Exporters’ Strategic Orientation towards Third Party Logistics Suppliers:Impacts on Exporters’ Logistics Competence and Export Performance

摘要

A firm's strategic orientation helps develop its capabilities that improve its performance. Collaboration with third party logistics (3PL) suppliers is a key to the success of firms exporting to international markets. There has been phenomenal growth in investment in 3PL services in the past decade. However, very little research has examined how exporters' strategic orientation towards 3PL suppliers helps improve their logistics competence and export performance. Drawing on the resource-based view of the firm and the relationship marketing perspective, we analyzed data from 150 exporters in Hong Kong and the Pearl River Delta (PRD) region, China, using structural equation modelling and obtained the following findings: (1) exporters' strategic orientation towards 3PL suppliers has a significant positive impact on 3PL suppliers' core and augmented capabilities, (2) 3PL suppliers' augmented capability has a significant positive impact on exporters' logistics competence, and (3) exporters' logistics competence has a significant positive impact on their own export performance. We also found that the impact of 3PL suppliers' core capability on exporters' logistics competence is positive but only marginally significant. This research contributes both to theory by identifying the performance implications of exporters' strategic orientation towards 3PL suppliers and to practice by providing exporters with insights on treating their 3PL suppliers.