The contribution of performance measurement to the expansion of third party logistics alliances in the supply chain

There is a growing body of literature on the offering of supplementary services in the supply chain (Anderson and Narus, 1995; Eppen et al., 1991) in general, and the service offerings of third party logistics service providers in particular (Lieb and Randall, 1996). The primary reasoning behind expansion of horizontal third party alliances in the supply chain, through supplementary services, is the customization of product/service offerings to customers. By expanding services a third party is increasingly facilitated to respond to specific customer demands and can also accompany existing products and services with “add-on” services (Pine, 1993; Gilmore and Pine, 1997)....