Performance Differences and Mobility Barriers among Different Strategic Groups in Third-Party Logistics Industry

[[abstract]]隨著全球化競爭的日益高漲，物流市場競爭也愈趨激烈。物流業的競爭不僅僅反映在運輸、倉儲、揀貨等不同的物流作業層面上，也包含技術、資訊、服務品質等多層面的競爭。因此，物流業已不能再停留於作業面的思考層面，應以策略性的方向思考，研擬適合公司定位的競爭策略，進而提升公司的營運績效。 本研究以國內第三方物流業為對象，透過策略群組的分析架構，以瞭解現今國內物流業的競爭策略行為，以及不同策略群組間營運績效的差異與移動障礙的來源。根據因素分析法可推論出業者常用的策略構面，應用集群分析法以區分出物流業中存在的策略群組；應用相關的多變量統計分析，來探討策略群組與移動障礙來源、策略群組與營運績效，以及策略群組與移動障礙、營運績效間的關係。 研究結果顯示，國內第三方物流業可依四大策略構面（物流服務與通路整合導向、成本導向、國際化與直接促銷導向、多元通路導向）區分成三個策略群組，分別為「保守經營型」、「多元通路型」、「全面經營型」；策略群組在大部分的移動障礙來源與程度存有顯著差異；不同的策略群組在整體營運績效與定性績效表現上存有顯著差異；而各群組之移動障礙程度與營運績效表現呈正相關，意即移動障礙程度越高的策略群組，營運績效表現越佳。業者可以根據本研究結果，一方面檢視本身的策略定位，一方面據以克服進入較高績效群組的移動障礙，以提升企業的競爭力。[[abstract]]Due to severe global competition pressures logistics market competition also becomes rigorous The competition not only can be observed in operational areas such as transportation storage and order-picking but also in other aspects like technology information and service quality To stay competitive logistics practioners should not only think and act in operational aspects but also in strategic initiatives Taking Taiwan’s third-party logistics industry (3PL) as the target the study primarily investigates the strategic competition behaviors of the industry Strategic dimensions are identified by factor analysis The industry is grouped by clustering Relationships between strategic groups and mobility barriers between strategic groups and performance measures and among strategic groups mobility barriers and performance measures are validated through multivariate statistical analysis Several results are found Taiwan’s 3PL market can be clustered as conservatively multiple-channel and comprehensively operating groups by logistics-services and channel-integration cost internationalization and direct-marketing and finally multiple-channel strategic dimensions Different strategic groups possess different mobility barriers in different levels and achieve significantly different levels in performance measures Groups with higher mobility barrier levels usually perform significantly better These findings can serve as references for logistics practioners to improve their strategies and to move their strategic positioning into groups with higher mobility barriers and higher performance