Transportation is considered as one of the major components of the logistics process which refers to managing the movement of goods by using different modes and routes to provide the required level of service quality in a cost-effective way. Decisions regarding the choice of particular modes or routes and the processes involved include many different criteria to be considered by the buyers of these services. Although previous literature focused heavily on the carrier and mode selection processes, a detailed analysis of the decision-making in terms of the main stages and relevant factors in multimodal transport from a marketing perspective has been limited. This thesis explores the decision-making and buying process related to multimodal transportation by considering multimodal transport as an overall service and investigating the buying processes of freight forwarders as one of the important intermediaries in the transportation channel. Turkey has been selected as a specific case study. The research aims to examine the perceptions regarding multimodal transport according to some determined criteria by considering the factors related to the business environment and the buying process on the part of the participants. A triangulation method is used to analyse the buying process of freight forwarders in multimodal transport. Firstly, exploratory semi-structured interviews were carried out; secondly, a Delphi study was conducted to obtain an insight into the multimodal transport applications in Turkey by focusing on the main drawbacks, the decision-making processes and the related criteria. The findings of the semi-structured interviews and Delphi study provided a basis for the survey design as the next stage of the thesis. Thirdly, a survey questionnaire was conducted with the participation of freight forwarding companies; it aimed to explore the buying process in multimodal transport by focusing on the mode choice perspective. Factors related to the business environment and the perceptionso f the respondentsw ith regardst o multimodal transport were analysed. Lastly, a specific case study which focused on the different route and mode combinations between Turkey and United Kingdom was conducted. The case study used a specific cost model to analyse the possible routeing options and mode combinations between the two countriesb y consideringt he perceptionso f the participantsa bout the options presented. Since Turkey is still developing in terms of multimodal transport operations, an in-depth analysis regarding the perceptions about this specific transport operation according to some determined criteria and the investigation of buying process by integrating the logistics and marketing management concepts has been an important contribution of the study.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:bl.uk/oai:ethos.bl.uk:528076 |
| Date | January 2010 |
| Creators | Denktas Sakar, Gul |
| Publisher | Cardiff University |
| Source Sets | Ethos UK |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
Page generated in 0.0022 seconds