Title: The benefit of information sharing in a logistics outsourcing context

Authors: Hossein Zolfagharinia; Michael A. Haughton

Addresses: School of Business and Economics, Wilfrid Laurier University, 75 University Avenue West, Waterloo, Ontario N2L 3C5, Canada ' School of Business and Economics, Wilfrid Laurier University, 75 University Avenue West, Waterloo, Ontario N2L 3C5, Canada

Abstract: The goal of this article is to examine the value of information sharing in outsourcing of logistics activities. Our examination is in the context of a fairly complex network in which location and capacity of carriers are considered. The current research also examines the moderating effect of network settings on the benefit of information sharing. A core component of our methodology is use of computational experiments to provide a variety of logistics network conditions under which we investigate information sharing value. The investigation involves comparing two strategies, namely full and no information sharing. Underlying the experiments are procedures to optimise the network under each strategy. The procedures are based on exact methods that combine integer linear programming with exhaustive enumeration. To gauge the robustness of the insights, we applied formal analysis of variance techniques to the data from the numerical experiments. The obtained insights are helpful to managers for selecting appropriate logistics service providers and level of information exchange.

Keywords: information sharing; logistics outsourcing; supply chain coordination; supply chain management; SCM; network settings; logistics networks; logistics service providers; information exchange.

DOI: 10.1504/IJLSM.2012.048935

International Journal of Logistics Systems and Management, 2012 Vol.13 No.2, pp.187 - 208

Published online: 10 Dec 2014 *

Full-text access for editors Full-text access for subscribers Purchase this article Comment on this article