Determinants of Passenger Brand Preference Decision (a case of long-distance public transport service in Bahir Dar city station, Ethiopia).

Abstract

Abstract The study was aims to examine the determinants of passenger brand preference decision in a case of long-distance public transport service in Bahir Dar City station. Specifically, the study sought to address the influence of price, availability of a facility, brand name awareness, brand attributes (comfort, customer care, and safety measures), perceived service quality, and employee service on passengers' brand preference decisions. The study used a positivism research paradigm with a deductive research approach and an explanatory research design to investigate the significance level and the direction of its determinant. In this study, a convenience sampling method was employed to select the sample respondents. The collected data through questionnaire was analysed by the ordinal logistic regression model. In accordance, the finding of this study showed that except the availability of facility, all other predictor variables (price, brand name awareness, brand attributes (comfort, customer care/ safety measures), perceived service quality and employee service) have a strong positive effect on passengers’ brand preference decision. To survive the present competitive pressure and to take the bus as the preferred brand in the industry, the Road transport firms should be required to manage and give more attention to the price charged, increase the level of awareness, creation of comfort, customer care, and safety measures, provide a better quality of service, and improve employees’ hospitality of service