MARKETING/LOGISTICS RELATIONSHIPS: INFLUENCE ON CAPABILITIES AND PERFORMANCE

Effective marketing/logistics relationships can help to create, develop, and maintain critical capabilities to support long‐term firm success. Recent research focuses on two distinct capabilities—information capabilities and firm‐wide integration. Empirical results are provided confirming the proposed relationship between marketing logistics relationship effectiveness and the two capabilities. Further, the capabilities are shown to positively impact logistics performance.     

EFFECTS OF ORGANIZATIONAL LEARNING IN THIRD‐PARTY LOGISTICS

Logistics service providers operate in an intense competitive environment that requires continuous improvement in logistics service quality and firm performance. Key organizational resources may contribute toward the improvement in performance of logistics service providers. This paper investigates the effect of organizational learning within logistics service providers on client relationship orientation, logistics service quality and firm performance. The study proposes and examines an original concept in logistics research that contributes to theory in the area, provides the opportunity for further research and addresses how organizational resources can contribute to performance in logistics.     

LOGISTICS PERFORMANCE: EFFICIENCY,EFFECTIVENESS, AND DIFFERENTIATION

This research examines the nature of logistics performance and the contribution of logistics to the firm by empirically investigating the impact of logistics performance on organizational performance. Logistics performance is tested as a second‐order formative construct comprised of three dimensions: logistics efficiency; logistics effectiveness; and logistics differentiation. Results indicate that logistics performance positively impacts organizational performance. Theoretical and empirical support is also provided for measuring logistics performance as a second‐order formative construct, indicating that efficiency, effectiveness, and differentiation are not necessarily trade‐offs, but rather are complementary. Importantly, perceptual measures for organizational performance collected from managerial respondents were strongly correlated with secondary financial data for participating organizations obtained from Compustat, lending empirical credence to the logistics performance–organizational performance relationship.     

A STRATEGIC FRAMEWORK FOR SUPPLY CHAIN ORIENTED LOGISTICS

The Council of Logistics Management's (CLM) name change to the Council of Supply Chain Management Professionals (CSCMP) has intensified discussions regarding the difference between supply chain management and logistics. This paper merges broadly accepted paradigms from strategic management and marketing to introduce a theoretically consistent framework that differentiates supply chain management from logistics while highlighting the complementary relationship. Supply chain management is portrayed as a firm or SBU level phenomena while logistics is expressed as a competency within supply chain management possessing both strategic and structural capabilities focused exclusively on managing the move/store activities used to fulfill customer orders. Research propositions regarding the interfaces and nature of logistics within a strategic supply chain orientation are drawn to guide thought and development in the discipline.     

EXAMINATION OF A PATH MODEL RELATING INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY INFRASTRUCTURE WITH FIRM PERFORMANCE

This article draws on the resource‐based view of the firm to investigate the mechanisms through which information technology (IT) impacts firm performance. Research suggests that the relationship between IT and firm performance may be both direct and indirect. In this study, a path model is tested that proposes a firm's IT infrastructure resources as having both a direct impact on organizational performance, as well as an indirect effect that is propagated through its impact on an intermediate organizational resource, a firm's logistics information system (LIS). The results suggest that positive firm performance may be derived directly from an organization's superior IT infrastructure, as well as indirectly, through its enabling impact on LIS's. These findings contribute to our understanding of the nature of the relationship between IT and firm performance by exploring the value of IT at both the process and organizational levels.     

Knowledge Synthesis and Innovative Logistics Processes: Enhancing Operational Flexibility and Performance

Research results are presented providing an empirical examination of the impact of knowledge synthesis and innovative logistics processes on operational flexibility. The research is theoretically grounded in the resource‐based view of the firm, augmented with the knowledge‐based view. Knowledge synthesis and innovative logistics processes are proposed as key resources in the development of an important logistics capability: operational flexibility. A structural model analysis of survey data collected from logistics executives supports the proposed relationships and indicates that innovative logistics processes can lead to greater operational flexibility. Operational flexibility is also shown to lead to higher levels of logistics performance.     

THE PURCHASING‐LOGISTICS INTERFACE: A “SCOPE OF RESPONSIBILITY” TAXONOMY

To date, integration research has paid little attention to defining and exploring the interface between purchasing and logistics. This research seeks to catalog the set of joint activities that define this interface, and to analyze the way in which this interface is structured, in terms of how companies assign collective responsibility across the activity set. A cluster analysis of a set of 15 boundary‐spanning activities reveals a preliminary taxonomy of three purchasing‐logistics interface structures: (a) Purchasing‐Dominant; (b) Segregated; and (c) Logistics‐Dominant. The analysis also reveals limited evidence that the choice of purchasing‐logistic interface structure has an influence on supply base performance. In addition, the choice of purchasing‐logistics interface structure appears to be influenced by firm size.     

ANTECEDENTS AND DIMENSIONS OF CUSTOMER PARTNERING BEHAVIOR IN LOGISTICS OUTSOURCING RELATIONSHIPS

In order to be successful in today's competitive environment, third‐party logistics providers (3PLs) increasingly strive to develop close, mutually beneficial long‐term relationships with customers. The current study identifies inter‐organizational conditions and firm‐specific factors that influence a firm's partnering behavior with its 3PL. A model of the antecedents and dimensions of partnering behavior is developed and tested with a diverse set of relationships between a focal 3PL and members of its customer base.     

MAXIMIZING THE HUMAN CAPITAL EQUATION IN LOGISTICS: EDUCATION,EXPERIENCE, AND SKILLS

Hiring and retaining the best employees ‐ human capital ‐ is a challenge. This recent study addressed the long‐standing problem of finding sufficient numbers of quality logistics managers to fill logistics jobs. The research examined how education, experience, and job skills influence performance of these managers, and how performance in turn influences the worth of the manager to the firm. As hypothesized, job skills were found to be good predictors of both logistics manager performance and worth. However, neither experience nor education was found to significantly affect performance. Managerial implications are also provided.     

INNOVATION MANAGEMENT IN THE GERMAN TRANSPORTATION INDUSTRY

This article develops a conceptual framework for innovation management in logistics service providers, taking both a macro‐sectoral and a micro‐firm level perspective. Empirical data pertaining to the German transportation industry is applied in order to illustrate the current situation. In the analysis, the author distinguishes between various types of innovation: (1) product/service and process innovation, (2) market novelties, product‐range novelties and product imitations, and (3) ad hoc and planned innovation. The results indicate that despite the importance of innovation for the competitiveness of logistics service providers, innovation activities of firms in this industry and the share of innovators are at a low level compared to other industries. Only 30% of the LSP's are innovators. LSP innovation rests less on structured innovation, new product development and new product commercialization processes, instead, becomes often visible in form of technological advanced infrastructure and equipment investments. It is recommended that in the future LSP's should make more use of one or all forms of innovation activity discussed in this article.     

经济发展、物流投入、区域物流能力关系实证研究——基于浙江省面板数据

物流作为国家扶持产业,近些年受到越来越多的关注,但是经济发展对物流能力影响的相关研究还比较少。本文以浙江省11个地级市为样本建立结构方程模型,利用2001-2010年相关数据,对经济发展、物流投入以及区域物流能力之间关系进行实证研究,并在研究的基础上提出促进物流业发展的相关建议。本文研究,对物流行业管理部门和政府制定相应行业扶持政策具有一定的参考价值。     

A LOGISTICS STRATEGY TAXONOMY

Beginning with Bowersox and Daugherty's (1987) influential work describing three unique logistics organizational forms, researchers have generally taken a theoretical typology approach to classifying logistics strategies, and attempts to validate the numerous proposed typologies have produced inconsistent and somewhat conflicting results. In an attempt to add clarity to this stream of research, the current article partially replicates and extends the previous studies using a more rigorous and data‐driven methodology, by developing an empirical taxonomy with firmlevel logistics activities used as clustering criteria. The results identify two primary logistics strategy types used by contemporary firms. The revealed strategies are somewhat parallel to two of the three strategic orientations proposed within the original Bowersox and Daugherty (1987) typology, but also elements suggested by other researchers, as well as new concepts introduced since the original work was published. Based on the results, implications of the revealed logistics strategy taxonomy are provided for managers, and foundations are laid for researchers seeking to undertake further inquiry in the area.     

CUSTOMER SERVICE IN THE INTERNET‐ENABLED LOGISTICS SUPPLY CHAIN: WEBSITE DESIGN ANTECEDENTS AND LOYALTY EFFECTS

This article extends the existing research on logistics customer service‐loyalty relationships to the online logistics supply chain environment by examining potential website determinants of logistics customer service quality. A structural equation analysis of 373 online shopping transactions suggests that perceived quality of all logistics customer service activities (perceived cycle time, in‐stock availability, and customer responsiveness) varies inversely with: (1) perceived ease of use, and (2) content vividness of the website; and positively with product information content. However, only retailer customer responsiveness assessment was found to have any significant influence on consumer intended loyalty behavior in Internet‐enabled supplies chains.     

MANAGING LOGISTICS OUTSOURCING RELATIONSHIPS: AN EMPIRICAL INVESTIGATION IN CHINA

While many companies outsource their logistics functions, creating a collaborative relationship with third‐party logistics service providers remains a challenge. The current study explores the effects of often overlooked human factors in this context. Data on buyer perspectives were collected in China. The analysis results suggest that buying firm's top management championship, supplier firm's designated employees, and the buyer‐seller personal relationships (i.e. Guanxi) at different levels, all have significant impacts on inter‐firm collaboration, which in turn enhances the buying firm's logistics performance.     

BUILDING CARS TO CUSTOMER ORDER — WHAT DOES IT MEAN FOR INBOUND LOGISTICS OPERATIONS?

The automotive industry is undergoing a strategic transition. Cost pressure from rising stock levels in the market and increasing incentives needed to sell these vehicles are forcing vehicle manufacturers to rethink their prevalent “stock‐push” approach, building vehicles against a forecast and selling from stock, in favor of a stock‐less “build‐to‐order” order fulfillment strategy. More responsive order fulfillment at the vehicle manufacturer level however will not only require flexible and responsive component supply, but will also have wide ramifications for the logistics operations. Based on three case studies of major inbound logistics operations, this exploratory study assesses their ability to support such a build‐to‐order approach, as well as the potential implications of such transition. The paper concludes with a set of general strategies for how these implications could be mitigated.     

浅谈如何合理改造邵阳烟草物流应用平台

本文从烟草商业企业经营战略目标的角度出发,结合湖南省烟草公司邵阳市公司卷烟物流的现状,针对邵阳市公司卷烟物流应用平台改造项目进行了必要性和可行性分析,阐述了卷烟物流应用平台规划的相关理念和原则,为邵阳烟草搭建经济、实用的卷烟物流应用平台,提供了重要的参考思路。     

AN EXAMINATION OF TRENDS AND IMPACT OF AUTHORSHIP COLLABORATION IN LOGISTICS RESEARCH

The discipline of logistics is undergoing tremendous change, including shifts in the focus of our associations, as well as in the subject matter, that is deemed important to the academic and professional community. In this article, we seek to evaluate how research in the discipline is also changing, specifically in terms of the degree of collaboration among scholars involved. We draw upon 3,116 articles published from 1987 through 2007 in seven logistics journals. Using the authorship and the citation counts of these articles, we identify several important characteristics of collaboration and offer preliminary empirical insight about the associated trends and impact that collaboration is having within our discipline. This initial assessment provides the potential to spur further interest into the theoretical development and empirical testing on this timely and important topic.     

LOGISTICS INNOVATION: A CUSTOMER VALUE‐ORIENTED SOCIAL PROCESS

This paper reports on a qualitative, grounded theory research project conducted in the United States, Sweden, and The United Kingdom designed to explore logistics innovation as perceived by leaders of logistics service provider firms and logistics business functions within product focused firms. Analysis of 33 depth interviews conducted within seven organizations revealed activities that reflect multiple aspects of being innovative, including: (1) setting a stage for innovation; (2) identifying clues to shifts in what customers value; (3) negotiating, clarifying, and reflecting upon insights; and (4) managing inter‐organizational learning.     

A MODEL FOR LOGISTICS MANAGEMENT IN A POST‐SOVIET CENTRAL ASIAN TRANSITIONAL ECONOMY

The research presented explores the logistics management of European and North American manufacturing companies operating in the unique environment of the post‐Soviet Central Asian transitional economy of Kazakhstan. Combining three alternating phases of quantitative and qualitative analysis, the research identifies the challenges logistics managers face in their efforts to distribute their companies' products into and within Kazakhstan. Then, using cross‐case analysis on a series of eleven case studies of European and North American manufacturing companies operating in Kazakhstan, the article concludes with a grounded theoretical model of logistics management for European and North American companies in Kazakhstan. The model highlights the unexpectedly divergent paths taken by companies from two different industry categories.