Application of the AHP for Evaluating Third-Party Logistics Service Quality: Shipper's Perspective

제3자물류 서비스 품질 평가를 위한 AHP의 적용에 관한 연구: 화주기업의 관점에서

This study applies the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) to evaluate service quality of Third-Party Logistics (3PL) providers. For this, 3PL service quality is conceptualized and measured using SERVQUAL's five dimensions such as tangibles, reliability, responsiveness, assurance and empathy. Then, the AHP method is applied to determining the relative importance of five service quality dimensions and eventually selecting the best 3PL provider. Finally, this study conducts an empirical case study on four companies providing 3PL services in Korea to demonstrate the basic idea suggested in this paper. The results obtained in the present study indicate that responsiveness to customers is the most important factor perceived by 3PL customers and 3PL C is the best 3PL provider according to the overall service quality scores. In contrast to some previous researches, this study examined issues of service quality from the perspective of 3PL customers as opposed to the perspective of 3PL providers. In order for this study to be more complete, future research is needed in establishing a set of metrics to quantify each dimension of 3PL service quality proposed.