Growth Strategies for Logistics Service Providers: A Case Study

Abstract

This article is based on two studies, partly financed by the Norwegian Research Council. The first study was carried out in six organizations cooperating in two supply chain alliances. The purpose of this study was to develop a set of hypotheses concerning logistics service providers and their roles in supply chain alliances. The second study, involved interviews carried out in 12 different logistics organizations, and concerned their perception of future trends and future position. The purpose of this article is to highlight and to describe some of the major findings in the two studies on growth strategies for logistics service providers. We propose a matrix categorizing the players and their strategic position. Given the pressures in the industry and the individual strategic position, the strategic choices in fact are limited, leading to some dominating strategic directions that to a certain extent, also explain the structural changes in the industry.