Investigating the relationships between service capabilities and financial statements indicators

Abstract

This study analyses the relationships between service capabilities and financial statements indicators of 76 U.K. service providers belonging to the Standard Industry Classification (SIC) 49410 (‘Freight transport by road’). These firms were clustered in four different groups according to their service capabilities by employing content analysis on open secondary data. Then, statistical tests were employed to analyse whether groups with different service capabilities differ in key financial statements indicators. As the results show, economic-financial indicators (e.g., turnover) do not vary significantly between the groups, whereas differences arise in the number of employees and other asset-related indicators. It follows from these results that within the same SIC code, the various assortments of service capabilities do not have repercussions on the firms’ profitability; on the other hand, these assortments are correlated with firms’ size and infrastructure (e.g., magnitude of the Stock & W.I.P.). This research develops a heuristic approach using open secondary data to identify and classify service capabilities, and to investigate their relationship with financial statements indicators. This approach can be replicated in other business sectors thus supporting managers in identifying their firm’s capabilities and those of their competitors.

Illuminating the road ahead: unlocking the potential of ICTs for enhanced data visibility in road transportation

“…Another noteworthy point is that, while the Resource-Based View (RBV) theory is wellregarded across various business sectors, there is a lack of studies in the freight transportation literature that specifically engage with this theory. Within this limited corpus, Calabrese et al (2021) explore the subject of capabilities as they relate to transport logistics service providers; however, they do not discuss the role of technologies in this context. Additionally, while Tob-Ogu et al (2018) investigate the influence of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) in the realm of Road Freight Transportation (RFT), their study notably omits any consideration of capabilities.…”

“…Another noteworthy point is that, while the Resource-Based View (RBV) theory is well-regarded across various business sectors, there is a lack of studies in the freight transportation literature that specifically engage with this theory. Within this limited corpus, Calabrese et al . (2021) explore the subject of capabilities as they relate to transport logistics service providers; however, they do not discuss the role of technologies in this context.…”