- Title
- Third-party logistics providers as supply chain orchestrators: an evaluation in Hong Kong
- Creator
- Ng, Ken T. K.
- Resource Type
- thesis
- Date
- 2017
- Description
- Professional Doctorate - Doctor of Business Administration (DBA)
- Description
- Logistics outsourcing studies have been undertaken for many years (Lieb & Randall, 1996). Logistics outsourcing is not merely a means of cost saving but is a strategic tool for creating competitive advantage as inappropriate outsourcing decisions can lead to a variety of problems. However, most of the published literature is in English, and undertaken in the western context, particularly the U.S. and in Western Europe. As such, not much is known about outsourcing practices in Asia, in a rapidly emerging China and particularly in the context of Hong Kong. Hence, this study focuses on the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People’s Republic of China (SARPRC). The project assesses, and evaluates (1) the extent of supply chain management and logistics functions outsourced to 3PLs by large manufacturing, retailing and distribution organisations in the SARPRC (2) the extent/scope, strategicity, and criticality of the services provided by 3PLs to their customers in Hong Kong; and (3) the extent to which 3PLs in Hong Kong can be said to undertake strategic coordination or ‘orchestration’ of their customers’ supply chains and as a result facilitate supply chain management (SCM) best practice on behalf of their customers. Strategic coordination or ‘orchestration’ is defined in this thesis as a company taking over administrative and coordinative responsibilities for the activities of managing, coordinating and focusing the value-creating network within the supply chain (Christopher 2005). In addition, orchestration is critical for an efficient supply chain (Hacki & Lighton, 2001; Lee, 2005) due to supply chain orchestrators being able to take an organization’s performance to an advanced level. The supply chain orchestrator is just like a group leader who leads a group of individual musicians that work closely and well co-ordinately together to make the entire supply chain have more flexibility, agility and real options in effective, efficient and professional ways (Lyer & Zelikovsky, 2011). Furthermore, Zacharia et al., (2011) argued in their seminal article that 3PLs have evolved into significant leadership roles serving as a unique “orchestrator” within the supply chain to help facilitate supply chain management best practices. Thus, the findings of this research project can be a useful starting point for managers to (1) recognize the potential contribution of 3PL firms and (2) take advantage of opportunities to address the need for increased competitive advantage by business organizations. While this is not a theory development project, the findings and contribution of this doctoral research project can also be a useful starting point for strategy and logistics scholars in (1) understanding the extent of network orchestration in the context of Hong Kong 3PLs as distinct from Western contexts, (2) understanding the extent of emergence, and level of empirical support that is available to justify and support the theory of supply chain network orchestration and supply chain network leadership as a pivot for supply chain success (Zacharia et al., 2011; Fung et al., 2009; Dhanaraj & Parkhe, 2006; Bitran et al., 2006) and (3) the project also contributes to a deeper and more enhanced scholarly understanding of the emerging phenomenon of supply chain network orchestration as first highlighted by Zacharia et al., (2011) in their seminal article.
- Subject
- 3PL; 4PL; supply chain management; outsourcing; Hong Kong; orchestrator
- Identifier
- http://hdl.handle.net/1959.13/1333495
- Identifier
- uon:27095
- Rights
- Copyright 2017 Ken T. K. Ng
- Language
- eng
- Full Text
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| Thumbnail | File | Description | Size | Format | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| View Details Download | ATTACHMENT01 | Thesis | 1 MB | Adobe Acrobat PDF | View Details Download | ||
| View Details Download | ATTACHMENT02 | Abstract | 280 KB | Adobe Acrobat PDF | View Details Download |