Operational collaboration between shippers and carriers in the transportation industry

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to develop a better understanding of how strategic relationships between firms and environmental context affect operational decisions and how each firm allocates resources to improve overall firm performance.

Design/methodology/approach

Qualitative research is integrated with previous research. Data for the qualitative research are collected through focus groups and semi‐structured interviews that employ grand tour questioning, facility tours using key informants, and use of selective artifacts.

Findings

The paper develops a model that examines how environmental factors, specifically the context of the capacity constraints in the transportation industry, can influence shippers to form long‐term and mutually beneficial relationships with their carriers and how these relationships can lead to improved performance at the operational level.

Research limitations/implications

The paper incorporates five foundational theories into one integrated model in the context of business‐to‐business transportation collaboration. The specific contributions from this model most likely cannot have been derived by adopting only one or two of these theories, and this paper provides only one context within which these theories can be integrated. Future research should focus on areas of incompatibility and compatibility among these foundational theories. With this understanding, theory integration should spur future research by attempting to evaluate the nature of business systemically and holistically.

Practical implications

Though collaboration and relationship management has received much attention, realizing improvements in firm performance has proven difficult. Once collaborative behaviors between shippers and carriers are established at a strategic level, managers must carefully assess how to drive those collaborative behaviors to the operational levels of each firm.

Originality/value

This paper extends previous supply chain relationship research, which primarily focuses on strategic interactions between firms, by focusing on the context in which they are carried out. It integrates managerial insights with foundational theories from marketing, logistics, and operations to create theory of how supply chain relationships facilitate firm decisions regarding allocation, sharing, and management of resources on an operational level.

Citation

Fugate, B.S., Davis‐Sramek, B. and Goldsby, T.J. (2009), "Operational collaboration between shippers and carriers in the transportation industry", The International Journal of Logistics Management, Vol. 20 No. 3, pp. 425-447. https://doi.org/10.1108/09574090911002850