NWAOKORO Chidera Vincent
Department of Marketing, Faculty of Administration and Management
Rivers State University Port Harcourt
NWULU Chinyere Stella
Department of Marketing, Faculty of Administration and Management
Rivers State University Port Harcourt.
Abstract
This study investigated the relationship between transportation management and operational performance. The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between transportation management and operational performance of shopping malls in Rivers State. Operational performance is measured through service improvement, cost reduction, and foot traffic, and the objectives of this study were to ascertain the extent to which transportation management relate with service improvement, cost reduction, and foot traffic of shopping malls in Rivers State. The population of the study comprised 34 shopping malls operating in Port Harcourt at the time of this study, and data were collected from 81 respondents across the these malls. Operations managers, logistics managers and marketing managers constituted the respondents that provided data for the study through a semi-structured questionnaire designed in 5-point Likert scale from very high extent to very low extent. The data were analyzed using a statistical model. Specifically, the three hypotheses were tested using Pearson Product Moment Correlation Model, with the aid of Statistical Package for Social Sciences, version 25. The analysis indicated that transportation management has positive and significant relationships with service improvement, cost reduction, and foot traffic. Based on the findings of this study, it is concluded that there is a positive and significant relationship between transportation management and operational performance of shopping malls in Rivers State. Particularly, transportation management was found to play a critical role in ensuring timely and reliable delivery of goods, thereby directly impacting service improvement and customer satisfaction. Therefore it is recommended that, shopping malls should adopt real-time transportation management systems to enhance route planning, delivery tracking, and fuel efficiency.
Keywords: Cost reduction, foot traffic, operational performance, service improvement, transportation management.