| 摘要: | 資訊應用服務已成為資訊科技服務產業中成長最快速的事業。資訊應用服務 (Application Service Providers) 是透過網路以租賃的方式提供應用軟體服務，業者所提供的服務主要是以模組化與標準化服務為主。若所提供的是標準化的可替換服務，對於企業顧客而言，很容易由於成本效益的比較而轉換供應商。因為對於應用服務業者而言，重新找一個新的夥伴或顧客的成本大於維持既有的關係，資訊應用服務供應商很努力地想要找出如何增加企業顧客忠誠度的方法。這種現象在台灣的通關服務產業中亦同等的重要。在台灣，通關服務可說是資訊應用服務產業中最成熟的領域。對於通關服務供應商而言，如何維持顧客忠誠度的議題特別重要，若能了解會影響這些企業顧客忠誠度的因素，進而採取相對應的方法，對於企業顧客與供應商來說，都是相當有利的。在競爭激烈的環境中，成本效益因素是很容易受到模仿學習，而使得所有的供應商看起來都很類似，唯有良好的服務品質與關心，才能突顯自己的特色。因此，本研究以台灣的通關服務業為研究對象，透過投資模型觀點與關係管理觀點，同時考量心理情感與經濟成本效益等兩種不同來源的因素。以探討對於企業顧客而言，除了從經濟考量為出發點的轉換障礙之外，關係管理中最重要的信任與承諾是否也是應用服務供應商必須逐漸加強的重要因素。此外，本研究亦希望了解心理情感與經濟成本效益考量如何分別地影響顧客忠誠度，這些影響是否會因為情境因素而有所不同。 本研究透過郵寄問卷的方式收集問卷，經分析之後得到以下四項重要結果。第一，心理情感與經濟成本效益考量同時都會增加顧客對資訊應用服務業者的忠誠度。累積好的服務品質與溝通品質會增加顧客的信心，在建立信心之後，可以提升顧客對服務業者的「情感承諾」，進而維持忠誠度。若是能增加顧客對資訊服業者的投入資源規模，或是降低顧客感受到來自於競爭對手的吸引力，都能夠建立顧客的轉換障礙。在轉換障礙很高的情況下，顧客自然會產生不得不繼續留在目前這個資訊服業者下的感覺。雖然在主效果的資料分析中，「持續承諾（經濟因素）」與「忠誠度」之間的關係不顯著，但是在關係強度調節效果的分析中，這個效果是正向且顯著的。第二，在所有的前置影響因子中，服務品質對忠誠度的效果最為顯著且強烈，同時，服務品質對信任的正向影響也很大，顯示服務品質在通關資訊服務的領域中，是維持顧客忠誠度的關鍵因素。第三，心理情感相關因素對忠誠度的直接與間接效果，大都大於經濟成本效益考量因素的影響。此外，「情感承諾」對忠誠度的影響也大於「持續承諾」，顯示心理情感相關因素在跨組織的關係中，也是值得注意的一環。第四，關係強度會調節「承諾」與「忠誠度」之間的關係。當關係強度高時，只有「情感承諾」會顯著地增加忠誠度；然而在關係強度低時，只有「持續承諾」會顯著地增加忠誠度。如果資訊服務業者能夠確認每位顧客與自己的關係強度，針對不同的強度關係，加強情感心理因素的聯結或是增加經濟效益的誘因，或許更能夠有效地藉由忠誠度的增加而產生利潤。 The growth of application service providers has been phenomenal in IT service industry worldwide. Nevertheless, customers can easily switch from one supplier to another based on the comparison between cost and benefit if their service is comprised with modularized and standard components. Application service providers have to try their best to enhance the loyalty of existing customers, because it costs more to attract a new customer than to maintain existing customers. This phenomenon is especially remarkable in the area of logistics information service, the most mature ASPs field in Taiwan. It has been an imperative strategy for logistics information service providers to understand how to build customer loyalty in order to create value for themselves and for customers. Other suppliers can easily imitate the competitive edge derived from price and cost factors in a highly competitive environment. Starting from the perspective of investment model and relationship management, there are two important factors, psychological consideration and economical consideration to be discussed in this study in order to investigate the determinants of loyalty formation in the area of logistics information service. Psychological considerations include service quality, trust and affective commitment. Economical considerations are mainly derived from switching barriers. Moreover, the comparative importance of psychological considerations and economical considerations are further explored based on the perspectives of relational exchange theory and relationship development process. Empirical result from a questionnaire survey leads to several findings. First, both psychological and economical factors influence customer loyalty to an ASP simultaneously. Service and communication quality facilitate trust building, in turn promote affective commitment to the current relationship. Increasing investment size and reducing attractiveness of alternatives also build up switching barriers. High switching barriers induce customers’ continuous commitment. Initial analysis of main effect does not support the association between continuous commitment and loyalty. However, further analysis reveals that the association between continuous commitment and loyalty is moderated by relationship strength. Second, among all proposed antecedents, service quality is the most important determinant to the degree of loyalty and trust. Promoting customer service quality is necessary for pursuing long-term relationships. Third, the indirect influence of trust on loyalty through affective commitment is greater than of switching barrier on loyalty through continuous commitment. Besides, the effect of affective commitment is greater than of continuous commitment in this study. The result shows that it will be better to pay attention to psychological consideration in a B2B relationship. Finally, relationship strength moderates the association among continuous commitment, affective commitment and loyalty. In the case of low relationship strength, continuous commitment primarily contributes to loyalty, while affective commitment is the major contributor in the case of high relationship strength. If ASPs can propose distinct manner based on the variation of relationship strength, the consequence of customer retention will be better and effective. |
