Affiliation:
1. Riga Technical University
Abstract
Contemporary third party logistics (3PL) companies tend to broaden their competences in different fields and
apart from traditional logistics services provide various value-added services to their customers. An inductive analysis
of 3PL related literature is required, in order to define possible directions for development of contemporary 3PL companies.
The purpose of this paper is, foremost, to discover contemporary tendencies of 3PL activities through investigation
of literature. Second, to systematically classify 3PL activities discussed in scientific literature. Third, discover areas
that require further development. The paper is based on systematic review and classification of articles related to 3PL
activities that were published in scientific journals and databases. This paper is organized as follows. First part contains
quantitative analysis of literature and description of authors’ developed directions of 3PL activities. Subsequent sections
contain qualitative review of modern 3PL tendencies by each of pre-defined areas. Last section aims at providing conclusions
and suggestions for further research. The key findings are following. Majority of studies of 3PL activities are
based on particular business case or survey that does not allow to make conclusion about industry in general. Main
emphasis in contemporary research is done on knowledge-based services. It is agreed that core logistics services are
tended to be replaced by value-added services.
Publisher
Vilnius Gediminas Technical University