Fourth party logistics platforms: an empirical research on the value of users' utility

Abstract

In recent years, with the rapid development of logistics industry in China, many third party logistics enterprises have emerged in the market. However, most of them are "small, weak, and scattered", and experience high logistics costs. Such features push them to shift to the fourth party logistics business model. With the rapid development of e-commerce, fourth party logistics (4PL) make use of the Internet platform to integrate logistics resources so as to enhance logistics supply and demand matching to lower total logistics costs. The 4PL platform is a new type of development, but what kind of commercial value does it offer, what impact does it have on users , and to which extent does it address their concerns? This is the focus of our research. This thesis chooses a 4PL platform - the LHB platform - as the research object, so as to have relevant quantitative data from the perspective of the platform users enabling to analyze the impact such platform has on user utility and ultimately explore its value.

Nos últimos anos, com o desenvolvimento rápido da indústria de logística da China, um grande número de empresas de logística de terceiros têm surgido no mercado. No entanto estas empresas são caracterizadas por serem "pequenas, fracas e dispersas" e têm de suportar custos elevados pelo que muitas delas estão a transformar-se em plataformas logísticas do tipo 4PL (Fourth Party Logistics). O progresso rápido do comércio eletrónico tem contribuído para este desenvolvimento na medida em que permite a integração de recursos logísticos numa plataforma na internet facilitando o encontro da oferta com a procura e assim melhorando o custo total da logística. As plataformas 4PL são um novo modelo de negócio, mas qual o valor que oferecem, que impacto têm nos utilizadores e em que medida respondem às suas necessidades? Este é o principal enfoque desta tese.