Proceedings of ICLT 2023

HORIZONTAL LOGISTICS COLLABORATION IN AGRI-FOOD SUPPLY CHAINS: AN ANALYSIS OF MOTIVES AND ENABLERS

Behzad Behdani

USN School of Business, Department of Business, Strategy and Political Science, University of South-Eastern Norway, Norway

International Conference on Logistics & Transport 2023, Helsinki, Finland, pp. 136-144

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Abstract

Purpose: This research aims to gain insight into the motives and enablers influencing the feasibility of Horizontal Logistics Collaboration (HLC) in the agri-food industry. Design/methodology/approach: The main methodology in this study is developing a survey –based on the theoretical framework derived from the existing literature. The survey is distributed among food logistics/SC experts (including shippers and third-party logistics companies). Additionally, statistical analysis is performed to get insight into the relevance of movies/enables for horizontal collaboration in food chains and the factors that influence that. Findings and originality: The survey analysis shows that the “cost-oriented motives” received the strongest support, potentially caused by low-profit margins and fierce price competition in the food and logistics sectors. In contrast, the “market-oriented motives” – like access to new market areas via collaboration- had a lower evaluation. For enablers of collaboration, “Incentive alignment” has received the strongest support, which implies the necessity of designing fair incentive mechanisms for horizontal collaboration. Besides, the strong support for “compatibility” – including “product compatibility” and “logistics compatibility” - reveals the importance of partner selection for a feasible collaboration in food chains. Regarding company size, larger companies valued “decision synchronization” and “compatibility” more as enabling factors. Due to the common power asymmetry in the food industry, SMEs are forced to be flexible and adaptive in a collaborative relationship. So, they are willing to look into more possibilities for selecting partners. Also, SMEs underpinned the “size similarity” as an enabler, revealing their concerns about not being heard in a power-imbalanced relationship. Finally, larger companies prefer to make a formal setting (like a contract) as the governing mechanism, while SMEs prefer to collaborate in a more informal trustb

Keywords

Horizontal Logistics Collaboration; Food Supply Chains; Enablers

Citation

Behzad Behdani (2023). HORIZONTAL LOGISTICS COLLABORATION IN AGRI-FOOD SUPPLY CHAINS: AN ANALYSIS OF MOTIVES AND ENABLERS. Proceedings of the International Conference on Logistics & Transport (ICLT 2023), Helsinki, Finland, pp. 136-144.