Logistics barriers to international operations: The case of the People's Republic of China.

摘要

Responding to the intensification of global competition, many U.S. firms have developed international operation strategies to establish a world-wide production, distribution, and marketing network. As firms become more involved in international operations, the need for international logistics increases. The different economic, political, and social/cultural environments in foreign countries create various logistics barriers to a firm's global operations. Yet, few research has been done in this field.; This research is designed to identify various logistics barriers to international operation, and China is used as the research setting. More specifically, the study has four objectives: (1) to identify the logistics barriers firms have encountered in international operations and to determine the relative severity of these barriers to a firm's success in international markets; (2) to investigate the economic, institutional, and social/cultural factors underlying these logistics barriers; (3) to examine the actions that U.S. firms have taken to solve these problems; and (4) to explore the solutions to reduce these logistics barriers in the future.; To identify various logistics barriers, an empirical investigation was performed through the use of survey questionnaire. 204 responses (25.1% response rate) were received from American firms that are currently operating in China. The information contained in these responses were used to explore five research questions designed to identify the severity of international logistics barriers.; The findings of the study indicate that U.S. firms have encountered very severe barriers in all logistics functional areas. These barriers were found closely related to the specific economic, institutional, and social/cultural factors. Various actions have been taken by the firms to reduce these barriers, and strategic alliances with Chinese partners were considered very important in barrier reduction. Finally, Chinese government's policy changes are expected to improve the overall logistics environment.