Passenger Service Dominance through Brand Loyalty: An Idiosyncratic View of Starline Bus Service (Pvt.) Limited

Continuous improvements of bus services ensure passengers’ well-being. Quality services amalgamated with low price are dominating factors to change passengers’ views in this aspect. With contentions to previous ideology, passengers’ choices stick to a particular bus service provider especially Starline Bus Services (Pvt.) Limited, Bangladesh in compare to other transport (bus) services available on the way of Feni to Chittagong. Hypotheses were set based on fact-finding relationships and justified through 411 sample responses both for loyalty and satisfaction in relation to key predictors like quality service, one stop service, waiting time, price, income, and brand belief and found very convincing roles of the same to develop impregnable brand loyalty of Starline. As a result, those predictors possibly opted to create supremacy in travel service in this region and even considerable factors in future for building loyalty toward passenger travelling services.


Introduction
Passenger travelling services of Bangladesh is historically facing challenges from its inception with the blame of non-consistency of services, but competition tries to keep standard. From the scenario of transport operations, the general quality of services at all levels by all modes of Bangladesh have been found poor and unreliable succinct with safety & security issues (Mahmud. Rahman & Hasanat-E-Rabbi, 2012). However, desired service expectations with emerging transport technologies remain uneven due to lack of available data on ridership (Shaheen, Totte, & Stocker, 2018). Rationally, lessening travel time with safety and reasonable travel cost in context to quality bus services can contribute on economic advancement of a country (Enoch, 2003).
The determination of absolute universally accepted parameter on transport sector is not out of debate (Brady & Cronin Jr, 2001;Cronin & Taylor, 1994). However, for the scenario of satisfaction and loyalty, new and pragmatic elements were utilized in different multivariate aspects (Andreassen & Lindestad, 1998;Bloemer & Kasper, 1995;Butcher, Sparks, & O'Callghan, 2001;Cronin et.al., 2000;Dick & Basu, 1994;Fornell et.al., 1996;Hellier, 2003;Stank et.al., 1999;Ostrowski, O'Brien, & Gordon, 1993). As per the prior considerations, the present study is set for materialization of the absolute dispensations of Starline Bus Services, very regionally at Feni, Bangladesh. The items like waiting time and stoppage lead the competition of Starline in case of service dominance even though few services are very much identical to other service providers in this region. So, the justification of the role of key passengers' service indicators in terms of satisfaction and loyalty are quite indispensable for changing parameter of travelling practices. From the general state of affairs, the differences from the view point of service indicator characteristics between Starline and other service providers are not obvious to enjoy excessive performance/ flexibility of dominance what they are enjoying right now. Hence, the study tried to explore the reasons behind the passenger's absolute preference toward Starline through incorporating key service indicator characteristics and also to measure the effect of the same on satisfaction and loyalty.

Starline Bus Services Limited
Feni, a small and populated district located in the south-eastern part of Bangladesh, is bounded by Comilla district on the north, Chittagong district and the Bay of Bengal to the south, Tripura (Indian State) and Chittagong district to the east and Noakhali district to the west (Banglapedia). So, passengers are always remain vigilant and traveling from Chittagong to Feni and Feni to Chittagong. There are a number of transport services available on the way of Feni to Chittagong and vice-versa, which are categorized as (i) Direct service without Stoppage at Feni, (ii) Direct service with stoppage at Feni and (iii) Local services.
Visibly, Starline is considered to be one of the oldest service providers particularly on passenger travelling services in Feni region and getting excessive preferences from passengers for quality services and strong brand belief. Very specifically, the waiting time for Starline services is 15-20 minutes with a fare of tk.150/person which is exactly 50% more than the other direct passenger traveling services with stoppage at Feni (Tisha Plus, Soudia, Grambangla etc. charge tk. 100/person). The reasons behind this excessive price flexibility are supposed to be waiting time, one stop service, and certainty of services. The other bus services are carrying passengers via Feni on the way of Comilla to Chittagong by a stoppage at Feni. Hence; the minimum and maximum number of passengers can avail the services are not fixed because that depends on the vacant seat available at the Comilla terminal. Out of the direct services other than Starline, another bus service, Tisha Plus is reaching the destination earlier (because it does not have any stoppage other than Feni on the way of Comilla to Chittagong, but Starline has 3/4 stoppage on the way of Feni to Chittagong). Very interestingly, even in rush hours (Thursday evening, Friday or even Saturday) or traffic jam when Starline charges (In few cases tk. 200/person) more than regular price, passengers were in queue to pay more to Starline where other services are waiting for passenger at a regular fare. So, the price influence on demand and supply law is volatile subject to the circumstances stated above. Therefore, these preferences have been accelerating the path way of Starline to do business in a monopoly nature. So, the study aims to identify the substantial factors affecting passengers' perception for travelling through Feni to Chittagong and check the contribution of each factor construct on loyalty and satisfaction.

Literature Review
Basically, personal needs educate customers depending on experience. In these scenario, perceived service alternatives were aware of competitive offerings and addressed to match appropriately with needs. The brand belief or reputations of Starline in this area is sky top for longer service tenure. In fact, company's reputation generally described as a combination of the stakeholders' assessments between company's earlier role and how well the company's general performances coping with the social and political environment (Logsdon & Wood, 2002). Finally, self -perceived service roles educate customers to understand their roles and how to perform better. In order to predict travel behavior, it is important to understand how individual characteristics of a person interact with the characteristics of the situation, therefore understanding the positive and negative evaluative factors influencing destination choices of the people are worth considerable (March & Woodside, 2006;Laws, 1995;Holloway, 2004 (2014) assessed the service quality for retaining passengers of transport. Irrespective of the differentiation, quality service is another option to get ahead in the competition (Buttle, 1996). Consequently, it creates chances to change in daily transport habits (Dell'Olio, Ibeas & Cecin, 2011).
Irrespective to habitual dependency on quality service, passengers' choices vary for transport selection depending on income or affordability (Carruthers, Dick & Saurker, 2005). In earlier research, income as a passenger characteristic was tested for most accurate demand forecasting (Blainey & Mulley, 2013;Ghalehkhondabi, Ardjmand, Young, & Weckman, 2019). Moreover, Semeida (2014) considered income for predicting passengers' demand, even for international passengers. In addition, low income tends to limit the travel frequency or number of trips, even changes in selecting modes of transport (Carruthers, Dick & Saurker, 2005).
Price restricts the consumer choices especially for price sensitive consumers (Vodopivec, & Miller-Hooks, 2017). However, Rystam (1998) supported price/fare as the most common persuasive factor of transportation. Additionally, Litman (2013) has given importance on price constructs very specifically, on discomfort, time of travel and risks whereas changes in price as we know are caused by location decisions, vehicle type, type of service selected, and frequency of travel. In this aspect, Suryani, Chou, & Chen (2010) developed the scenario model of travel fare for predicting passengers' demand irrespective of mode of vehicles. Trust leads to a higher level of loyalty relative to travel fare  by creating favorable and positive intentions (Ballester & Aleman, 2001). Again, depending on customer belief or trust perception, the success of a marketing strategy has been evaluated on the level of customer satisfaction (Flavian, Martinez, & Polo, 2001). On the other hand, it is also argued that behavioral intention works for stimulating positive reputations to develop trust among the passengers (Park, Robertson & Wu, 2004). But depending on long-term sustainable belief, either a brand name or positive corporate image, a differentiating element having incomparable sensational views (Jo Hatch & Schultz, 2003), might work better than the transport firms that concentrate only on passengers carrying or, go for generating short term revenues (Van Phuong, & Hieu, 2018).
A preferred product/service might cause repetitive brand patronage despite of situational influences subject to re-buying tendency of consumers. But marketing efforts which developed the psychological attachment to a service (Beatty, Kahle, & Homer, 1988) had the potentials to cause switching behavior (Oliver, 1997). On the other hand, one stop service which worked for perception indicator (Deb & Ahmed, 2018;Efthymiou, Kaziales, Antoniou, & Tyrinopoulos, 2014) is the preferential service for loyal passengers for reaching destination in-time (Shaaban & Khalil, 2013;Suman, Bolia, & Tiwari, 2018). This one stop service basically differentiates the local and direct services in passenger travelling services where no passenger should uplift other than bus counter.
The regularity of services provided by the transport authority is used to assess the quality of services which ultimately results in satisfaction of the passengers (Eboli & Mazzulla, 2011). Apart from the influences on loyalty, it creates an indispensable attempt for passenger satisfaction (Tyrinopoulos & Antoniou, 2008). Generally, the ultimate satisfaction among the passengers can be bred through perceived value on the quality services (VanLierop & El-Geneidy, 2016). As a result, this value is considered as one of the important constructs for achieving both satisfaction and loyalty (Gallarza & Saura, 2006).
More specifically, customer loyalty is the degree to which the customer has exhibited repurchasing behavior toward a particular company service/product (Hellier et.al., 2003). It's basically a commitment of the passengers for repurchase consistently in future with a very strong positive attitude (Sangadji & Sopiah, 2013). In case of transport service industry, passengers' satisfaction is the consequences of service optimization which works as a predictor of passenger loyalty (Lai, & Chen, 2011;Rezaei, Mazaheri, & Azadavar, 2017). Additionally, true brand loyalty not only repeats purchasing behavior but also commits positive psychological and evaluative decision-making approach (Bloemer & Kasper, 1995).
Along with the key variables, there are few non-substantial factors available like access to public transportation or access to major streets, lifestyle, competition, emergency, service accessibility, cleanliness, staff hospitality, safe journey, and so on. But this study worked with the factors to identify the real preferences on Starline Bus Services Limited having more flexibility that is basically exceeding the most common consideration for selecting a transport (bus) service from earlier researches. Thus, the matter itself stimulates interest to the author for empirical evidence. To maintain the sustainable development of the traveling structure and services from the perspective of passenger choice mode behavior in this region, behavioral justification of the passenger choice pattern is quite essential for seeking unknown behavioral intention of passengers especially on Starline.

Hypotheses of the Study
Hypothesis 1: Income (I) has a positive effect on satisfaction; Hypothesis 2: Income (I) has a positive effect on loyalty; Hypothesis 3: Price (P) has a positive effect on satisfaction; Hypothesis 4: Price (P) has a positive effect on loyalty; Hypothesis 5: Quality Service (QS) has a positive effect on satisfaction; Hypothesis 6: Quality Service (QS) has a positive effect on loyalty.
Hypothesis 7: Brand Belief (BrB) has a positive effect on satisfaction; Hypothesis 8: Brand Belief (BrB) has a positive effect on loyalty.
Hypothesis 9: One stop service (OSS) has a positive effect on satisfaction; Hypothesis 10: One stop service (OSS) has a positive effect on loyalty; Hypothesis 11: Waiting time (WT) has a positive effect on satisfaction; Hypothesis 12: Waiting time (WT) has a positive effect on loyalty.

Conceptual Model
Based on the literature review, the hypothesis and measurement model formulated for the exogenous variable and the endogenous variables as shown in figure-I to explain the relationship among the factors of passenger transport services on satisfaction and loyalty.

Methodology
The objective of the research is to examine the relationships among predictors and criterion variable particularly on transport sector of Bangladesh. Owing to objectives, this research considered factor analysis in order to make the appropriate group of variables from different service paradigm in different categories and again used the structural equation model of the latent variables with the intensity to satisfaction and loyalty.
The study is considered survey method for data collection. On the view point of individual initiatives for cost purposes and easy distribution, convenience sampling technique was used to get required number of samples. The population was the passengers travelling frequently form Feni to Chittagong, Bangladesh by using the Starline Paribahan Ltd. and other passenger transports. The sample size was targeted 450 initially, but 411 (91%) were selected based on avoiding missing responses and it is appropriate with standard of 100-200 respondents for unknown or very large population (Hair et. al., 2006). Similarly, to measure the concentration on loyalty and satisfaction, the perception survey questionnaire measured through earlier suggested measures opined by the researchers/experts (Hu & Jen, 2006, Nguyen, & Leblanc, 2001 and also changes made by states using a five-point closed order Likert scale, where 1 indicates that the variable is not important at all and 5 is very important with extensive support from the literature. Consistently, questionnaires were distributed among the passengers waiting for traveling through Starline in counters at Feni and Chittagong. Likewise, the questionnaire included the very common personal demographic information like age, gender and income, various dimensions of quality services, waiting time, one stop service, brand belief, price (bus fare), satisfaction and loyalty (by 39 items in total).
The most frequent measurement of transport sector evaluated through the factor of quality service which items are derived from the research on Shaaban & Khalil (2013). In addition, the satisfaction related parameters were included from Mai et al., (2013) and Shaaban & Khalil (2013 Roch & Poister (2006). Another crucial factor such as income was materialized from the reviewing the literature particularly on Mai et al., (2013); Shaaban & Khalil (2013). With similar fashion, the items considered in earlier researches of SumChau & Ngai et al., (2010); and Mai, et al, (2013) were reconsidered as the suitable elements for brand belief or trust. On the other hand, the price or bus fare was measured through the items covered from Friman, Edvardsson & Garling (2001); Mai et al., (2013) and Shaaban & Khalil (2013).

Data Analysis
To assess direct relationships among the studied variables the researcher has performed confirmatory factor analysis and structural equation modeling . SPSS 22 and AMOS 22 had been used to perform these analyses. These analyses supposed to help to understand the model fit by presenting a credible assessment on the antecedents of loyalty of passenger transport services of Bangladesh.

Factor Analysis
The collected data then were analyzed by applying factor analysis using SPSS 22.0. Both the factor analysis namely Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA) and Confirmatory Factory Analysis (CFA) were used with a view to grouping variables depending on the value of correlation among the items for the prior and identifying relationship among the variables for the latter.

Sampling Adequacy of Data
The KMO value is 0.872 which indicates the sampling adequacy of data in table 01.

Reliability
In measuring reliability coefficient, the different constructs were computed using the reliability procedure in SPSS 22. The reliabilities of the entire construct used in this study found to be above the standard set which is 0.70 (Nunnally, 1978). The range of Cronbach's alpha shows the reliability of the variables of research ranges from α = 0.871 to α = 0.922 in table 03 (Appendix B).

Normality Test
With the previous set guidelines for checking normality through Skewness and Kurtosis were used where positive and negative value indicates the direction of positive and negative relations respectively (Saunders, Lewis & Thornhill, 2009) and the threshold values for justification were +/-3 and +/-10 for Skewness and Kurtosis respectively (Kline, 2005). In addition, table 04 (Appendix C) results that the mean for satisfaction (3.4) is the highest while for quality service (2.79) is the lowest, though highest dispersion goes with one stop service (1.04). The skewness and kurtosis are ranged from 0.023 and 0.958, but within the expected values of skewness and kurtosis. Hence the data is normally distributed.

Multi-collinearity Test
To test the linear association among predictors and the degree of relationship, Pearson Correlation analysis has been used to check the issue of multicollinearity having score more than +/-0.90 (Hair, Bush & Ortinau, 2006).
From the table 05 (Appendix D) of correlation matrix, the highest coefficient value shown is 0.87 which is not close to the limit of multi-collinearity issues.

Common Method Bias
To check the common method biasness, the un-rotated Harman's single factor analysis was done owing to the suggestion of Hair, Hult, Ringle, Sarstedt & Thiele (2017) [ with the condition of less than 50% of total variance explained by a factor] where found 12.10% of total variance explained by one factor meaning to satisfy the condition of less than 50%.

Demographic Analysis
Out of 411valid respondents in the survey, there were 70% male and 30% female respondents. Most of the participants were traveling through Starline Services several times and aged between 20-50+ years where maximum percentage belonging to as 30-40 years as 45%, followed by 40-50 years as 30%, 50+ years as 10%, and aged between 20-30 years were 13%.

Convergent Validity Analysis
For the case of convergent validity, the higher the loading (More than 0.70), the better chance to avail acceptability where the threshold value is at least 0.50 (Hair, et al.2014). From the factor loading perspective, the minimum acceptable value is 0.60 which satisfied the condition as claimed by earlier literature.
With respect to the values of composite reliability (CR) and average variance extracted (AVE) for the selected variables, the minimum acceptable limit was more than equal to 0.50 (Lawson-Body & Limayen, 2004). Again, this issue also be solved by having no values under 0.50 means to reasonable internal consistency.

Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA)
Confirmatory factor analysis was used here to measure the construct validity of the model whereas convergent validity is for existence of construct determined by the correlations exhibited by independent measures of the construct. To assess convergent validity the loading estimates and construct reliability were investigated. In AMOS 22, convergent validity can be measured using the measurement model by determining the significant value of each item's estimated pattern coefficient on its posited underlying construct factor   & Bonett, 1980;Hair et.al., 2006). Thus, an NNFI = 0.962 for this study implies good fit. From the above goodness-of-fit evaluation, confirmatory factor analysis for the final measurement model reasonably supported the model's fit.

Structural Equation Model (SEM)
A structural model is fit to the data according to the model structure given in the figure 01(Appendix A). All the paths are assessed to find significant positive standardized path coefficients. The goodness of fit indices for the final structure model, shown in the bottom part of table 07 (Appendix E), suggests a good fit to the data: small ratio of chi-square to degree of freedom (<2), great values of GFI, AGFI, CFI, NFI (>0.9) and RMSEA values (<0.05). In accordance with the parameter estimates shown in figure 02 (Appendix F) and table 08, all the factors have positive effect on both satisfaction and loyalty and these findings are proposed in H1 to H12. The analysis results also yield that satisfaction related positively and significantly with loyalty and this finding proposed in H13.

The Hypothesized Casual Structure Model
As shown in

Discussion
The transport and travel services of Bangladesh provide service variety in context to the varying nature of demand and buying power. The customers prone to quality service at a fair cost are tremendously wanting. Though the study covered only a specific region with limited number of respondents, the intensity of customers toward the brand is not negligible. The maximum factors affecting both the satisfaction and loyalty were brand belief, one stop service, quality service and waiting time to get the added advantage for the Starline services.
The earlier research of May, Grant-Muller, Marsden, & Thanos (2008) considered the quality service and got the significant involvement with satisfaction which is identical to this study. In addition, another study of Eboli, Forciniti, & Mazzulla, (2018) also supports the similarities about the findings. This is, basically certified the strength of the Starline service and keeping passengers retained toward their traveling service.
Based on the earlier research done by Eboli, Forcinitu & Mazzulla (2018), the dimensions set for quality assessment of the services are quite significant with this study. By the similarities with the findings of the Bakti & Sumaedi (2015), the quality services that identified through constituents like safety and other issues are also found quite influential accordingly with the hypotheses. However, this paper re-confirms the hypothesis headed to satisfaction and loyalty through quality service, income with the similarities from the earlier researches of de Oña & de Oña (2015) and Lai & Chen (2011). So, it is certainly meant that the higher the positivity towards the services, the higher the satisfaction, which ultimately leads to satisfaction. These hypotheses were related to the findings of Jomnonkwao & Ratanavaraha (2016)'s study. In connection to satisfaction, the income of the passengers also influences the satisfaction having resemblance to past study of Blainey & Mulley (2013).
As per Research conducted by Flavian, Martinez, & Polo (2001), trust is considered to be a good indicator for satisfaction which is similar with this study where trust positively related with satisfaction and loyalty. Again, this result is compatible with the research on Park, Robertson & Wu (2004).On the other hand, the reliability of Starline services and its brand image were justified by the current situation having keen support from the study of Park, Robertson & Wu (2004) supposing to positive image intend to attract passenger attention. In reality, the factors imposed to be a monopoly business concern in this territory particularly on passenger travel service by quality service. The trust achieved by the brand (Starline) and one stop service got unique psychological positioning among the customers. The future researcher can justify the situation with more sample size and identify such situation in other regions of the country.
On the other hand, the hypothesis that visualized the price/fare impact on satisfaction was initiated quite satisfactory result parallel to the study of Chen, Schonfeld, & Miller-Hooks (2016). This study is also consistent with the study of Suryani, Chou, & Chen (2010) which was studied for changing behavioral intention. The relationship between satisfaction and loyalty what is studied here is also justified with much more analogous to earlier research of Sangadji & Sopiah (2013) for identical perception. It ultimately, confirmed that the higher the satisfaction the higher the loyalty. For intercity bus carrier to get a competitive advantage, effective marketing strategies has the key role players to endure in the long-distance transportation market whereas loyalty worked as a measure (Flavian, 2001). Though the study focused the loyalty on the existing and previously considered for travel services, but this loyalty preference is also influential to potential customers by advocacy, resistance to change and relative preference of the brand in competition (Butcher, Sparks, & O'Callaghan, 2001). Ultimately, these non-responding situations of other service providers in all aspects of quality services in this region are contributing too much to become Starline as a monopoly business concern but these will be very positive prospective investment options on the other side for other travel service providers.

Conclusion
This study proposed and analyzed the quality service, income, and other key factors and found demanding for passengers' satisfaction and loyalty. But few unprecedented and neglected factors like passenger's lifestyle, competition, emergency, service accessibility, cleanliness, staff hospitality, and safe journey etc. were unable to materialize depending on the keen relevancy with Starline services. In addition, the supposition in view of immaterialized items/ factors might be considered as indispensable factors what was hidden with the existing issues in future study. Moreover, the considerable factors are not augmentation of the existing services what was supposed to earlier research, but these services had a very good impact on the true identity of the perceived value as passengers expected for transport service.
The firm should concern over the issues raised should be under cognizance right now or to be addressed later on. The complaint box and periodic survey among the passengers should regularly be carried out for receiving proper information from the passengers. From the very truest sense, the frontier problems of other transport services force the passengers to switch to Starline with no doubt. The applicability of this research can be contributed to the enhancement of the industry revenue. These special services what were considered in this study upgrade the existing services. Last but not least, amid criticism against the price hike due to supply shortage or handling the situational demand or tackle it, passengers are eagerly accepted the causes and overturn to the loyalty toward Starline again.