Discusses the results of a survey among shippers in several European countries involved in outsourcing their transport, warehousing and other logistics activities. The survey, which is a joint initiative of the universities of Cranfield, Eindhoven, Linko È ping and Rotterdam (Erasmus) and of ManDat GmbH, is a sequel to a similar survey carried out five years ago and has led to a renewed insight into the characteristics of logistics partnerships, the key success factors for making partnerships work, the concerns that shippers have about outsourcing and the benefits they expect to receive from it. The survey has led to two major observations: first, that the scope and level of sophistication of the partnerships has increased over the last five years, be it very gradually, and second, that the perception of outsourcing by shippers has not changed over the last five years.

In this article, the authors describe the results of a study on strategies of third‐party logistics (TPL) providers. The size of the TPL industry and the different requirements placed on logistics as opposed to basic services, such as transportation or public warehousing, justify the need to treat TPL as a separate industry. The authors describe three waves of entrants into the TPL industry and a taxonomy for value creation by logistics providers. Empirical findings for a strategic segmentation of the industry are presented. The strategic segmentation is connected to the waves of entrants and the taxonomy by an evaluation of required skills of TPL players. The TPL industry will soon reach an initial stage of maturity, but further changes are to be expected.

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Neueren Forschungsbefunden zufolge sind private Sekundärschulen in den USA leistungsfähiger als staatliche Schulen. Zwei kritische Punkte der amerikanischen Forschung, die im Mittelpunkt des Artikels stehen, beziehen sich auf die Frage, a) ob die kurzfristig gemessenen Vorteile privater Schulen langfristig stabil sind und b) ob sich die festgestellten Effekte durch Unterschiede in der Finanzierung erklären lassen. In den Niederlanden sind staatliche und private Schulen finanziell gleichgestellt. Unter Verwendung von Längsschnittdaten zum Schulerfolg einer Schüler-Kohorte, die 1965 in das Sekundarschulwesen eintrat, wird untersucht, ob sich die Schüler an katholischen, evangelischen und staatlichen Schulen systematisch hinsichtlich verschiedener Erfolgsindikatoren voneinander unterscheiden. Die Ergebnisse bestätigen die Existenz eines Schulsektor-Effektes. Summary: Recent research has claimed that American private high schools are more effective than public high schools. Two critical aspects of this research are at the center of this article: a) whether the short-term benefits of private schools which were found to exist persist over an extended period of time; b) whether these effects can be explained by differences in funding. In the Netherlands public and private education are equally funded. Longitudinal data on the educational attainment of the 1965-cohort during the whole of their secondary education were used to establish whether Dutch Catholic, Protestant and public secondary schools have differential effects on their pupils' educational achievement. The results of the study demonstrate the presence of a school sector effect in the Netherlands on the educational attainment of their pupils.