The dynamics of service exchange design in third party logistics services

The empirical context of the study is the third party logistics (3PL) sector. The 3PL market serves as an interesting example as it has evidently grown in complexity, moving from commodity services (transport and warehousing) to increasingly bundled and value added solutions (e.g. supply chain design). Faced with such an unbounded industry and blurred offerings (see Gluckler and Ambruster, 2003), service users are often left confused about the meaning and content of 3PL services. Service specification and design becomes an important challenge in this context, with buyers preferring to gradually increase the scope of outsourced services as the relationship develops rather than buying integrated solutions from the outset. Empirical evidence is derived from three retrospective cases of buyer-logistics service provider relationships. It has been argued that the process of designing services is on-going, with the characteristics of the service offering being continuously revisited and adapted according to changing business requirements.