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The aim of this study is to examine the role and capabilities of fourth party logistics (4PL) in the supply chain agility and firm performance. In addition to this, the relationship between supply chain agility and firm performance is also examined. This study aims to fulfill the gap in the literature about the studies on the relationship between 4PL capability dimensions, supply chain agility and business performance.

The study uses survey data from 58 senior executives and managers in the logistics and supply chain functions from 4PL service providers' customer firms in Turkey. The results are structural equation modeling using SmartPLS software. Snowball sampling method was used to collect survey data.

This study shows that integrator and supply chain infomediary are appropriate practices for mediating the impact of agile supply chain strategies, on firm performance. For supply chain practitioners, results indicate that firms benefit greatly if they consider the outsourcing, such as a 4PL partnership, in conjunction with their supply chain strategy.

Time, cost and the presence of businesses located in different cities across Turkey in the sample of study and the existence of the tendency of enterprises not to participate in the research can be stated as the limitations of this study.

In the literature, studies on 4PL have been conducted in different fields which can be categorized as follows: 4PL solution development, reasons that facilitate and prevent the design and implementation of 4PL, scope of 4PL service delivery and profit and risk sharing from the structure of 4PL networks. Briefly, the studies focus on conceptualizing and differentiating of 4PL from 3PL before reaching a common definition. Motivation of this study is to fulfill the gap of literature about supply chain agility, firm performance relationship and mediation role of 4PL skill dimensions.

The purpose of this paper is to identify the value of fourth-party logistics (4PL) services in a humanitarian supply chain. Furthermore, it shows a framework for a fourth-party humanitarian logistics concept.

The research paper presents a framework of fourth-party humanitarian logistics based on the four core components described by Christopher (2005) which was evaluated with a nonlinear approach called analytical hierarchy process (AHP). The AHP method explores qualitative and quantitative decision-making criteria in case of solving multi-attribute and complex problems. In total, seven experts from academia and practice have contributed to this research, resulting in a better understanding of the decisive needs of humanitarian supply chain actors for implementing and integrating a 4PL concept.

The research shows an increased value for humanitarian supply chain actors of establishing a 4PL concept. The results present a positive influence of 4PL in complex disasters environments and provide key drivers for increasing and simplifying collaboration between the humanitarian supply chain actors.

Future research has to consider different disaster types and needs to further emphasize the added value for beneficiaries of implementing a 4PL concept in a humanitarian supply chain environment. Further research should preferably also consider case studies in order to analyse challenges, drawbacks and benefits of this concept (qualitative and quantitative factors) in a real-life humanitarian supply chain setting.

The research offers managerial insights into the use of a 4PL concept in the humanitarian supply chain environment to improve efficiency due to an improved collaboration between the humanitarian supply chain actors.

The research paper investigates an under-researched topic in the humanitarian supply chain environment. For humanitarian supply chain actors outsourcing their activities to a 4PL service provider could secure collaboration, increase service levels as well as efficiency and therefore create additional value.

The purpose of this paper is to improve the understanding of the role of humanitarian cluster leads through applying lessons from the fourth‐party logistics (4PL) literature.

The primary data for this paper are based on an extensive case study of coordination mechanisms in humanitarian logistics covering specifically the UNJLC (United Nations Joint Logistics Centre) and the Logistics Cluster. In total, 37 semi‐structured interviews were conducted, together with site visits and review of official documentation.

The paper finds that the 4PL concept provides a partial match for the cluster leads with important lessons from the 4PL literature. In particular, lessons are related to selectivity of central participants for the cluster, and the need to develop relationship management skills.

The paper shows some clear areas where lessons from the 4PL literature are highly relevant to the logistics cluster lead. Some of these implications can also be applied to the other clusters, but further concepts should be developed for the cluster system as a whole.

The analysis shows that cluster leads should think of themselves more as facilitators rather than channel captains.

The tasks for the humanitarian cluster leads have been outlined in some detail, but the ways to accomplish them and how they should operate in relation to other actors in the field has been less clear. By using the 4PL concept the paper demonstrates a number of lessons that are relevant to the logistics cluster lead in particular.

This paper introduces a new mathematical model for analyzing the economic benefits of incorporating the fourth party logistics (4PL), which is a contractor (i.e. agent) for the supply chain coordination and construction based on the division of community and the outsourcing development. Based on the physical theory and the wave-particle duality, a supply chain is the special organization whose characteristic has wave-particle duality. The mathematical model enriches the connotation of 4PL and it broadens the thought for 4PL development. Secondly, the proposed mathematical model predicated on transaction costs, is supported by Transaction Cost Theory (TCT) and acts as the theoretical analysis tool of 4PL for coordinating 3-party generic supply chain. Through the model, some trendy conclusions can be drawn to provide theoretical support for 4PL’s practices. Finally, a case illustrates our conclusions.

The purpose of this paper is to identify how coordination has evolved in humanitarian logistics (HL), what were the triggers for change and how have they been facilitated.

This paper applies a systematic literature review of academic journals.

This is the first paper to discuss the concepts of network orchestration and choreography in a humanitarian context. The research revealed that network coordination has moved on in the commercial sector to include orchestration and now, choreography concepts which have not been tested in HL literature. This reveals a lag exists between HL research and practice.

This paper represents an exploratory study and provides the basis for further research on the concepts of orchestration and choreography in HL. The paper sets a research agenda for academics.

This paper is the first to discuss the concepts of network orchestration and choreography in a humanitarian context.

The areas of orchestration and choreography have received limited consideration within the humanitarian aid logistics literature to date. This paper is designed to redress this shortfall. As a result, it is hoped that it will act as a catalyst for further research and to widen and deepen the resultant debate with a view to improving the outcome for those affected by current and future disasters.

Service development and outsourcing are growing trends in humanitarian logistics (HL). Humanitarian organizations (HOs) have developed specialized units to perform logistics activities on behalf of other aid organizations, as a commercial logistics service provider (LSP) would do. The purpose of this paper is to explore the characteristics of HOs acting as LSPs and the differences with their commercial counterparts.

This research uses a two-level content analysis of 149 annual reports from 50 local and international HOs, performed with the help of qualitative data analysis software. First, a manifest content analysis identified the number of occurrences of logistics-related words and later, a latent content analysis studies the use in context of such words to characterize the nature of HOs as LSPs.

Evidence shows that some international HOs – in some cases through specialized logistics units – perform the same activities as commercial LSPs, providing similar services. However, due to the characteristics of the humanitarian context, HOs acting as LSPs can offer a wider range of value-added and dedicated services to clients (other HOs) than commercial LSPs.

Exploring the activities performed by HOs on behalf of other aid organizations and characterizing them as service providers constitutes a first attempt to grasp the unique features of these particular humanitarian LSPs. The results open the discussion about the services HOs offer, thus contributing to theory development in HL.

The identification of HOs acting as LSPs introduces a new actor to the humanitarian network, which the authors refer to as humanitarian service provider (HSP). This supposes two main managerial implications. First, the results support the idea of seeing servitization as a competitive difference, having a substantial impact on the way HOs build their strategies and achieve competitive advantage. Second, HSPs can push their commercial equivalents to identify new activities or services to offer and maintain their competitive advantage with regard to the newcomers.

This paper furthers the discussion on the concept of HSPs and demonstrates its uniqueness, thus contributing to the ever-growing body of knowledge of HL research.

In e‐commerce, the infomediary is rapidly becoming an important business model on the Web. A low cost Web‐based infomediary for the air cargo industry can help integrate Air Cargo service providers and their customers, and thus improve the productivity of the logistics chain. Customers can access flight information of cargo carriers through the infomediary in a much more simplified way, thus management can better plan the subsequent operations. Proposes a three‐tier paradigm for developing an air cargo logistics infomediary. This paradigm integrates emerging technologies of the next‐generation Web‐based systems to address the three issues for the development. A prototype system was developed to demonstrate its capability in accepting requests from general browsers, retrieving data from different platforms, and presenting data in a consistent and personalized format.

Internet referral services are a common form of online marketing operating activities. To incentivize infomediaries and improve referral performance, brand retailers typically apply the cost-per-click (CPC) or the cost-per-sale (CPS) payments. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the effect of referral services on the optimal contract with CPC or CPS payments.

This paper studies a mechanism design problem for internet referral services. To maximize the expected utility of the brand retailer, an uncertain contract model is established in which the brand retailer's assessment of the infomediary's referral service capability is characterized as an uncertain variable. Then equivalent models under CPC and CPS payments are presented to obtain the optimal solutions.

The results demonstrate that under CPC payments, as the referral service capability increases, the optimal sales volume is increasing, and the optimal transfer payment first shows a declining and then a rising trend. The brand retailer is less likely to raise the optimal transfer payment for the infomediary given a higher CPC revenue-sharing fee percentage, which is counterintuitive. Under CPS payments, the optimal sales volume and transfer payment are also increasing in the referral service capability. In addition, an increase in the click-through rate leads to the infomediary's incremental marginal utility.

The value of this research is its application of incentive contracts to the internet referral services considering CPC or CPS payments. The results of this research can serve as a guide for retailers and infomediaries in their decision-making around online retailing.

In recent years, logistics service providers (LSPs) have become important players in the humanitarian field, providing support for NGOs and governments when they respond to major disasters. However, the academic literature on humanitarian logistics has not really explored the roles that LSPs play in relief supply chains. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the role of LSPs in humanitarian relief.

The research uses a two-stage exploratory approach: first, it systematically reviews the humanitarian logistics literature to see the extent to which LSPs are taken into account. Then it analyses the web sites of leading LSPs to examine how they communicate about their role in humanitarian relief.

This research produces some surprising findings. While the academic literature seems to neglect the roles of LSPs in humanitarian logistics, some major third-party firms highlight their roles in relief networks. A number of research propositions are presented describing emerging roles for LSPs in relief supply chains.

This paper focuses on academic humanitarian logistics literature; a review of practitioner articles and the LSP literature might also be relevant. The web site analysis is based on corporate communication which may contain bias. Further research should add to this work with NGO/government perspectives and produce primary data in order to demonstrate the external validity of the research propositions.

The research identifies different roles LSPs could play in humanitarian supply chains, suggesting opportunities for new business lines.

The main contributions of this paper are to explore the roles LSPs could play in humanitarian logistics and to bring a new perspective to humanitarian logistics research.

This paper aims to examine how blockchain technology is disrupting business models for new venture finance.

The role of blockchain technology in the evolution of new business models to monetize the creative economy is explored by means of a case study approach. The focus is on the recorded music industry, which is in the vanguard of new forms of intermediation and financialization. There is a particular focus on emerging artists.

This paper provides novel case study insights and concludes by considering how further research can contribute to building a theory of technology-driven business models which apply to the development, on the one hand, of new forms of financial intermediaries, more correctly referred to as “infomediaries,” and on the other hand, to new forms of direct monetization by artists.

This paper provides early insight into the emerging potential applications of blockchain technologies to streamline music industry business service models and improve finance streams for new artists. The findings have far-reaching implications across the creative sector.