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Third-party purchase: an empirical study of Chinese third-party logistics users

Yangyan Shi (Department of Management, College of Economics and Management, Nanjing Agricultural University, Nanjing, China AND Centre for Supply Chain Management, University of Auckland Business School, Auckland, New Zealand)
Abraham Zhang (Department of Management Systems, University of Waikato Management School, Hamilton, New Zealand)
Tiru Arthanari (Department of Information Systems and Operations Management, University of Auckland Business School, Auckland, New Zealand)
Yanping Liu (Business School, Nankai University, Tianjin, China)

International Journal of Operations & Production Management

ISSN: 0144-3577

Article publication date: 7 March 2016

1994

Abstract

Purpose

Third-party purchase (3PP) is a new value-added service offered by third-party logistics (3PL) providers. The purpose of this paper is to examine the perception of 3PP service from the perspective of 3PL users.

Design/methodology/approach

The authors conducted a survey of Chinese 3PL users and received 242 usable responses. The authors then employed structural equation modeling to test the conceptual model.

Findings

The authors found that the likelihood of 3PL users using a 3PP service is significantly associated with uncertainty, but not with asset specificity or frequency or transaction size. 3PP usage is significantly associated with value-to-client.

Originality/value

This research is the first survey study of 3PP as a value-added service offered by 3PL providers, from the perspective of 3PL users. The findings suggest that 3PL users are very positive about the value of 3PP service. The 3PP market is still in its infancy but it has great potential, especially for commodity items that have less demand uncertainty.

Keywords

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank two anonymous reviewers for their constructive comments. The authors are grateful for the supports of the program for the Philosophy and Social Sciences Research of Higher Learning Institutions of Shanxi (PSSR), the National Social Science Foundation of China (through the project of 10CJY056), and the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities of China (through the project of NKZXB1205).

Citation

Shi, Y., Zhang, A., Arthanari, T. and Liu, Y. (2016), "Third-party purchase: an empirical study of Chinese third-party logistics users", International Journal of Operations & Production Management, Vol. 36 No. 3, pp. 286-307. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJOPM-11-2014-0569

Publisher

:

Emerald Group Publishing Limited

Copyright © 2016, Emerald Group Publishing Limited

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