Competitiveness of logistics service providers: a cross-national examination of management practices in China and the UK

Abstract

This paper investigates the extent to which logistics service providers (LSPs) translate their visions of competitiveness into management practices. It is based on a comparative study conducted in both China and the UK. The results demonstrate that both Chinese and UK LSPs have established various management practices conducive to achieving competitiveness. These practices are related to different business and operational activities of an LSP. The results also reveal a fairly high degree of similarity between the UK and Chinese LSPs with regard to their perspectives and management practices, despite their different business contexts and backgrounds. There are, nevertheless, several areas in which the views of UK and Chinese LSPs diverge, which are likely to reflect differences in the development (age and the maturity) of the UK and Chinese LSPs concerned. This is the first comparative study of LSPs in China and the UK, and it provides insights as to how LSP managers pursue competitiveness in either developing or developed countries through initiating successful management practices, and also suggests that it is important for LSP managers to establish a good understanding of their international counterparts in the competition, particularly in today's globalised world, in which more and more LSPs have extended their supply chain management to leverage value from a truly world marketplace.

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