A Comparative Analysis of 3PL Applications in Manufacturing Firms from Seven Countries

Abstract

Third-party logistics (3PL), as a source of competitive advantage for companies, is one of the most important issues discussed in logistics in today business environments. So, it has increasingly attracted the attention of researchers. This paper provides a comparative analysis of 3PL applications in manufacturing firms. First, a summary of the literature concerning empirical studies on the use of 3PL services by manufacturing firms is presented. Second, the results obtained from empirical studies in seven countries are compared in terms of the main topics of 3PL, which are the extent of use, the decision-making process, third-party services used, implementation, training, commitment to the concept and expenditures, organizational impact, and plans for the future. Thus, this paper presents the differences and similarities between these countries based on a comparative and statistical analysis. It is concluded that the extent of use of 3PL services is high in the world, the long-term relationship between parties should be taken into consideration in the use of 3PL services, and that development of outsourcing in the logistics industry will continue to increase.