This paper presents the results of a large-scale survey on the potential benefits of and impediments for horizontal collaboration in Flanders. When appropriate, a distinction is made between different types of Logistics Service Providers (LSPs) and between respondents that are currently cooperating on either core or non-core activities, and respondents that are not. The main findings are that in general LSPs strongly believe in the potential benefits of horizontal cooperation to increase their profitability or to improve the quality of their services. The impediments for cooperation that are perceived or expected by the non-cooperating LSPs prove to be experienced by the cooperating LSPs. The estimation of potential cost savings, the measurement and allocation of savings are considered to be the most severe impediments for cooperation. Removing these impediments offers interesting directions for further research.

This paper provides a systematic review of consumer behaviour and order fulfilment in online retailing. The objective of this review is threefold: first, to identify elements of order-fulfilment operations that are relevant to online consumer behaviour (purchase, repurchase, product return); second, to understand the relationship between order-fulfilment performance and consumer behaviour; and third, to inspire future research on developing consumer service strategies that takes account of these behavioural responses to order-fulfilment performance outcomes. The paper is based on a systematic review of literature on online consumer behaviour and order-fulfilment operations, mainly in the fields of marketing and operations, published in international peer-reviewed journals between 2000 and September 2015. This study indicates that the current literature on online consumer behaviour focuses mainly on the use of marketing tools to improve consumer service levels. Very little research has been conducted on the use of consumer service instruments to steer consumer behaviour or, consequently, to manage related order-fulfilment activities better. The study culminates in a framework that encompasses elements of order-fulfilment operations and their relationship to online consumer behaviour. This paper is the first comprehensive review of online consumer behaviour that takes aspects of order-fulfilment operations into account from both marketing and operations perspectives.This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs License, which permits use and distribution in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited, the use is non-commercial and no modifications or adaptations are made.

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