Strategic collaboration with motor carriers and the effect on managers' perceptions of firm performance.

摘要

In an effort to understand strategic collaboration in transportation service supply, this research attempts to identify significant areas of strategic collaboration between motor carriers and shippers, and the way these areas affect managers' perceptions of organizational performance. An online survey with U.S.-based manufacturing and distribution firms was conducted to gather necessary data. The first step of the study was to use the survey results to detect the significance of selected strategic collaboration variables, including length of relationship, benefit/burden sharing, joint team operation, skill/knowledge sharing, equipment/facility sharing, shared decision making, compatible software implementation, and information sharing. Then, managers' perceptions of improvements in motor carriers' service performance after strategic collaboration with shippers was evaluated in several areas, such as order fill rate, transit time and variability, service flexibility, service diversity, freight rate, freight damage and loss rate, claim processing and restitution, and quality of information provided. Managers' perceptions of improvements in shippers' supply performance after strategic collaboration with motor carriers was also measured in several areas, including order fill rate, order fulfillment lead-time and variability, production flexibility, total logistics cost, inventory turnover rate, on-time delivery, and rate of returns. Finally, the research tested causal relationships between strategic collaboration and improvement in motor carrier service performance, and between strategic collaboration and improvement in shipper supply performance, using path analysis with latent variables.