Quintessence of third party (3PL) logistics

Abstract

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to provide a systematic literature review and contributes to academic understanding and practitioner needs of third party logistics (3PL) which were developed over the past decade. Design/methodology/approach Through a structured selection search of the entire English-language academic literature, after final refinement, the authors identified 95 relevant studies in this context. A succinct classification of literature has been performed to collate the entire literature encompassing viewpoints of both academicians and practitioners. Findings The key finding of this review suggests the opportunities exist in the understanding of the “optimization capabilities” of a 3PL provider. The authors found that when on the one side, constructs such as “supply chain vision”, “creativity”, “impact of geographical reach of services on the selection criteria” need more attention; on the other hand, operational dimensions of 3PL such as packaging ability, repair service, procedural compliance, conflict resolution, role of HR policies and mitigation of external risks provides a chance for future researchers to delve deeper into these domains. Furthermore, the authors also presented a comprehensive research gap framework highlighting potential research topics to be explored in near future. Research limitations/implications The paper captures peer-reviewed literature from the past decade and has been selected from the Web of Science database only. Originality/value The paper identifies different research gaps, namely, conceptual, contextual and methodological, to understand and develop opportunities for future research in the domain of 3PL. The paper makes a careful attempt by linking the synthesis of this literature review to previous literature reviews to establish the knowledge continuum of third party logistics.

The thematic landscape of literature on supply chain management in India: a systematic literature review

“…The present study employed three of the comprehensive research databases Scopus, ProQuest ABI/INFORM collection databases and WOS for searching the papers. This is in line with other SLRs in the field (Burgess et al , 2006; Ansari and Kant, 2017; Durach et al , 2017; Lamba and Singh, 2017; Behl and Dutta, 2018; Mishra et al , 2018; Roy and Sengupta, 2018; Vrat et al , 2018). Scopus, ProQuest and WOS are three of the largest repositories of peer-reviewed literature for scientific journals.…”

“…Furthermore, a majority of these SLRs (from multiple countries) have focused on a subset of SCM such as fresh produce supply chain management (FSCM) (Shukla and Jharkharia, 2013); green supply chain management (GSCM) (Malviya and Kant, 2015; Dubey et al , 2017); empirical supply chain practices (Gorane and Kant, 2015); supply chain risk management (SCRM) (Prakash et al , 2017); coordination and responsiveness of SCM in SMEs (Kumar and Singh, 2017); health care supply chain management (Mathur et al , 2018); logistics/3PL (Roy and Sengupta, 2018; Mohammadreza, 2018); big data in SCM (Lamba and Singh, 2017); inventory models for perishable products (Chaudhary et al , 2018); sustainable freight transportation for perishable food products (Vrat et al , 2018); humanitarian operations and supply chain management (HSCM) (Behl and Dutta, 2018). Two of the papers (Soni and Kodali, 2011, 2012) have not limited their studies on content.…”

Understanding the usage patterns, practices and decision process of third party logistics outsourcing in Bangladesh

“…Third-party logistics (3PL) has experienced an unprecedented growth in international business to help reduce costs, improve efficiency and response and expand geographic extent of business (Langley, 2012; Rahman and Wu, 2011; Roy and Sengupta, 2018). The global 3PL revenue has increased to US$703bn (Langley and Capgemini, 2015).…”

MCDM applications in logistics performance evaluation: A literature review

“…Qaiser et al (2017) systematically reviewed literature spanning 1994 to 2015, covering 40 papers on decision support systems (DSS) on sustainable logistics to note that social dimensions were relatively underrepresented as against economic and environmental dimensions. Roy and Sengupta (2018) reviewed 95 articles from 2006 to 2016 that studied the phenomenon of 3PL performance to derive the performance constructs in strategic and operational dimensions. Moons, Waeyenbergh, Pintelon, Timmermans, and De Ridder (2019) reviewed 99 articles concerning performance indicators for hospital supply chains covering the areas of inventory and distribution management to observe that a comprehensive performance measurement framework is missing.…”

“…Tezuka, 2011;Shaik & Abdul-Kader, 2012;Bonney & Jaber, 2013;Leuschner et al, 2013;Leuschner et al, 2014;Guarnieri et al, 2015;Çakır, 2017;Qaiser et al, 2017;Roy & Sengupta, 2018; Ulutas ¸& Karaköy, 2019; Rashidi & Cullinane, 2019; Ozmen, 2019 4 Numerical analysis Customer Shaik and Abdul-Kader, 2013, 2014 & 2018; Hu & Sheng, 2014; Awasthi & Balezentis, 2017; Fathi & Saen, 2018 LSP selection Azadi & Saen, 2011; Chai et al, 2013; Awasthi & Balezentis, 2017 LSP ongoing Shaik and Abdul-Kader, 2013, 2014 & 2018; Hu & Sheng, 2014; Fathi & Saen, 2018 LSP selection and ongoing -Customer and LSP ongoing Shaik and Abdul-Kader, 2013, 2014 & 2018; Hu & Sheng, 2014; Awasthi & Balezentis, 2017; Fathi & Saen, 2018T A B L E 3…”