Title:
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The competitiveness of logistics service providers : an investigation in China and the UK
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The aim of this study is to investigate systematically the competitiveness of logistics
service providers (LSPs). Competitiveness is not a new topic in business research but
has received little discussion in the logistics literature. This study helps to fill this gap in
the literature.
In contrast to most previous studies of third-party logistics which have viewed the
subject from the user's perspective, this study investigates the LSP's point of view. The
thesis has both theoretical and empirical sections. The theoretical part reviews the work
of economists and strategists on firm-level competitiveness, in particular, the resourcebased
view (RBV) and Porter's competitive theory of strategic management. Partly on
the basis of this review it constructs a research model for the analysis of LSPs'
competitiveness based on primary sources, contributing factors and perfon-nance
measures. A series of seven research propositions are derived relating to various aspects
of the subject. The empirical work undertaken to test the validity of these propositions
used a combination of quantitative and qualitative approaches and involved comparative
surveys in two countries: China and the UK. This survey work comprised three phases:
piloting, validation and main survey. Four kinds of research methods were used to
collect both quantitative and qualitative data: telephone interviews, e-mail survey, semistructured
face-to-face interviews and large-scale postal questionnaire survey. A range
of different descriptive and inferential statistical techniques were employed to analyse
these data, including two that appear not to have been widely applied in the field of
logistics research (the application of factor scores in exploratory factor analysis and
factor analysis regression).
The empirical results confirm the applicability of both the resource-basedv iew (RBV)
and Porter's theory of competitiveness to LSPs. They indicate, nevertheless, that the
RBV is the more appropriate in this context. Generally speaking, the study indicates that
the competitiveness of an LSP does not simply depend on external forces but can be
strongly influenced by the LSP own actions. Capabilities are identified as the most
important source of competitiveness by respondents in both countries. This not only
supports the RBV, but is also in line with numerous other concepts of firm-level
competitiveness.
The study reveals a high degree of similarity in the views of competitiveness expressed
by Chinese and British LSPs, though several important differences emerged. Some of
these variations can be attributed to differences in cultural backgrounds and economic
systems.
In the light of the theoretical and empirical research a procedure is outlined which LSPs
might employ to assessa nd improve their level of competitiveness.
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