service attributes mance have a greater influence on overall customer satisfaction
in metro-transportation during the COVID-19 pandemic than those with lower performance. The third factor is the perfor-
(Mohammad et al., 2022), socially sustainable practices in restau- mance factor. It increases satisfaction when delivering high per-
rants business (Cynthia et al., 2022), and the services structure in formance and dissatisfaction when delivering low performance.
fishing tourism (Tuija et al., 2022). The relationship between the performance attribute and OCS is
We consider traditional IPA to have two major drawbacks that characterized by linearity and symmetry (Rotar & Kozar, 2017).
make it a flawed strategy for assessing customer satisfaction. First,
traditional IPA uses customers’ self-stated assessment to determine
the attribute importance scores, an approach fraught with biases
and inaccurate results. Second, the traditional IPA assumes that the
relationship between attribute performance and OCS is symmetric
and linear. This is irrational because such a relationship can be
nonlinear and asymmetrical for the basic and excitement attribute
types. Numerous studies have attempted to resolve the weakness of
using explicit importance in traditional IPA. Some scholars modi-
fied the traditional IPA by regressing between performance scores
for attributes and scores for OCS; then, the standard regression
coefficients were used to measure the attribute importance. Others
applied IPA to evaluate competition analysis or conducted a partial
correlation analysis between attribute performance and OCS to
determine attribute importance.
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D. Sumrit and K. Sowijit Asia Pacific Management Review 28 (2023) 531e543
Whereas for the basic and excitement attributes, the relationship (2), and “Very unsatisfied” (1), as measuring scores for both OCLQ
between attribute performance and OCS is characterized by attributes and OCS.
nonlinearity and asymmetry. The survey data obtained from the questionnaire in this section
There are two main characteristics of service attributes in three- were intended for use in the three-factor theory. The partial cor-
factor theory: Performance has an effect on the basic and excite- relation coefficient between the mean score performance of each
ment attributes. When delivering low performance, the basic OCLQ attribute and the mean score of OCS represents the implicit
attribute is crucial, and if delivery performance is high, it is not importance of each OCLQ attribute. Consequently, the relationship
crucial. The excitement attribute is necessary when delivering high between the type of performance attribute and OCS is linear and
performance, but if delivery performance is low, it is not crucial symmetrical. Meanwhile, the relationship between the types of
(Sohn et al., 2017; Ting & Chen, 2002). basic and excitement attributes is characterized by nonlinearity
The relationship between the attribute performance and OCS is and asymmetry. The content validity of the questionnaire was
not always symmetrical or linear. For this reason, the traditional IPA proven by three experts (two academicians and one e-commerce
approach is not rational, because it uses explicit or self-stated industrial expert). The qualifications of the three experts are listed
importance to indicate the importance of customer attributes in Table 2. A pretest reliability test was conducted using 30 ques-
(Albayrak et al., 2016). Therefore, we suggest the following im- tionnaires and passed the statistical test at a ¼ 0:05; a Cronbach's
provements to the traditional IPA. alpha coefficient greater than 0.75 indicates high reliability.
Instead of using a self-stated importance approach, an implicit Before gathering the data, the questionnaire was submitted to
importance approach should be employed (using statistical tech- the Institutional Review Board of Mahidol University to review and
niques such as regression analysis, partial correlation analysis, and approve ethical research issues. All questionnaires stated that all
so on) to determine the importance of attributes. This is because personal information and answers by respondents would be kept
implicit importance can avoid the subjectivity and biases arising confidential and used for academic purposes only. In addition, all
from self-stated customer assessments. information collected from the questionnaires was carefully sum-
Instead of the standard regression coefficients, we recommend marized and reported as a whole.
partial correlation coefficients to measure the importance of the
attributes. This is because partial correlation analysis is more 3.3. Sample and data gathering
appropriate than regression analysis for measuring the relation-
ships between attribute variables (independent variables) and OCS Data were collected using an online questionnaire survey
(dependent variable) when there are multicollinearity problems through Google Forms from January to May 2022. The sample size
within the attribute variables. was calculated using Eq. (1) (Taro Yamane, 1967).
3. Methodology N 1:4x107
n¼ ;n¼ z400; (1)
2
1 þ N\ðeÞ 1þ 1:4x107 x ð0:05Þ2
We divided the research methodology into sequential steps,
including determination of OCLQ attributes through a literature
review, questionnaire development, data correction, computation where n is the required sample size, N is the number of people in
performance attribute scores, deriving attribute implicit impor- the population (approximately 14 million online customers expe-
tance, developing an IPA matrix, and performance benchmarking rienced with the case company's OCLQ service), and e is the error
between the focal firm and the best competitor. Fig. 5 illustrates allowance (5%).
this methodology. A total of 1340 questionnaires were distributed via email and
Facebook Messenger using a non-probability convenience sample.
3.1. Determination of OCLQ attributes A total of 552 questionnaires (41.1% response rate) were returned.
After cleaning the data from the questionnaires, 408 (73.9%) were
A detailed literature review focusing on accepted published completed and used for data analysis. The sample size was suffi-
databases such as Scopus and Web of Science should cover the cient to represent the entire population.
logistics operations, particularly in business-to-customer retail and
parcel e-commerce businesses in the grocery sector, which handles 3.4. Application of integrated IPA and three-factor theory
customer processes throughout the shopping journey (search /
order / delivery / pickup / return). After scanning the key- Derive implicit importance of OCLQ attribute. The self-stated
words “omnichannel retail logistics,” “omnichannel customer explicit importance of each service attribute provided by each
journey,” and “online shopping processes,” we identified 19 OCLQ customer was inaccurate and impractical. Therefore, the concept of
attributes, as illustrated in Fig. 6 and reported in Table 1. implicit importance was substituted for explicit importance by
calculating the correlation between OCLQ performance and OCS to
3.2. Questionnaire development obtain the importance of OCLQ attributes. Multiple regression
analysis (MRA) was used to derive the implicit importance of the
The questionnaire was developed based on the OCLQ attributes OCLQ attributes. In doing so, OCS is treated as a dependent variable,
listed in Table 1. The first section included screening questions to whereas OCLQ attributes are treated as independent variables.
ensure that the respondents had experience using omnichannel However, MRA often faces multicollinearity problems when
services. The second contained respondents’ profiles, such as estimating the regression coefficients. Therefore, MRA is an
gender, age, marital status, level of educational attainment, omni- improper approach for obtaining the implicit importance of OCLQ
channel shopping experience, and frequency of using omnichannel attributes. To solve this problem, partial correlation analysis was
services within the last six months. In section 3, respondents were employed to obtain the implicit importance of OCLQ attributes.
asked to rate their satisfaction with the 19 OCLQ attributes during Partial correlation analysis is more appropriate than MRA for
the shopping journey, including OCS with the services provided by identifying the relationship between independent variables and
the case company. A five-point Likert scale was employed, ranging dependent variables and avoiding multicollinearity problems.
from “Very unsatisfied” (5), “Satisfied” (4), “Fair” (3), “Unsatisfied” Converting independent variables (OCLQ attributes) to natural
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D. Sumrit and K. Sowijit Asia Pacific Management Review 28 (2023) 531e543
Fig. 6. OCLQ attributes along the customer shopping journey (based on literature review analysis).
logarithms can capture the sensitivity of the independent variables. Step I Questionnaires were used to gather customer perceptions
We thus used partial correlations with natural logarithmic dummy of attribute performance and overall customer satisfaction
variables to determine the asymmetric influence of OCLQ attribute for OCLQ.
performance on OCS. The procedure for deriving the implicit Step II Convert all attribute performances (AP) into a natural log-
importance of OCLQ attributes, based on Deng et al.’s (2008) cal- arithmic form using Eq. (2).
culations, is as follows.
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D. Sumrit and K. Sowijit Asia Pacific Management Review 28 (2023) 531e543
Table 1
OCLQ attributes along customer shopping journey.
Search OCLQ1 Searching Customers acknowledge that searching for essential information, such as product, price, Song et al., 2019; Do Vale et al.,
convenience and retail stores information, across all sale channels can be done with convenience. 2021; Huang & Lin, 2022
OCLQ2 Product information Customers acknowledge that product information is adequate and accurate across all sale Lemon & Verhoef, 2016; Lee et al.,
channels. 2019; Cheah et al., 2020
OCLQ3 Share shopping Customers acknowledge that information about shopping experience is shared across all Khan et al., 2016; Payne et al.,
experience sale channels. 2017; Lee et al., 2019
Order OCLQ4 Product availability Customers acknowledge that products ordered are available to satisfy demand across all Lemon & Verhoef, 2016; Khan
sale channels. et al., 2016; Payne et al., 2017
OCLQ5 Channel switching Customers acknowledge that switching their ordering channels from one to another across Beck & Rygl, 2015; Cummins et al.,
all sale channels can be done with convenience and flexibility. 2016; Lee et al., 2019
OCLQ6 Consistent ordering Customers acknowledge that all order channels (physical and online stores) are equally Lemon & Verhoef, 2016; Khan
channel effective in their service quality. et al., 2016; Berman & Thelen, 2018
OCLQ7 Flexible ordering Customers are satisfied with the flexibility of every order channel's (physical and online Khan et al., 2016; Payne et al., 2017
channel stores) response to customer requests.
OCLQ8 Privacy and security Customers are satisfied with the security offered to protect order transactions and that Zhang et al., 2018; Hickman et al.,
sensitive information is not shared across different service channels. 2020
Delivery OCLQ9 Variety of delivery Customers are satisfied with a variety of delivery options across all sale channels. Lemon & Verhoef, 2016; Melero
options et al., 2016; Shi et al., 2020
OCLQ10 Delivery coverage Customers are satisfied with wide coverage areas for product delivery. Zhang et al., 2018; Hickman et al.,
2020
OCLQ11 Delivery information Customers are satisfied with real-time tracking of delivery information throughout the Blom et al., 2017; Shi et al., 2020
visibility order fulfillment processes across all sale channels.
OCLQ12 Delivery time Customers are satisfied with the time between placing and receiving the order and that the Blom et al., 2017; Lee et al., 2019
window product is received within the promised time window across all sale channels.
OCLQ13 Updates delivery Customers are satisfied with prompt updates on delivery service changes on all sale Blom et al., 2017; Zhang et al., 2018
changes channels.
OCLQ14 Resolve delivery Customers are satisfied with how delivery discrepancies are resolved across all sale Lee et al., 2019; Gao et al., 2021
discrepancies channels.
Pick up OCLQ15 Sufficient pick-up Customers are satisfied with the number of pick-up stations to receive the ordered Park & Kim, 2021; Jo et al., 2020
stations products.
OCLQ16 Service hours of Customers are satisfied with the pick-up stations that are available for 24 hours service. Park & Kim, 2021; Jo et al., 2020
pick-up stations
OCLQ17 Service staffs Customers are satisfied with the kind and courteous service staff at the pickup stations. Blom et al., 2017; Zhang et al., 2018
Return OCLQ18 Consistent returns Customers find the returns processing for non-conforming products across all sale Gao et al., 2021; Zhang et al., 2018;
processing channels to be consistent. Shi et al., 2020
OCLQ19 Efficiency and speed Customers are satisfied with the efficiency and speed of the non-conforming return process Gao et al., 2021; Zhang et al., 2018;
of return processes across all sales channels. Shi et al., 2020
Table 2
The qualification details of three experts.
1 Associate professor in public 10 E-commerce logistics, digital logistics and digital service quality
university
2 Assistant professor in public 8 Supply chain strategy, supply chain collaboration, and service quality
university management
3 Director of e-commerce company 14 E-commerce logistics and omnichannel logistics
Step III A multivariate correlation model is formed by setting where sOCSlnðAP1 Þ:lnðAP2 ÞlnðAP3 Þ…ln ðAPn Þ represents the standard de-
ln ðAPi Þ as the independent variable and OCS as the viation of the conditional probability distribution of OCS, lnðAP1 Þ,
dependent variable. when lnðAP2 Þ; lnðAP3 Þ; …; lnðAPn Þ are controlled, and
Step IV Conduct a partial correlation analysis for each ln ðAPi Þ with sOCS:lnðAP2 Þ:lnðAP3 Þ…lnðAPn Þ represents the standard deviation of the
the OCS using Eq. (3). The coefficient of partial correlation conditional probability distribution of OCS when lnðAP2 Þ; lnðAP3 Þ;
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D. Sumrit and K. Sowijit Asia Pacific Management Review 28 (2023) 531e543
…; lnðAPn Þ are controlled, and slnðAP1 Þ:lnðAP2 ÞlnðAP3 Þ…ln ðAPn Þ repre- The BR of each OCLQ attribute can be computed using Eq. (7).
sents the standard deviation of the conditional probability dis-
tribution of lnðAP1 Þ when lnðAP2 Þ; lnðAP3 Þ; …; lnðAPn Þ are FPi
BRi ¼ ; (7)
controlled. CPi
The assumption of a linear and symmetrical relationship be-
tween AP and OCS can be resolved because the partial correlation where BRi is the benchmark ratio of the ith OCLQ attribute, FPi is the
between OCS and AP includes the characteristics of the attribute performance score of the ith OCLQ attribute of the focal firm, and CPi
category in three-factor theory. It can tackle potential multi- is the performance score of the ith OCLQ attribute of the best
collinearity between independent variables when using MRA to competitors. If BRi > 1, the focal firm performs the ith OCLQ attribute
derive the implicit importance of OCLQ attributes. In addition, the better than its best competitor. If BRi < 1, the focal firm performs
conversion of the attribute scores to natural logarithmic values can the ith OCLQ attribute lower than its best competitor.
capture the sensitivity of the correlation model.
Develop IPA matrix. The results of the OCLQ attribute implicit 4. Case study
importance are used as input for the modified IPA. The modified IPA
approach consists of the following four steps. This case study focuses on a leading e-commerce retailer (from
here on, “Company”) in Thailand. Company is a venture between
Step I The IPA matrix is divided into four quadrants using the Thailand's largest retailer and China's largest e-commerce firm. Its
mean value of all implicit importance of OCLQ attributes on market position in terms of sales volume for business-to-customer
the abscissa axis (x axis) and the mean value of all perfor- e-commerce is currently as a “follower.”
mances for OCLQ attributes on the ordinate axis (y axis). Competition in Thailand's e-commerce market has intensified.
Step II Plot all OCLQ attributes on the IPA matrix. The implicit To cope with this situation, Company launched an omnichannel
importance of OCLQ attributes is on the x-axis, and the business model in the Thai market in 2020 by integrating all point-
performance for OCLQ attributes is on the y-axis. of-sale channels, retail stores, inventories, distributions, and
Step III The results of the IPA matrix serve as a guide for managers returns into a single platform. The ultimate goal was to enhance
to improve their OCLQ services. The OCLQ attributes are in customers' shopping experience and increase their competitive
Quadrant IV (“Concentrate here”), which are the first pri- edge. It operates omnichannel logistics activities using in-house
ority in corrective actions. resources and third-party logistics service providers, and plans to
Step IV The attributes contained in Quadrant IV (“Concentrate expand customer bases and enhance market competitiveness using
here”) can be prioritized for improvement using relative omnichannel logistics as a strategic weapon. Understanding
distance ðDj Þ as Eqs. (4)e(6) (Cheng et al., 2015). customer perceptions of OCLQ attributes by comparing main e-
vffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi commerce market competitors can help Company accomplish
u0 12 0 12 specific goals. This study's framework provides a systematic
u
u RP RI I approach for assessing customer satisfaction with OCLQ attributes
Dj ¼ u
t@maxRP A þ @ A ;
j j
(4)
j maxRIj I and benchmarking them with their competitors.
j j
4.1. Results
Ij
RIj ¼ ; and (5) 4.1.1. Respondent profile
I
The profiles of 408 respondents were categorized into different
1 groups based on gender, age, marital status, level of educational
Pj attainment, omnichannel shopping experience, and frequency of
RPj ¼ ; (6)
P using omnichannel services within the last six months. Among the
408 respondents, 39.7% were male and 60.3% were female.
where I j represents the average importance of service attribute j
Regarding age, those who were 18e25, 26e35, 36e45, 46e55, and
and I stands for the average importance of all service attributes; P j 55 years and above accounted for 17.89%, 37.78%, 21.57%, 15.44%,
stands for the perceived average performance of service attribute j and 9.31% of the total sample, respectively. Regarding marital sta-
and P stands for the perceived average performance of all service tus, 43.14% were single and 56.86% were married. Further, 8.3% had
attributes. at least completed high school, whereas 36.52% had a bachelor's
Benchmarking with the best competitor. At present, it is com- degree, 43.87% had a master's degree, and 11.27% had a PhD degree.
mon practice for businesses to monitor competitors' performance Regarding omnichannel shopping experience, 5.64% had less than 1
regularly (Garver, 2003). In contrast, in the current highly year, 40.20% had 1e3 years, 32.60% had 3e5 years, and 21.57% had
competitive market, not identifying your competitors can be fatal more than 5 years of experience. The frequency of using omni-
to business. Benchmarking is the process of measuring a company's channel services within the last 6 months by respondents was 1e3
quality performance against that of its major competitors. This times (2.70%), 4e6 times (19.36%), and more than 6 times (77.94%).
approach provides insight into the following pertinent questions: The complete details of the respondents' profiles are presented in
What are our major competitors doing? What are their practices? Table 3.
What are their strategic directions? What strategy can the company
deploy, and how to achieve competitive advantage? 4.1.2. Perceives performance satisfaction of OCLQ attributes
We conducted the performance benchmarking of OCLQ attri- The OCLQ customer satisfaction questionnaires of the 408 re-
butes between the case company (focal firm) and the best spondents were statistically analyzed using IBM SPSS version 26
competitor in the Thai e-commerce marketplace. In the benchmark and presented in terms of mean performance scores and standard
ratio (BR) approach, the mean performance scores of the focal firm deviations, as shown in Table 2. As per Table 4, the mean of per-
is divided by the mean performance scores of the best competitors formance scores for 19 OCLQ attributes ranged from a high of 4.39
(Deng et al., 2008). This approach can resolve the limitations to a low of 2.64. All OCLQ attributes have standard deviations of
associated with conventional gap analysis. 1.04 mostly.
538
D. Sumrit and K. Sowijit Asia Pacific Management Review 28 (2023) 531e543
Table 4
Mean performance scores and standard deviations of OCLQ attributes.
Customer journey Code Omnichannel logistics service quality Mean performance scores Standard deviation
539
D. Sumrit and K. Sowijit Asia Pacific Management Review 28 (2023) 531e543
Table 5
The mean performance scores and implicit importance of each OCLQ attribute.
Customer Code Omnichannel logistics service Mean performance Implicit importance scores of OCLQ attributes (partial Rank IPA quadrant
journey quality scores correlation coefficient)
Table 6
Improved prioritization for attributes in Quadrant IV.
A gap analysis was then performed using the mean difference BRi > 1 are OCQ1, OCQ3, OCQ4, OCQ9, OCQ12, OCQ15, OCQ16, and
between the two companies. A statistical t-test (at 0.5 significant OCQ17, whereas the attributes with BRi < 1 are OCQ2, OCQ5, OCQ6,
level) was also conducted to determine the significant differences OCQ7, OCQ8, OCQ10, OCQ11, OCQ13, OCQ14, OCQ18, and OCQ19.
in the performance means. As shown in Table 7, the attributes with
540
D. Sumrit and K. Sowijit Asia Pacific Management Review 28 (2023) 531e543
Table 7
Benchmark ratio ðBRi Þ for OCLQ attributes between focal firm and the best competitor.
FP i
Customer Code Omnichannel logistics service quality Mean performance scores Gap (FP-BP) Statistical t-test (t- Performance ratio
CP i
journey values)
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