Examining a client network development framework for a logistics service provider: A longitudinal case study

Abstract

Buyer-seller relationships represent a core theme in industrial marketing management. From the supplier's perspective, extant marketing literature, however, focuses on client retention in preference to client recruitment. Within the context of logistics outsourcing, although numerous studies have taken the buyer's perspective and shown how manufacturers/retailers select logistics service providers (LSPs), there is a shortage of studies and a lack of theoretical understanding from the supplier's perspective on how LSPs recruit clients. This study contributes to rectifying this through a longitudinal case study conducted on a fourth-party logistics service provider appraising its recruitment of clients. A mid-range client recruitment framework is developed, built abductively on the case and through the theory of mediating firms value creation. Theoretically, the framework refines notions of the mediating firm theory. Managerially, this client recruitment framework is proposed as a guide to aid LSP managers in their organic growth strategies through client network development.