CUSTOMER LOYALTY IN LOGISTICS OUTSOURCING RELATIONSHIPS: AN EXAMINATION OF THE MODERATING EFFECTS OF CONFLICT FREQUENCY

This research examines the moderating effect of conflict frequency on the satisfaction‐loyalty linkage in logistics outsourcing relationships. The findings suggest service satisfaction to be the primary driver of loyalty in smoothly running relationships. However, relational satisfaction takes a leading role in high conflict relationships. As turbulence increases in these important logistics service relationships, the quality of the interaction becomes a critical consideration.     

PRODUCT FULFILLMENT IN SUPPLY CHAINS SUPPORTING INTERNET‐RETAILING OPERATIONS

Customer service, based on economical logistics operations across the supply chain, is key to the realization of sustainable levels of profitability in Internet retailing. Concentrating on inventory and product‐release operations, an empirical simulation model suggests that inventory centralization and market demand growth positively affect the level of cost‐effective service received by online shoppers. The results also show that under increasing demand levels, Internet retailers can provide optimal service to consumers by fulfilling orders through inventories located at their own facilities and avoid relying on inventories held elsewhere in the supply chain.     

THE ROLE OF LOGISTICS MANAGERS IN THE CROSS‐FUNCTIONAL IMPLEMENTATION OF SUPPLY CHAIN MANAGEMENT

There is confusion about the domain of supply chain management, and the functions and processes that should be included. In this paper, we describe the key supply chain management processes, the role of logistics managers in each of these processes, and what the logistics function gains from this involvement.     

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.     

CATALOG RETAILER IN‐STOCK PERFORMANCE: AN ASSESSMENT OF CUSTOMER SERVICE LEVELS

The purpose of this article is to study the level of “in‐stock” customer service performance being offered in the catalog channel of distribution. The article provides benchmark information for the catalog industry. More importantly, the article serves as one test of the effectiveness of the modern supply chain, where the expectation is for near perfect orders. Customer service levels are studied by using an empirical observation methodology in which catalog retailer's in‐stock performance was measured. Comparisons are made across item type, season, retailer type, and days from catalog receipt. Overall, items were out‐of‐stock during 15.9% of all checkpoints, compared to an 11.8% stock‐out rate in an earlier study of bricks and mortar retailers.     

LOGISTICS AND SUPPLY CHAIN MANAGEMENT APPLICATIONS WITHIN A GLOBAL CONTEXT: AN OVERVIEW

This paper reviews 726 academic research studies covering logistics and supply chain management (L'SCM) applications within a global context. Articles are analyzed according to their publication year and outlet, common themes, and countries or regions investigated. The sample was drawn from the ABI/INFORM Global database, which includes almost 1,800 journal titles. The review offers a starting point for researchers, graduate students, faculty members or practitioners examining international L'SCM applications. The article also draws attention to the wide array of global L'SCM studies conducted, their settings and viewpoints. Additionally, this paper highlights some of the most interesting works and draws attention to lesser‐researched countries and regions of the world. The overview also provides an introduction for practitioners and managers to what academic research has covered in the area of global L'SCM. Practitioners can use this review as a starting point for the identification of relevant and useful references for their particular task.     

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.     

EXPLORING PROCESSES FOR CUSTOMER VALUE INSIGHTS,SUPPLY CHAIN LEARNING AND INNOVATION: AN INTERNATIONAL STUDY

This paper reports results from a study designed to assess the extent to which firms across industries and several countries lay the groundwork for and use customer value insight, supply chain learning, and innovation processes. The cross‐sectional study serves as an exploration of the theoretical relationships among these activities and their impact on perceptions of organizational performance. Through an international survey study drawing on samples from the U.S., Sweden and Denmark, the authors find support for the notions that supply chain learning and innovation processes are driven by processes aimed at studying changes in customer value and contribute to perceptions of superior organizational performance. These findings have significant implications for logistics and supply chain management.     

CONSTRUCTING IMPACT FACTORS TO MEASURE THE INFLUENCE OF SUPPLY CHAIN MANAGEMENT AND LOGISTICS JOURNALS

Data from ten supply chain management and logistics journals are combined with data from the ISI Web of Science database to develop a series of impact factors. The resulting constructed impact factors provide a context for comparing and ranking leading academic supply chain management and logistics journals. They also provide an objective way of comparing the relative influence of supply chain management and logistics journals, as well as a platform for comparing their influence with that of journals in more general fields like management and business.     

SUPPLY CHAIN INTERFACES: DEFINING ATTRIBUTES AND ATTRIBUTE VALUES FOR COLLABORATIVE LOGISTICS MANAGEMENT

Managing supply chain interfaces, where information or physical goods are exchanged between one trading partner and another, is a key component of collaborative logistics management (CLM). Identifying the interfaces on which to focus, and describing the attributes and attribute values of these interfaces, fosters effective CLM arrangements.     

THE SUCCESSFUL CROSS‐DOCK BASED SUPPLY CHAIN

A supply chain using the cross‐dock approach can speed goods from upstream suppliers to downstream customers quickly and cost‐effectively, with benefits to the entire chain, if the appropriate type of cross‐dock is chosen and then designed, staffed and managed for effective performance. Unlike a warehouse, which offers storage, a cross‐dock is a high performance rapid transit point that does not provide storage. Although cross‐docks have been studied with some thoroughness, what has not been seen clearly is that a cross‐dock does not operate in isolation and therefore can't be optimized independently from the upstream and downstream processes. To be successful, cross‐dock optimization makes demands for high performance on all members of the supply chain in terms of speed, effective planning, high reliability, near error‐proof processes and a high degree of transparency, visibility and information‐sharing; accordingly, the article refers to this integrative perspective as a “cross‐dock based supply chain.” To make clear this interdependency between the cross‐dock and the chain based on it, a new definition that classifies types of cross‐dock based supply chains is offered. To assist scholars analyzing and industry management choosing a cross‐dock approach, cross‐dock based supply chains are classified as falling into three different types. Lastly, based on field work in industry and on literature review, nine critical success factors for cross‐dock based supply chain operations are offered.     

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.     

EVOLVING A THEORY OF PERFORMANCE‐BASED LOGISTICS USING INSIGHTS FROM SERVICE DOMINANT LOGIC

Performance‐based logistics (PBL) represents a strategy for sustaining complex systems following production. Despite several implementations, limited understanding exists regarding PBL and its implications. Research using grounded theory emerged a theoretical framework for PBL. Service dominant logic (SDL) is introduced as a theoretical lens for interpreting the results and understanding how trading partners achieve performance‐based outcomes.     

INTERORGANIZATIONAL TIME‐BASED POSTPONEMENT IN THE SUPPLY CHAIN

This paper presents the results of empirical research on the use of time‐based postponement in a supply chain context using data collected from two manufacturers, a distributor, and a retailer. The analysis shows that implementing postponement at the firm level can result in the supply chain carrying more inventory. In order to achieve its full potential, postponement needs to be implemented across organizations in the supply chain.     

REVERSE LOGISTICS: THE IMPACT OF TIMING AND RESOURCES

Although reverse logistics has become a competitive necessity in many industries, there is a lack of agreement as to when formal reverse logistics programs should be introduced. The current research examines the issue of program introduction timing (first, early, late) in the context of the automobile aftermarket industry. The findings indicate that firms developing formal reverse logistics programs early in their industries – but not first – may be best positioned; however, there is also evidence that the timing/performance relationship can be influenced by resource commitment.     

THE INTELLECTUAL STRUCTURE OF SUPPLY CHAIN MANAGEMENT: A BIBLIOMETRIC APPROACH

Now that supply chain management has a two‐decade research history, it is possible to examine the literature to identify whether there is any latent intellectual structure using bibliometric tools. The study applies a citation and co‐citation approach to reveal four clusters of research that have emerged. One cluster has strong ties to the logistics field, with primarily conceptual articles. A second cluster finds its roots in operations research, and consists mainly of modeling articles. The application of multidimensional scaling, cluster analysis, and factor analysis on co‐citations demonstrated a clearly identifiable structure. The structure is examined and implications for the future development of supply chain research are discussed.     

THE LAST MILE CHALLENGE: EVALUATING THE EFFECTS OF CUSTOMER DENSITY AND DELIVERY WINDOW PATTERNS

Consumer direct delivery of packages ordered over the Internet has grown at well over 25 % per year over the past 10 years and now accounts for over $100 billion in sales in the U.S. alone. Retailers have rushed to capitalize on what has commonly been labeled multi‐channel retailing, while logisticians have faced a challenge in devising efficient methods of delivering billions of packages to customer homes. Inefficient deliveries in this “last mile” of the supply chain have led to numerous business collapses as well as a substantial increase in delivery costs. We present a study which examines the effect of two factors (customer density and delivery window length) on the overall efficiency of the delivery route. Data are collected based on empirically derived settings from interviews with several practicing managers. Results provide insight for logistics and marketing managers who must balance customer desires for convenience with business desires for efficiency. The data show that offering a 3 hour delivery window is 30–45% more expensive than offering unattended (9 hour delivery window) delivery. The results provide a tool for managers to address the tradeoffs between various settings for the independent variables (customer density and delivery window length) and the overall route efficiency.     

UNDERSTANDING THE FINANCIAL CONSEQUENCES OF THE BULLWHIP EFFECT IN A MULTI‐ECHELON SUPPLY CHAIN

This article is concerned with how supply chain strategies can mitigate the Bullwhip Effect and inflated inventories from the perspective of the central firm (typically a manufacturer) in the supply chain. We first outline a base case scenario with a validated system dynamics simulation model, using supply chain characteristics as reported by a real firm, in this case a Mexican electronics supplier to U.S. automobile assemblers. We find, surprisingly, that a lower Bullwhip Effect Index (BE) does not always lead to lower costs in the supply chain studied. Furthermore, sensitivity analysis suggests some interesting, counterintuitive results. The implications of these findings are further developed as we test how lead time reduction can also reduce the Bullwhip Effect in the simulated setting.     

AN INVESTIGATION OF THE VALUE OF CROSS‐DOCKING FOR SUPPLY CHAIN MANAGEMENT

Cross‐docking is the practice of transferring materials from an incoming shipment directly to an outgoing shipment without storing them at the transfer point. This essentially eliminates the inventory‐holding function of a warehouse and can reduce supply chain costs. We investigate the value of one type of cross‐docking in a variety of supply chain environments.     

THE IMPACT OF SARBANES‐OXLEY ON OFF‐BALANCE SHEET SUPPLY CHAIN ACTIVITIES

This study seeks to provide readers with an overview of sections 401, 404 and 802 of the Sarbanes‐Oxley Act as they pertain to supply chain managers, while empirically assessing the impact of SOX on some of the most common off‐balance sheet supply activities from familiarity, compliance, and time spent perspectives. Agency theory is used to provide the theoretical foundations for this study. The results of this study provide important implications for supply managers such as that stronger SOX compliance has a positive impact on off‐balance sheet activities.