Assessing the impact of sustainable logistics service quality on relationship quality: Survey-based evidence in Egypt

Logistics services support customer-relationship building in the supply chain and help the buying companies establish and maintain a sustainable competitive advantage. To empirically quantify the effect, we introduce the Sustainable Logistics Service Quality (SLSQ) scale and measure the impact of SLSQ on customer satisfaction and relationship quality in the Egyptian market. Our quantitative research builds on 421 responses collected from small and medium-sized enterprises in Egypt. The identified relationships are tested using maximum likelihood structural equation modeling (ML-SEM) and mediation analysis. The results show that customer satisfaction with SLSQ indeed positively affects single relationship quality second-order dimensions. We further tested the indirect relationships between customer satisfaction, dependence, trust, and commitment confirming the important mediating roles of dependence and trust for relationship quality building. While the study contributes to a better understanding of the underlying mechanisms to build relationship quality, it additionally provides recommendations to increase the performance of LSPs in emerging countries such as Egypt. Finally, the results are discussed against previous literature and concluded by showing limitations and potential future research avenues.