Title: Global challenges and research gaps for third-party logistics: literature review

Authors: Yangyan Shi; Maurice Osewe; Qianyu Li; Lu Han; Aijun Liu

Addresses: College of Economics and Management, Nanjing Agricultural University, China; Centre for Supply Chain Management, University of Auckland Business School, New Zealand ' College of Economics and Management, Nanjing Agricultural University, China ' College of Economics and Management, Nanjing Agricultural University, China ' College of Economics and Management, Nanjing Agricultural University, China ' College of Economics and Management, Nanjing Agricultural University, China

Abstract: Most firms selling or producing goods at least use 3PLs for their domestic and global operations. However, they face several challenges both internally and externally. The purpose of this paper is to provide a better understanding and an exhaustive review, of the current state of research concerning the global challenges that the third-party service providers face in the course of their operations based on the primary themes and integrations. We conducted a systematic review approach to gather, scrutinise and synthesise data about the accuracy and values of the past articles published in the digital databases between 1990 and 2017 and selected 74 primary articles. We grouped the challenges into different common categories namely; barriers due to technological advancements, logistics flexibilities, industrial dynamics and lack of proactivity, minimising the lead time as well as customers' satisfaction and future expectations.

Keywords: challenges/barriers; third-party logistics; literature review; supply chain management.

DOI: 10.1504/IJLEG.2019.100209

International Journal of Logistics Economics and Globalisation, 2019 Vol.8 No.1, pp.46 - 66

Received: 13 Sep 2018
Accepted: 08 Dec 2018
Published online: 18 Jun 2019 *

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