Jari Juga

Semi-integrated Supply Chains: Towards the New Era of Supply Chain Management

This paper discusses trends in contemporary management that reflect the need for reassessing the notion of supply chain integration. Recent developments in the areas of strategy, channels, processes, relationships, organisation and performance measurement show pressures that call for attention to the various dimensions and varying intensities of integration. It is concluded that emphasis should be directed to focused efforts instead of holistic overall integration, and the concept of semiintegrated supply chains is offered for collectively describing the phenomena in todays supply chain management.

Service quality and its relation to satisfaction and loyalty in logistics outsourcing relationships

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to investigate how perceived service quality influences both a shippers satisfaction and subsequent loyalty in third‐party logistics outsourcing relationships.Design/methodology/approach – Critical service dimensions are identified and their impact on satisfaction and loyalty are developed into a theoretical model, which in turn is examined empirically using structural equation modelling from a survey of 235 industrial companies in Finland.Findings – The results support the satisfaction‐loyalty model in a logistics outsourcing context confirming that service perceptions influence loyalty through a shippers overall satisfaction with the service provider.Research limitation/implications – The empirical study is limited to Finland and data were collected before the financial crisis of 2008‐2009 which affected the economy and this industrial sector. The theoretical constructs and model also need to be validated and tested further across a wider empirical context.Practi...

Strategic positioning of logistics service providers

This paper gives an overview of strategic positioning models for logistics service providers (LSPs) and presents empirical findings on the strategic positions of logistics companies in Finland. The goal of the research is to learn how LSPs position themselves along selected key dimensions of strategy, using positioning models that represent two major streams of strategy and service research. The investigation is based on a theoretical review of strategic positioning models and on empirical studies with 17 logistics companies operating in Finland. A generalist strategy appears to be popular among the LSPs. However, the competence-based strategies of the LSPs show some signs that positional differentiation may be increasing gradually.

Information integration in maintenance services

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to provide a theoretical set of elements to analyze information integration in supply chains. Through a practical example to highlight the importance, it aims to describe the practices and identify some development areas of information integration in service supply chains.Design/methodology/approach – The paper presents six theoretical elements contributing the level of information integration in a supply chain. These elements are then used to analyze a case supply chain that includes a steel manufacturer (the focal company), engineering offices providing maintenance‐related planning services and mechanical maintenance service providers. Empirical research data gathered through structured interviews, workshops, company visits and company documents are used.Findings – The paper develops a conceptual framework and criteria for analyzing the level of supply chain information integration. It describes which information, in which form, how and when is shared in the case s...

Impact of service quality, image and relational aspects on satisfaction and loyalty in logistics outsourcing relationships

This paper examines the links between service quality, customer satisfaction and loyalty in logistics outsourcing relationships. Besides service quality, also the moderating role of inter-firm relationships and service provider’s image are examined. A theoretical model is developed and tested with structural equation modelling using survey data from industrial companies in Finland. It is shown that perceived service quality influences the customer’s satisfaction which again affects loyalty. Inter-firm relationships and service provider’s image affect loyalty directly and indirectly through satisfaction.

Short‐run vs long‐run trade‐offs in outsourcing relationships

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to report on a study of a shippers dilemma as a customer. Shippers desire both lower costs and good service levels, and this dilemma may lead in the long run to a trade‐off consideration between staying loyal to existing service providers and seeking cost reductions from competing providers.Design/methodology/approach – A model was devised from the literature exploring how a shippers propensity to switch logistics service providers may be affected by perceptions of service elements and logistics cost reductions. The model was tested with survey data from 235 Finnish industrial firms and analysed using structural equation modelling.Findings – Findings indicate that in the short‐run trade‐offs do not exist, but there may be a propensity to trade‐off in the long run. Further, quality of service is a more important factor for customers than participating in tight price competition.Research limitations/implications – The data were collected from one country and further ...

Controlling the bullwhip with transport capacity constraints

The bullwhip effect can be costly to companies in terms of capacity-on costs and stock-out costs. This paper examines the possibilities for controlling the bullwhip effect with transport capacity management in the supply chain. The goal is to examine how inventories and service levels react to transport capacity constraints in a simulated supply chain that is prone to the bullwhip effect. By controlling the transport capacities, the companies may be able to reduce the impacts of demand amplification and inventory variations. Thus, there may be significant practical implications of the findings for logistics managers in todays volatile business environments.

Investigating brand equity of third-party service providers

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to apply theory and techniques from the services and marketing literature to a supply-chain context consisting of a shipper or seller, a customer or buyer and a third-party logistics service provider (3PL) to investigate corporate brand equity resulting from service quality, customer satisfaction and customer loyalty towards the 3PL. Design/methodology/approach – A conceptual model was developed from the literature and tested with Finnish industrial firms using an online survey. Data were analysed using structural equation modelling to examine relationships among the four constructs. Findings – Hypothesised relationships among the four constructs in the conceptual model were supported; however, the relationship between loyalty and corporate brand equity was weak. Research limitations/implications – This investigatory research is based on a one-country sample making transferability and generalisability to other countries difficult. Practical implications – The finding...

Trust, control and confidence in logistics outsourcing decisions

A number of theoretical constructs and models exist for framing logistics outsourcing decisions. In transaction cost economics, it is argued that the dimensions of transactions, notably asset specificity, are the main criteria to consider in outsourcing situations. Resource-based approaches focus on the company’s assets and capabilities that should be protected and developed while non-core activities should be outsourced. Behaviourally oriented theories explore the human and social factors facilitating outsourcing decisions. In this paper, the model of Das and Teng (1998) is used to examine the role of trust and control as facilitators creating confidence in outsourcing when relationship specific investments are present in the outsourcing relationship. A conceptual model is developed and tested with structural equation modelling using survey data from Finnish industrial companies. The results show that confidence is positively associated with the propensity to outsource logistics when the outsourcing relationship is disposed to specific investments.

Latent classes of service quality, logistics costs and loyalty

In this paper, we create a research model addressing the antecedents of loyalty: service quality and cost reductions. The data was collected from Finnish industrial companies, buyers of the logistics service providers services in the B2B domain. We found that service performance influences loyalty, but establishing a cost performance-loyalty influence is more problematic. We suggest that buyer heterogeneity gives rise to an insignificant relationship between cost performance and loyalty. Hence, we have extended our work with finite mixture structural equation modelling to reveal latent groups and their background factors: perhaps for the first time in the domain of logistics research. The paper provides new insight into the opportunities for customer analysis and segmentation, with powerful, up-to-date methods that are gaining a growing reputation within the research community. We found two latent loyalty classes, and in addition, as traditional customer segmentation seems to be insufficient, we suggest factors which explain latent behavioural classes.