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Supply chain management (SCM) plays a major role in creating (or destroying) shareholder value by influencing the three major drivers of firm financial performance: revenue, operating costs, and working capital. Yet, the relationship between SCM competency and firm financial performance is not well-established. Drawing on the resource-based view of the firm, this study assesses this relationship using Delphi-style opinion data from AMR Research’s Supply Chain Top 25 rankings to assess SCM competency and Altman’s (1968)Z-score statistic as the measure of financial success. The study findings show that firms recognized by industry experts for SCM competency have significantly higher Z-scores than their close competitors and industry averages.

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.

Research on third-party logistics (3PL) service providers has focused more on managing customer relationships than on managing the frontline personnel who interact with customers on a daily basis. Thus, even though the overall need for 3PL's to be market-oriented is well-recognized, relatively little is known about how 3PL companies support and develop frontline service staff to provide better service. This study draws on 3PL company site managers' responses to a postal survey that examines the influences of internal communication, customer service training and managerial coaching for customer contact employees on the relationship between market orientation and frontline service recovery empowerment.

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.

Inter-functional collaboration can significantly improve service operations. Yet, despite the compelling need to increase collaborative behavior, our understanding of how firms' logistics and marketing departments view each other and of the behavioral factors that influence inter-functional collaborative behavior is limited. This study utilizes a descriptive, interview-based approach that draws upon the Critical Incident Technique to discover nuances and insights about logisticians' and marketers' often complex interactions.

Frontline employees can have an important impact on the quality of products and services delivered by a firm since they are often in direct contact with external customers or are the last people to handle the customer's product and information before delivery. Marketing efforts can offer firms a greater competitive advantage by overtly stimulating the impact of frontline logistics employees on customer value creation. In such a situation, internal marketing is a good strategy in both service and product support contexts. This paper introduces a broad marketing mix framework that shifts the application from marketing products to marketing the workplace to logistics distribution employees. Research findings support a multidimensional operationalization of internal marketing. Holistic tests indicate that internal marketing on an interpersonal level is associated with satisfied and higher performing distribution center employees and increased interdepartmental customer orientation. Theoretical and managerial implications and directions for future research are discussed.

This study provides an overview of website content within the motor carrier industry. Content analysis was used to assess the site design, informational content, and interactive content of 152 motor carrier internet sites, and also to compare the features offered on the Top 100 motor carrier websites with those offered by smaller carrier firms.

Academic disciplines are strengthened through many years of theoretical research leading to significant knowledge advancements in the field. One primary technique for measuring concepts important for theory development is the use of multi-item scales. This research documents the multi-item scales utilized throughout the history of leading logistics journals. The test results for validity and reliability with respect to each scale are disclosed. Results indicate a need for logistics researchers to continue developing new measures and refining existing measures by employing rigorous methods to establish scales having highly acceptable psychometric properties.

Previous research has suggested that a firm can improve its performance by developing the learning skills and harnessing the knowledge of its employees. This learning organization concept offers a theoretical rationale for promoting learning environments to better leverage employees' knowledge, skills and abilities. However, relatively little is known about firms' learning and development strategies for logistics managers. This paper reports on a study to assess firms' learning environments from the perspective of the logistics managers and to gauge the impact of learning behavior on business operations. Logistics managers from U.S.-based manufacturers were surveyed on the extent to which their firms practice behaviors characteristic of a learning organization, the extent to which logistics managers encounter environments that are conductive to work-related learning and their perceptions of firm performance. Findings suggest that the firms in the sample are only moderately successful at providing work environments that facilitate logistic managers' work-related learning. Results also find that individual level learning behavior was most strongly associated with customer service-related performance indicators. Promoting behavioral characteristics of the learning organization in conjunction with traditional operations planning may prove to be a balanced and effective approach to strategic logistics management. However, this may require a fundamental shift in the way logistics organizations are managed with respect to the education, training and development of personnel.