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The construction industry shows an increased interest in how to manage logistics within construction projects. Often construction logistics is outsourced to a logistics service provider (LSP). However, construction logistics is normally approached either as a strategic decision or as an operational issue and rarely as a tactical concern. The purpose of this study is to explore how to organize the logistics outsourcing decision at strategic, tactical and operational levels.

This study is performed as a single-case study within a construction corporation, containing (amongst others) a building contractor (BC) and a construction equipment rental company (CERC) offering logistics services.

The study shows that to procure construction logistics service successfully, BCs need logistics capabilities at strategic and tactical levels to maintain an alignment between the use of logistics services and operational characteristics. Simultaneously, CERC’s need to design their service offerings to correspond to the needs of the BC.

This study builds on a single-case study of a Swedish construction corporation. Further research is needed to better understand current logistics outsourcing and development practices and how these can be improved to foster better logistics management at the project level.

BCs find suggestions of different logistics organization structures and suitable outsourcing arrangements. CERCs and LSPs can use the findings to understand their customers’ needs and adapt service offerings.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is one of the first studies of how two companies within a corporation can work together to develop construction logistics service offerings.

This study identifies and characterizes configurations of generic business models for logistics service providers (LSPs) in the context of industrial additive manufacturing (AM). A literature-based framework of the AM service supply chain (SC) is developed to embed the generic configurations in their SC context.

Following an exploratory research design, 17 interviews were conducted with LSPs, LSPs' potential partners and customers for industrial AM services.

Six generic configurations are identified, the LSP as a Manufacturer, Landlord, Logistician, Connector, Agent and Consultant. The authors outline how these configurations differ in the required locations, partners and targeted customer segments.

The current discussion of reshoring and shorter, decentralized AM SCs confronts LSPs with novel challenges. This study offers guidance for managers of LSPs for designing business models for industrial AM and raises awareness for LSPs' resource and SC implications.

This study contributes to the scarce literature on AM business models for LSPs with in-depth empirical insights. Based on the six identified configurations, this study sets the ground for theorizing about the business models, in particular, the value creation, value proposition and mechanisms for value capture of the business models. In addition, this study suggests how the generic configurations fit the features of specific types of LSPs.

By introducing the mass customization service mode into the cloud logistics environment, this paper studies the joint optimization of service provider selection and customer order decoupling point (CODP) positioning based on the mass customization service mode to provide customers with more diversified and personalized service content with lower total logistics service cost.

This paper addresses the general process of service composition optimization based on the mass customization mode in a cloud logistics service environment and constructs a joint decision model for service provider selection and CODP positioning. In the model, the two objective functions of minimum service cost and most satisfactory delivery time are considered, and the Pareto optimal solution of the model is obtained via the NSGA-II algorithm. Then, a numerical case is used to verify the superiority of the service composition scheme based on the mass customization mode over the general scheme and to verify the significant impact of the scale effect coefficient on the optimal CODP location.

(1) Under the cloud logistics mode, the implementation of the logistics service mode based on mass customization can not only reduce the total cost of logistics services by means of the scale effect of massive orders on the cloud platform but also make more efficient use of a large number of logistics service providers gathered on the cloud platform to provide customers with more customized and diversified service content. (2) The scale effect coefficient directly affects the total cost of logistics services and significantly affects the location of the CODP. Therefore, before implementing the mass customization logistics service mode, the most reasonable clustering of orders on the cloud logistics platform is very important for the follow-up service combination.

The originality of this paper includes two aspects. One is to introduce the mass customization mode in the cloud logistics service environment for the first time and summarize the operation process of implementing the mass customization mode in the cloud logistics environment. Second, in order to solve the joint decision optimization model of provider selection and CODP positioning, this paper designs a method for solving a mixed-integer nonlinear programming model using a multi-layer coding genetic algorithm.

This study aims to identify service quality dimensions for logistics service providers (LSPs) and to examine their relationships with customer satisfaction and customer loyalty.

Service quality dimensions are identified from vast literature review. Customers who take services from LSPs were surveyed to collect data on basis of developed survey instrument. Structural Equation Modelling (SEM) is applied to test the proposed research hypotheses.

The study shows that all the five service quality constructs, i.e. “Operational Quality”, “Resource Quality”, “Information Quality”, “Personnel Contact Quality” and “Customization and Innovation Quality” have direct relationship with customer satisfaction. They also have indirect relationship with customer loyalty, implying the full mediation of customer satisfaction.

The results of the study suggest that the logistics service quality (LSQ) can be measured multi-dimensionally. It provides clear implications to LSPs for improvement of service quality. The present research work is expected to be useful for both, logistics service providers and the customer organizations, which take services from LSPs. LSPs can develop strategies to improve their service quality on basis of findings from this study.

The present research will help in extending the existing literature on service quality in context to LSPs.

Logistics at work is rapidly changing. The changing trend is especially prominent when considering the active involvement of individuals that perform diverse forms of formal/informal “logistics work” (e.g. crowd logistics and self-collection). Thus, by conducting a synthesised review (n = 55), this study aims to provide a typology of individuals' logistics work.

The total social organisation of labour is used as a guiding framework. A deductive literature analysis is performed based on the identified journal articles.

The review findings reveal three major contexts where individuals perform logistics work: formal organisation, social community and private household, with a decreased level of formality. Under each context, individuals may be engaged in paid or unpaid activities, creating six forms of logistics work, termed as paid/voluntary professional logistics, incentivised/friendly social logistics and rewarded/free consumer logistics. Furthermore, an actor–sphere–resource–value conceptualisation of individual logistics is proposed, focussing on the chains of actors, work settings, resource input and value outcome.

The results provide a theoretical foundation for further research in individual- or consumer-centrism in logistics. Two research directions and seven research questions are presented for future investigation.

Although green logistics has become a new focus of cooperation between government and enterprises under environmental constraints, how local governments formulate subsidy policies to effectively guide the green transformation of regional logistics and how to facilitate the reasonable cost-sharing are rather critical. This paper will deeply explore the dynamic process of the tripartite participation (government, platform, and logistics enterprises) in the selection of regional green logistics strategy, and reveal the evolutionary game relationship of the three parties.

To explore the dynamics involving the government, platform and logistics enterprises for the green logistic transformation, and reveal the evolutionary gaming among the three parties, based on the bounded rationality premise, this study constructs the tripartite asymmetric evolutionary game models, uses the stability theorem of differential equation to explore the evolution and stability strategy of the system in different cases and explicates the paths of influence on the tripartite behaviors via simulations.

Results of this study indicate that there exist stable equilibrium strategies among the three parties regarding the regional green logistics, and they are affected by different factors. The government's subsidy, subsidy intensity and the platform's cost-sharing proportion can generate positive effects, but the latter two can also impact negatively beyond the effective ranges. The findings provide a theoretical basis for local governments, platforms and logistics enterprises to formulate justifiable subsidy intensity and determine reasonable sharing proportion.

Firstly, considering the significant relevance of local government, it is included in the evolution model, and the tripartite game (among government, platform and enterprises) is explored; Secondly, by comparing the equilibrium results under different game conditions, this paper analyzes the evolution of each party's game strategy to achieve the optimal return under bounded rationality and the important factors determining the strategic selection; Finally, the key factor of platform cost sharing is involved, and to what extent the change of platform cost sharing ratio will influence the systematic stability is explored.

This study tries to investigate and examine the extent of power dynamics of diverse actors in supply chains (SCs) in affecting the (un)stable connections within the logistics service providers (LSPs) triad in manufacturing firms (MFs) in Australia as a developed country.

This study adopted a qualitative research approach by conducting 28 face-to-face semi-structured interviews, which was performed over a five-month period, between May and October 2022 with the targeted respondents via several Case MFs studies focusing on the triadic SC relationships through the power dynamics of LSPs (e.g. Case 1/MF-A, Case 2/MF-B, Case 3/MF-C, Case 4/MF-D and Case 5/MF-E) in order to gather primary data from the perspectives of logistics service clients, providers and suppliers that are dealing with MFs in Australia country. Interviewees were selected based on their knowledge, professional, expertise and tasks that are related to the study context if they are from MFs and/or LSPs. The researchers performed NVivo 12 Software as a tool for analyzing the collected primary data from the targeted interviewees, thus using a purposive sampling approach. This study constitutes a cornerstone for a conceptual exploration of the field of B2B and as it expands existing fields of broadcasting and investigation that focus on B2C within the manufacturing firms' context.

The findings clearly show the importance of stable purchase volume and resource ability for a focal company in the logistics triad. This leads it to have a strong long-term relationship through monitoring its partners and curbing evolutions in different dyads.

Identifying influential factors offers complementary insights to practitioners for depicting the SC relationship dynamics using the dominant power used by logistics service providers. Such findings encourage investigating an issues in emerging countries.

The study provides an extending novel piece of work on how to establish the relational embeddedness of two dyads through the power dynamics of the dominant player represented by LSPs that can significantly affect the triadic SC relationships in manufacturing firms (MFs). Such a perspective seems not to be similar to the classical standpoint in the SCM literature, in which the LSPs as a dominant and dynamic power derived from bridging the customer-supplier sustainable dyads relationship in the MFs context.

The purpose of this study is to identify the factors that create value for the customer in the area of e-commerce logistics and to verify whether these factors impact online retailers' performance through customer satisfaction and customer loyalty in a business to customer (B2C) area.

For the purpose of the study, a model of logistics value in e-commerce was introduced. The model was proposed based on the literature review. A total of 592 correctly filled questionnaires from telephone and web interviews [computer-assisted telephone interview (CATI) and computer-assisted web interview (CAWI)] were studied. The exploratory factor analysis (EFA) and structural equation modeling (SEM) were conducted in the study.

It was confirmed that four of five defined logistics value dimensions have positive impact on customer satisfaction. These dimensions are communication of delivery status, convenience of receipt, reception experience and convenience of return. The influence of speed of delivery on customer satisfaction was not confirmed. It was also confirmed that customer satisfaction has a positive impact on customer loyalty and that customer loyalty positively impacts online retailers' performance.

The study contributes to the current understanding of the influence of logistics factors on online retailers' performance through customer satisfaction and customer loyalty. There have been few studies that concern logistics value in e-commerce, with particular emphasis on above-mentioned relations. It is especially an important issue due to the fact that logistics can potentially lead to gain a competitive advantage in e-commerce.

The scale and measure of the impact of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) on economic development has been a popular topic in the literature. The global pandemic has posed challenges to the supply chains and logistics in many countries, causing delays and disrupting supply chains and decreasing the volume of logistics flows. To ensure economic growth in the future, it is essential to acknowledge the impact the COVID-19 in order to increase the accuracy of anticipating changes during widespread pandemic. In this study, the linkage between economic development and the COVID-19 estimated and real impact is illustrated in a case study comparison between the Finnish and German logistic companies' viewpoints. The study shows how the international COVID-19 pandemic has affected to logistics organization perceptions on the changes in operational environment and continuity of business.

The empirical part of the study relies on mixed methods approach using panel data from logistics companies and expert group discussion. The panel data participants were logistics sector actors and the data was collected through a questionnaire. Numerous sources found from the literature are used to gain a holistic understanding of the attributes and impact of change in the logistics field.

This study provides an important, yet sparsely addressed viewpoint to the supply chain management literature by illustrating the changes caused be a widespread pandemic can cause to the logistics sector companies. Furthermore, the findings illustrate how different roles in supply chain actors perceived the COVID-19 in their operations, before and during the pandemic. The findings of the paper illustrate how drastic uncertainty and changes in the operational environment is seen in the logistics organizations. The findings suggest that increased uncertainty and changes in the operational environment can cause significant drop in expectations of the business development in the logistics sector depending on the actor’s role in the supply chain and international perspective.

This paper contributes to the supply chain management and logistics literature with insights into how widespread pandemic is perceived in different roles of the supply chain as well as in different countries where the pandemic has spread in different pace. Analyzing the differences between the expected and realized impact from the business environment can give valuable information for academics and managers in the field, and thus give insights to improve the planning and decision-making in logistics field during a global pandemic.

This study examines the effect of human and technological resource bundling on the financial and non-financial performance of third-party logistics (3PL) firms in India.

For achieving the research aim, 248 practitioners from India based 3PL firms were surveyed. The relationships between human and technology resources and firm performance were examined using structural equation modelling (SEM).

The results of empirical tests revealed that human and technological resources significantly enhance the performance of the 3PL firm. However, the firm's logistic capabilities related to track and trace, order management and final assembly do not mediate this relationship.

This study contributes by examining resource bundling in India's 3PL industry using empirical data and providing knowledge of the relationship between resources and business performance. It guides managers to consciously develop resource capabilities that influence firm performance.