Title: The analysis and case studies of successful express logistics companies

Authors: Tan Kah Ling, C.K.M. Lee, William Ho

Addresses: Division of Systems and Engineering Management, School of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, Nanyang Technological University, 50 Nanyang Avenue, 639798, Singapore. ' Division of Systems and Engineering Management, School of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, Nanyang Technological University, 50 Nanyang Avenue, 639798, Singapore. ' Operations and Information Management Group, Aston Business School, Aston University, Birmingham B4 7ET, UK

Abstract: With the globalisation of world business, the border-crossing activities between organisations have substantially increased. Organisations not only need to handle supply functions, but also play a tremendous role in demand simulation through integration both inside the firm and outside with business partners and customers. Logistics has become more and more mature and sophisticated by taking on an external focus, incorporating suppliers and customers in the business processes, with all the supply chain functions integrated into a whole. By minimising the costs in the value chain or providing customised services, logistics acts as a major source of competitive advantages and profitability. To meet this goal, it would require the integration of activities to focus on customer-oriented measures. Customer service and logistics activities are a chain of interdependent activities that supplement each other to facilitate the flow of information, goods and cash within the value chain. The absence of one activity may imply some specific channels need to supplement another unit. Generally, this paper is to study the impact of corporate strategy, technology and customer satisfaction on the firm|s performance, filling the gap of good customer service effects on long-term profits. Two international delivery providers, UPS and FedEx, are studied to realise the critical success factors of express logistics.

Keywords: United Parcel Service; UPS; Federal Express; FedEx; case study; express logistics; value chain; customer service; corporate strategy; information technology; customer satisfaction; firm performance.

DOI: 10.1504/IJVCM.2009.022415

International Journal of Value Chain Management, 2009 Vol.3 No.1, pp.20 - 35

Published online: 04 Jan 2009 *

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