Third-party logistics providers and strategic outsourcing in the context of supply chain disruptions: Peruvian agricultural case study

Abstract

El presente estudio se enfoca en las disrupciones de la cadena de suministro, factor importante en el contexto actual de aumento de desastres naturales, inestabilidad política y otros factores intencionales y no intencionales. Aplicando un estudio de caso cualitativo realizado en la industria agrícola peruana, esta investigación presenta cinco proposiciones, llegando a los siguientes resultados: (a) las disrupciones en la cadena de suministro son un factor considerado por las empresas cuando deciden externalizar la logística, alineándose con la literatura previa sobre la gestión de riesgos de la cadena de suministro. (b) las disrupciones de la cadena de suministro afectan positiva y negativamente la relación de una empresa y su proveedor logístico, de acuerdo con la teoría basada en recursos y la teoría de costos de transacción. Y (c), las disrupciones de la cadena de suministro no mejoran la relación de una empresa con su proveedor de logística mediante el desarrollo de prácticas estratégicas de subcontratación debido a factores contextuales. Esto contradice los hallazgos anteriores, aunque los factores contextuales identificados caen dentro de la clasificación de las diferencias geográficas, que han demostrado ser un factor influyente para la gestión de la cadena de suministro en estudios comparativos en diferentes regiones geográficas.

Logistics outsourcing is a widely adopted practice by companies to reduce costs, focus on core operations and achieve competitive advantage. Logistics providers offer valuable resources to a firm, sometimes conforming a strategic outsourcing relationship where both parties obtain considerable benefits that go beyond basic operations. This study focuses on supply chain disruptions, one of the most common factors that disrupts supply chains around the world, especially in the current context of increasing natural disasters due to climate change, political instability due to war or conflicts, and other diverse intentional and unintentional factors that disrupt a supply chain. With the aid of a qualitative case study performed on the agricultural industry of Perú, this research set the objective of getting a better understanding on the landscape of the relationship between a company and its thirdparty logistics provider, and how this relationship develops in a situation of supply chain disruptions. By presenting five propositions based on a detailed literature review, this study reaches the following results: (a) Supply chain disruptions are a factor considered by companies when deciding to outsource logistics, aligning with previous literature on supply chain risk management. (b) Supply chain disruptions affect positively and negatively on the relationship of a company and its logistics provider, in accordance with the resource-based theory and the transaction cost theory. And (c), supply chain disruptions don’t enhance the relationship of a company with its logistics provider by developing strategic outsourcing practices due to contextual factors. This contradicts previous findings, although the contextual factors identified fall under the classification of geographical differences, which have proven to be an influential factor for supply chain management in comparative studies across different geographical regions.