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A case study in Sweden

The value co-creation in

automotive-3PL

relationship management

MASTER DEGREE PROJECT

THESIS WITHIN: Business Administration NUMBER OF CREDITS: 30

PROGRAMME OF STUDY: International Logistics and Supply Chain Management AUTHOR: Jingting Liu

Zeying Huang JÖNKÖPING May 2020

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Master Thesis in Business Administration

Title: The value co-creation in automotive-3PL relationship management Authors: Jingting Liu and Zeying Huang

Tutor: Karin Susanne Hertz Date: 2020-05-18

Key terms: Value co-creation, B2B context, 3PL relationship management, Automotive industry.

Abstract

Background: The discussion regarding value co-creation begins within the field of service

marketing, it tells that the value is mutually created in process between the firms and the customers. And that concept has been developed further in many aspects, such as B2B context in which the knowledge intensive industry is involved. Many researchers have argued the importance of value co-creation and emphasized on the need of more studies within business practices. In this study, the particular automotive-3PL relationship would be added in to explore the empirical study of value co-creation.

Purpose: The main purpose of the thesis is to study how value co-creation can be managed

and achieved from the perspectives of 3PL providers and the users within automotive industry.

Method: Through the qualitative research approach, the comprehensive knowledge, which

includes the 3PL providers and users’ insights and undertaken behaviours behind the value co-creation is obtained after conducting eight semi-structured interviews in a case study.

Conclusion: The results show that the value co-creation is actualized when 3PL providers and

automotive users together actively participate in a certain process, in which the offering, interaction and learning are the core activities that should be maintained circularly.

Furthermore, the high level of relationship commitment and trust should be sustained between actors.

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Acknowledgements

After the whole semester of writing the master thesis, we would like to express our gratitude to all people who have helped us to finish the research by contributing their knowledge and energy. Firstly, we would like to thank our supervisor, Susanne Hertz, our research would be hardly completed without her guidance and valuable advices offered during the work.

Secondly, we would like to thank the eight participants from the case company within automotive industry and 3PL company, our research would not be enriched and developed further without their time spent on discussing their experiences for the certain topic. Finally, we would like to thank our family and friends who always encourage us and try their best to support us in any ways during the research journey.

Jönköping International Business School, Jönköping University Jingting Liu & Zeying Huang

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Table of Contents

1.

Introduction ... 1

1.1 Background ... 1 1.2 Problem statement ... 3 1.3 Purpose... 4 1.4 Perspectives ... 5 1.5 Delimitation ... 5 1.6 Definition ... 5 1.7 Outline... 6

2.

Theoretical Framework ... 7

2.1 Value co-creation ... 7

2.1.1 The important theoretical background within value co-creation ... 7

2.1.2 The definition of Value co-creation in business area ... 8

2.1.3 Value dimensions in the business relationship... 9

2.1.4 The core activities highlighted in value co-creation ... 11

2.2 3PL relationship ... 12

2.2.1 Outsourcing... 13

2.2.2 3PL relationship management ... 14

2.3 Value co-creation and 3PL relationship ... 16

2.4 Research Model ... 18

3.

Methodology ... 19

3.1 Research philosophy ... 19

3.2 Research approach ... 21

3.3 Research strategy ... 21

3.4 Primary data and Secondary data ... 22

3.4.1 Secondary data ... 22

3.4.2 Primary data ... 23

3.5 Case selection ... 23

3.6 Sampling strategy ... 23

3.7 Semi-structured interview preparations ... 24

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iv 3.8.1 The interviewees ... 27 3.9 Data analysis ... 28 3.10 Trustworthiness ... 30 3.11 Research ethics ... 31

4.

Empirical Finding ... 32

4.1 The background of the case company and its 3PL service provider .... 32

4.1.1 The automotive industry ... 32

4.1.2 The case company and the local 3PL partner ... 32

4.1.3 The 3PL relationship ... 33

4.2 3PL user (automotive industry)’s perspectives within values and relationship management ... 34

4.3 3PL provider’s perspectives within values and relationship management ... 37

4.4 Value co-creation activities within the automotive manufacturer-3PL relationship management ... 38

4.4.1 Interaction ... 38

4.4.2 learning ... 41

4.4.3 Relevant examples in practices ... 42

4.4.4 Trust ... 44

4.4.5 Comments on IT systems ... 44

5.

Analysis ... 46

5.1 Outsourcing and its values in business relationship ... 46

5.2 The process of value co-creation in 3PL relationship management ... 49

5.2.1 Value co-creation from 3PL users' perspective ... 49

5.2.2 Value co-creation from 3PL providers' perspective ... 51

5.3 Identification of key issues ... 53

5.4 New insights ... 56

5.5 Refined research model ... 57

6.

Conclusion ... 58

7.

Implications and Future research ... 60

7.1 Theoretical contribution ... 60

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v 7.3 Limitation... 61 7.4 Future study ... 62

Reference list ... 63

Appendix ... 71

Appendix 1 ... 71 Appendix 2 ... 74

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Figures

Figure 1 The preliminary research model ... 19 Figure 2 The business flow of stakehoders in the relationships ... 34 Figure 3 The refined research model... 58

Tables

Table 1 The basic information about the interviews and interviewees ... 26

Appendix

Appendix 1 ... 71 Appendix 2 ... 74

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1. Introduction

______________________________________________________________________

In this first chapter, the relevant background of the study is provided to enrich the topic. And the main purpose of the paper, which investigates how value co-creation is managed in an automotive-3PL relationship, is illustrated in this part. In addition, this part identifies the scope of the research and defines the key terms clearly.

_____________________________________________________________________

1.1 Background

Recently, the topic regarding value co-creation has become a critical concept within service marketing but also developed in general for the business management (Grönroos, 2012; Pilon & Hadjielias, 2017). This means the initial idea regarding value co-creation is to apply in service marketing within B2C field, but Normann and Ramirez (1993) notice that the value created for the customers often can’t be achieved by only one company. The recent interest is further explored into B2B practices as well, Ritala and Tidström (2014) assert that the creation of values relies on two or more business parties’ efforts through the ecosystem of a business. Based on the concept, “value co-creation” is defined by Ramaswamy (2011, p. 195) as “...process by which mutual value is expanded

together”. In other words, value creation is a process where the interaction between

customers and service providers is the focal point, the relationship management is emphasized.

Traditionally, the view of value and value creation is characterized as the outcome of the production. That could refer to a Good-dominant logic (G-D logic), it is the firms as the main actors who control and optimize the production of tangible and standardised goods which would be delivered when customers want to purchase them (Vargo & Lusch, 2004). However, a new impetus on value creation was raised to challenge the previous one in which a service dominant logic (S-D logic) is highlighted in recent discussion (Vargo & Lusch, 2004, 2008). Relying on the S-D logic, it is the customers and the firms together to define and create the values in a certain process. To compare with G-D logic, the current focus is shifted towards considering the relationships and processes as essentials (Hasche, 2013). The concept of value co-creation is formed then, and “co” means a binary

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relationship, a joint work participated by actors within relationships, networks and even ecosystems.

Based on the arguments made by Hasche (2013), the value co-creation is a significant issue in nowadays' business market. The value concept has been widely explored, the authors such as Anand and Kanna (2000), and Dyer and Noboeka (2000) work on the learning and knowledge sharing in relation to networks and value construction. For the empirical importance, the study conducted by Aarikka-Stenroos and Jaakkola (2012) deeply looks into the value co-creation between companies which are specialized in knowledge intensive business service. Based on the study results, the authors provide the suggestions for management, which tells a mutual understanding on how to create the best values is vital for suppliers and customers in which a shared platform and process should be developed to encourage the dialogue of goals for cooperation, help to identify the misunderstandings, and avoid unwise solutions (Aarikka-Stenroos & Jaakkola, 2012). From there, the best value-in-use is generated because the customers are involved in and work with the suppliers by contributing their knowledge and skills (Grönroos, 2008).

Referring to this knowledge intensive business service, shortly as KIBS, it is the professional firms which provide the customized service to meet their clients’ needs by conducting the value creation activities, which could consist of accumulating, creating and diffusing the specialized knowledge (Bettencourt, Ostrom, Brown & Roundtree, 2002). Accordingly, the IT services, technical consultancy or the legal consulting are considered as the representative examples in KIBS industries (Aarikka-Stenroos & Jaakkola, 2012). Nevertheless, the third-party logistics (3PL) or logistics service provider (LSP) could be classified to KIBS as well and to be added in the study of value co-creation. The reasons will be illustrated in the following text.

In comparison to traditional transportation, 3PL is characterised as more complex agent, and it is providing a bunch of different services towards the clients, also, the longer-term relationship with customers is anticipated (Africk & Calkins, 1994). To be clear, 3PL as the service provider should be able to implement more customized logistics services (Maltz & Ellram, 1997). Later, Hertz and Alfredsson (2003) further address the necessity as 3PL to be able to solve problems for customers and also adapt customers’ specific

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requirements. Based on those discussions, the involvement of 3PL in the KIBS industry can be demonstrated due to the common three features of KIBS developed by Muller and Zenker (2001). Firstly, the services with intensive 3PL knowledge is provided, and secondly, the services provided to customers focusing on helping customers solve problems. Thirdly, there is a strong relationship existing between 3PL providers and 3PL users in which the interaction is highly required. Moreover, the S-D logic in value co-creation also addresses the importance of the relationships in exchanging the services (Hasche, 2013). Thus, it would be interesting to combine the existing theories of value co-creation and 3PL relationship management to further investigate if there is a theoretical development and/or empirical practices applied.

1.2 Problem statement

Obviously, the prevailing of globalization and global supply chain development makes the suppliers and transporters have to compete with other players across the world (Mentzer, Myers & Stank, 2006). Meanwhile, outsourcing logistics is becoming popular in which effective collaboration is needed. Van Laarhoven, Berglund and Peters (2000) report that it has been a norm for organizations from various industries to choose to outsource logistics activities. Although many companies nowadays decide to work with 3PLs as noted, there are also many challenges faced by companies when managing the relationship with a 3PL. According to SCALA report (2019), based on the data collected from the leading 3PLs within United Kingdom and their customers, the results show that there is a large gap regarding the evaluation of the 3PL services. More than fifty percentage of 3PL firms are positive about their performance, while only around thirty percentage of its customers value their relationship as “highly successful” when the contract is newly made up. As can be seen, there is an unequal perceptions towards the results of value creation between two sides and that may hinder the effective cooperation towards value creation in the long run.

Based on the discussion above, “co” is the core in value creation and parties should jointly contribute to the achievement. On the other hand, as reported by Hasche (2006), many leaders from various industries have realized the importance of creating values with their customers in the process to reach a mutual goal. But there are still some limited attempts

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to conduct empirical study on value co-creation in B2B context. Although some researchers (e.g Sinkovics, Kuivalainen & Roath, 2018) focus on value co-creation in the specific relationship between manufacturers and 3PLs, the survey method is the popular choice to conduct the investigation. Therefore, the in-depth understandings, for example, the thoughts and behaviours among the actors from both sides behind the process of value co-creation are lacking in this specific business relationship.

Inspired by the study Sinkovics et al. (2018) and Grönroos and Helle (2010), in this research, the subject matter is to study how value co-creation can be executed in the phase of managing the 3PL relationship, in which 3PL users and providers’ perspectives are all involved in to investigate the underlying consideration and related behaviours. Specifically, a case of multinational company in the automobile industry is selected as that industry is regarded as the vital element within national economy (Pavlínek, 2004). In addition, the automotive industry has been seen as the biggest one among other industries and its operations in most multinational level (May, 2004), and the management of logistics becomes critical for this industry as well (Dörnhöfer, Schröder & Günthner, 2016).

1.3 Purpose

Essentially, the purpose of the study is to investigate how value co-creation can take place in the automotive-3PL relationship. To achieve that, there are three key research questions being asked, which are:

1. Why does the outsourcing or cooperation is needed between 3PL providers and the users in the automotive industry?

2. How do 3PL providers and automotive manufacturers think and behave in order to actualize the value co-creation?

3. Deriving from the second research question, what key issues should draw attention in managing effective automotive-3PL relationship towards value co-creation?

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1.4 Perspectives

In this study, in aim of closing certain gaps and also presenting a comprehensive view of a collaborative supply chain for readers, the topic about value co-creation in 3PL relationship management will be elaborated on the perspectives of both 3PL providers and 3PL users who specialized in the automotive industry.

1.5 Delimitation

To delimitate the scope of the study, the value co-creation in B2B context will be concentrated on 3PL relationship. More specially, the automotive-3PL relationship is selected to study in depth in order to reflect on the practices of value co-creation in the commercial business field. As the 3PL relationship is developed in several steps, from the beginning of the need awareness to the end of performance measurement. Within that process, the stage in which the users from automotive industry and 3PL providers cooperate to manage the relationship and create values would be the essential part in this study. Also, the geographic scope of the research is restricted in Sweden as it is where the researchers locate in and easy to access the information. Furthermore, because the reach to top management or the very front-line employees who pick and pack in shop floor is restricted under the impact of COVID-19, the investigation is only focused on the most direct contacted persons who are in charge of operational management in an automotive-3PL relationship.

1.6 Definition

To examine value co-creation in 3PL relationship, the broader concept of values is adopted, in which the perceived values about how actors evaluate the gains against the sacrifices are considered (Forsström, 2005). Also, the value co-creation is defined as the firms and customers actively join in a particular process and together create the values through interactions (Grönroos & Voima, 2012). More importantly, the interaction is the focal point within value co-creation, and it is the activity that enables the build-up of interactive processes between the customers and suppliers (Grönroos & Ravald, 2009).

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In other words, the value co-creation would hardly occur if the interaction between customers and the firms is missing and customers are excluded from suppliers' processes (Grönroos & Helle, 2010).

1.7 Outline

This section generally describes the different chapters to illustrate how we conduct our study. Chapter 1 introduces the background of the topic: the value co-creation. And the specific interest is identified within the business relationships between 3PL providers and the customers within automotive industry. Also, the first part includes the purpose of the study and defines relative terminology. To explore the purpose of the study, in chapter 2, a theoretical framework is presented which aims for opening up a new focus for this thesis by reviewing previous research about value co-creation and 3PL relationship management. Next, in chapter 3, the methodology part describes in what way this research is conducted under the guide of research philosophy. A case study method is selected to obtain the primary data through semi-structured interviews in order to explore the particular understanding on how value co-creation takes place in automotive-3PL relationships. Furthermore, the techniques to analyze the data along with the ethical issues and trustworthiness are included. The empirical results of the research are shown in chapter 4 to illustrate the behaviors and thoughts for the certain topic between the case firm and the local 3PL provider. For Chapter 5, the analysis part of the whole research is to further study the latest empirical findings with existing theories, and that aim is to obtain more profound and updated understanding towards the particular topic: value co-creation in automotive-3PL relationship management. Finally, Chapter 6 is to conclude the outcomes and Chapter 7 emphasizes on the implications for management and theories after completing the whole study.

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2. Theoretical Framework

______________________________________________________________________

This chapter is going to provide a theoretical background about our topic which elaborates on the relative concepts and theories in aim of presenting a narrative review. Regarding the structure of this Chapter, literatures are selected and systematically reviewed and categorized into two large fields as (1) value co-creation and (2) 3PL relationship management. After that, the study integrates those two fields in which the research model is being developed based on the above literature review.

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2.1 Value co-creation

2.1.1 The important theoretical background within value co-creation

There are many underlying theories within the relatively new concept of value co-creation, and the most important theories that have been widely discussed by researchers are S-D logic, resource-based view, and value-in-use. A concise review of those theories from the general perspectives in business area will be presented in the following text.

The first and the foremost theory within value co-creation is the service dominant logic. This logic stems from the marketing research, and it identifies a context that consists of a network of participants interacting (Wikner, 2010). Vargo and Lusch (2008) discuss that, in S-D logic, the firms are no longer the primary actors to produce the tangible products but they have to change to the status of service exchange. Here the authors Vargo and Lusch (2008) declare that customers should be regarded as the co-creators to produce values. Thus, the implication of the value co-creation consists of a common language, which is that the involved actors should help each other to collaboratively produce the offering service. Following the S-D logic, in line with Vargo and Lusch (2004), Grönroos (2006) raises the central attention of the value-in-use for value co-creation. Specifically, value-in-use goes beyond the simple exchange and possession of a product, more actions from buyers are required under this concept. Grönroos (2000) convinces that suppliers and customers should be all regarded as the facilitators towards value creation, which implies that the values are not only created by the suppliers but also emerged in

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customers’ operating process. From there, Grönroos (2008) defines “value-in-use” as the value of the resources put into use when the customers are able to combine their skills and their resources with the resources from suppliers. The joint process is the basis while active communication should be engaged in the relationship as well (Ranjan & Read, 2016). When customers are passionately communicating and collaborating with the suppliers in the relationship, it empowers customers to optimize the solutions (Bonsu & Darmody, 2008). As can be seen, the common point would be the resources, in which the actors use integrated resources to create values, thus, the resource-based view is emphasized. It says the resources of firms will influence its competitiveness and help secure the position in the market if under well-control (Wikner, 2010).

2.1.2 The definition of value co-creation in business area

Based on the above illustrations, many developed theories would influence the final definition of value co-creation when touching on different focuses. To make it clear in B2B context, by following the clarification method of dismantling the terms of value co-creation (Saarijärvi, Kannan & Kuusela, 2013), we could easily present what the meaning of value co-creation is in this study.

Essentially, Saarijärvi et al. (2013) conclude that it is often criticized for the ambiguous understanding towards value within the research on value co-creation, and that is considering whether value as customer value, company value or the value for both actors. Nevertheless, Gupta and Lehman (2005) state that there are always two sides of value and should be addressed concurrently in value co-creation: value for customers and value for the companies. Furthermore, for the question of what a value is, the concept of the value is difficult to reach one identical definition (Hasche, 2013). As illustrated by De Chernatony, Harris and Riley (2000), the difficulties behind that could be concluded from the variations between actors, the meaning of a value is subjective, and it can be sourced from different cultures or situations as well. However, based on the focus of automotive-3PL relationship in this study, the concept of value stems from the business perception. The traditional view of the value in business is only understood as a measurable term with a single indicator, such as the monetary unit. However, there is more than that when the value concept is further explored into the

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buyer-seller relationships (Forsström, 2005). Thus, some researchers apply a wide concept to include non-monetary factors which mostly agree on a compromise between losses and gains (Flint, Woodruff & Gardial, 1997; Biong, 1997; Walter, Ritter & Gemünden, 2001). That perceived value is emphasized in long-term B2B relationships and it tells the subjective meaning of a value (Forsström, 2005). Overall, the broader concept of value which involves the non-monetary and monetary factors will be assigned to the studied objects in this research, and that would be the value for the companies in automotive industry as 3PL customers and the value for 3PL providers in one particular relationship. The details will be further elaborated on Chapter 2.1.3.

Because there are different actors in this business relationship, the involved 3PL users and 3PL providers become focal points of the “co”. More clearly, it is the additional resources utilized by different actors that recombine for enhancing the value creation (Saarijärvi et al., 2013). From there, the resource-based view is playing a role in defining the “co”, that is what kind of the resources employed in the value creation process. More specifically, it is whether the resources are integrated between customer-firm relationships, or even broader range of the networks and service systems. Finally, the creation is seen in a process perspective, and the “creation” is closely linked with the “co”, where many actors launch different activities or use different methods to actualize the value creation (Saarijärvi et al., 2013). In other words, it is the core research question of this study that how values can be collaboratively created in use of new combinations of resources between the 3PL providers and the users within automotive industry. These core activities would be illustrated in Chapter 2.1.4. Together, the definition of value co-creation in this study is precise, and we adopt the view of Grönroos and Voima (2012), and they define value co-creation as the values are created under the joint process through the interactions between the companies and customers. Clearly, the companies stand for the 3PL providers in this study and the customers here would refer to the business customers specialized in automotive industry.

2.1.3 Value dimensions in the business relationship

Following the arguments made by Gupta and Lehman (2005), the value can be further categorized into two aspects, which are the value for customers and companies,

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value creation between actors from both sides in business relationships within the manufacturing industry. That model would enable the customers and suppliers to communicate and share values created by each other. In this model, the authors classify and illustrate the values for suppliers and customers in details. For that, there has been three dimensions of values defined for both sides, which are technical, monetary and perceived aspect of value (Grönroos & Helle, 2010). As compared with the framework developed by Gupta and Lehman (2005), the three dimensions are similar with previous one, however, the value creation from both sides is considered and presented to offer clear views on shared values.

From the perspective of the customers, Grönroos and Helle (2010) explain that technical value refers to how well a given function is supported by a supplier. To exemplify, it could be how effective the 3PL’s delivery processes can help the logistical process of the customers. The core of the technical value for customers is to improve business effectiveness under the inputs received from the suppliers. The monetary value that often related to the customer’s business process is improved through pricing effects and cost control, and it can be largely depending on the technical effect of the supports that the suppliers originally provides on (Grönroos & Helle, 2010). Also, for the perceived value dimension, it is connected to how customers perceive a supplier’s efforts and rate the performance. That would be the trust, seeing the supplier as a reliable partner to engage with, and feeling comfortable in the interactions with the suppliers (Grönroos & Helle, 2010).

On the other hand, as the suppliers, the match from the side of the firm to the side of the customer's process is highlighted. Regarding the technical value, it is the level of the smoothness within the supplier’s process corresponding to the function in customers, which result in the level of the effective alignment between the process, resources and proficiencies of the suppliers and customers (Grönroos & Helle, 2010). Next, the

monetary value for supplier is linked to the gains generated through the pricing strategy, sales and re-sales. Finally, the supplier’s perceived value is associated with the

customers’ trust in and the comfort when interacting with customers. As more effective and efficient suppliers' practices followed with customers’ process, the better supports

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provided from suppliers to customers, there will be more positive influences on suppliers’ perceived value (Grönroos & Helle, 2010).

2.1.4 The core activities highlighted in value co-creation

As explained previously, the undertaken activities are addressed towards the process view in the clarification of what creation means within value co-creation. Moreover, in B2B context, the interaction, offering and learning, these three elements should be given attention.

• Interaction

As Grönroos and Ravald (2009) argued, the value co-creation only occurs when the interaction takes place between the firms and customers. The interaction is the key premise of the value co-creation because only under interaction, customers can take actions which are interconnected with the firms, which means the partial process of the customers is inside of the firm’s corresponding process and vice versa. Thus, without interaction, it is not possible to make value co-creation happen (Grönroos & Ravald, 2009). Notably, the simple production of a good is not concerned as a value co-creation, the true value creation only arises when engaging customers in interaction with suppliers and these two actors being co-workers in a certain process (Grönroos & Helle, 2010). Hence, the willingness or motivation to understand the opposite’s process and the behavior intention to match the opposite’s process are considered as the first important factors.

• Offering

The offering is also of high importance because it is the intersection between the firm’s services and the needs of customers (Wikner, 2010). From the side of the firm, the internal organization initiates the design of the offering and it should be externally fitted into the process of customers in a way to create values for customers (Wikner, 2010). From there, interaction again is highly needed, and it can involve many stakeholders in B2B context. Moreover, the experienced customers who has intensive knowledge on how the service

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should be done and how the service performance should be assessed (Santos & Spring, 2015) can be more capable in discussing their requests (Boström, 1995) and implementing the tasks accordingly (Eichentopf, Kleinaltenkamp & van Stiphout, 2011).

• Learning

Learning has been demonstrated as another critical element in the encounter where customers and suppliers meet, communicate and then actualize mutual values (Aarikka-Stenroos & Jaakkola, 2012; Bettencourt et al., 2002). In a relationship, the learning can be understood through knowledge sharing and integration as well as the joint sense-making. By knowledge sharing, it enhances the level of supplier’s understanding towards the needs of customers (Kohtamäki & Partanen, 2016). Also, as customers are sharing their knowledge, preference and their process, the service specification development which is done by the providers can be facilitated to better capture customers’ needs (Santos & Spring, 2015). In turn, the customers who actively join in the relationship can help with potential complications in the phase of service implementation (Bettencourt et al., 2002). Moreover, the reduction in cognitive distance is achieved through joint sense-making processes (Fang, Fang, Chou, Yang & Tsai, 2011). Regarding the knowledge integration, it is to have some new knowledge added and reshape the existing knowledge frames in which the essential aim is to gain benefits that meet expectations (Ballantyne, 2004).

2.2 3PL relationship

The outsourcing logistics was not popular and regarded as a new business activity at the end of the 1980s (Hofenk et al., 2011). Nevertheless, as firms recognized the benefits that outsourcing can bring out to meet their needs (Webb & Laborde, 2005), it becomes more and more popular for different companies to decide to outsource partly or all the logistics activities (Van Laarhoven et al., 2000). In automotive industry, the high amount of spare-parts to be shipped and the various sizes of these spare-parts are the key characteristics. In other words, the supply chain of this industry has to deal with both small parts like screws and big, expensive modules (Reeves, Caliskan & Ozcan, 2010). Therefore, this particular

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industry is inherently complex and critical which increases the specific interest towards logistics. As the study is conducted in Sweden, according to the Datamonitor (2004), the outsourcing logistics has become the foremost distribution channel in automotive industry which accounts for approximately fifty percentage of the total market value since 2003. There are several leading 3PL companies in Nordic market which provide different services to customers in order to meet their demands, for example, Exel PLC’s services include from the basic of warehousing to the complexity of the design of supply chain (Datamonitor, 2004). Referring back to the theories, it demonstrates that the roles of 3PL are changing over time. Previously, the most often outsourcing activities, such as domestic delivery, were routine-based and nonsignificant (Boyson, Corsi, Dresner & Rabinovich, 1999). Now there are more value-added services, such as the integrated solutions provided by the third party logistics (Stefansson, 2005).

2.2.1 Outsourcing

Generally, there are two major reasons for outsourcing from the side of customers, the cost reduction and expectation for service improvement by utilizing professional logistics service from the third party (Boyson et al., 1999, Lieb & Bentz, 2005). For that, there is a more comprehensive overview on the decision of outsourcing which can be concluded from two aspects: internal and external consideration (Selviaridis & Spring, 2007). Accordingly, product-related, procedure-related and organizational net-related judgments are included in internal consideration (Hofenk et al., 2011). For instance, the focal firms want to have 3PL to ship extraordinary goods or deliver the products across the world. For external consideration, it is related to the macro changes occurred in the business environment, which can be the increasing competition, being flexible, focusing on the firm’s core strength, or restructuring supply chains (Selviaridis & Spring, 2007). On the contrary, the decision of outsourcing would enable 3PL to generate its profits and further develop its business networks (Ellinger, Ketchen, Hult, Elmadağ & Richey, 2008).

Bagchi and Virum (1998) introduce a three-phase model with eight steps in total for outsourcing. The first phase is the aware of the needs, secondly is the construction of an alliance, and the last phase is the management of the relationship. At the first phase, the setting up of goals for outsourcing and making criteria for selecting service provider

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should be undertaken. A whole process involving the identification of the potential service provider, the determination of specific needs and the request for bids, as well as the final selection of a 3PL is taken place in the second phase (Bagchi & Virum, 1998). Lastly, the relationship management requires the service users to measure the performance of current service provider and withhold the possibilities to revise the goals and needs which might result in the repeat of the whole phases (Bagchi & Virum, 1998). Similarly, Marshall, Lamming, Fynes and De Burca (2004) conduct nine case studies in order to construct a four-stage outsourcing process. In comparison with the one developed by Bagchi and Virum (1998), the main difference is the third step in which Marshall et al. (2004) further separate the stage of management and the final outcome. At the stage of management, the authors emphasize on the relationship with 3PL, that is to exchange the asset or human resources and to communicate between the providers and users in aim of solving problems in the end (Marshall et al., 2004). For the fourth stage, regarding the performance, beside the evaluation of the relationship which might lead to termination or refine the contract, and the authors also address the impact of company’s policy on the effectiveness of outsourcing. Linking back to the study proposal, the third stage of management which involves developing relationships between firms is of the special focus in this thesis.

2.2.2 3PL relationship management

To look at the management stage within outsourcing, the core issue concerns 3PL relationship management. For relationship management theory, it was firstly studied in the field of marketing and some researches provide the foundation of developing the successful inter-firm relationship management (Morgan & Hunt, 1994; Brown, Lusch & Nicholson, 1995). As the relationship is not built up at one night, Poppo and Zenger (2002) stress on the soft and hard factors under complement to influence such management between companies. The hard factor is related to contractual stuff, and it requires an optimal contract to be designed that satisfies both the customers and the 3PL providers (Lim, 2000). Contractual agreements are considered to be the key in establishing effective 3PL relationships (Boyson et al., 1999). Because a detailed contract can clearly classify the roles of different actors in the process of collaboration (Lumineau

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& Henderson, 2012), meanwhile, the misunderstandings can be avoided when goals and expectations are defined specifically.

For the soft factors, it accounts for the behavior and beliefs. And the relational factors such as trust, commitment to relationships are considered as the most critical factors for developing 3PL relationship management (Tian, Lai & Daniel, 2008; Hofer, Knemeyer & Dresner, 2009; Hofenk, Schipper, Semeijn & Gelderman, 2011). Rajesh et al. (2011) state that trust is urgently important in strategic relationships, and S. Tsanos, G. Zografos and Harrison (2014) discuss that the trust makes the organizations that joining in a cooperative relationship to emphasize on pursuing a long-term benefit, such as competitiveness improvement. Thus, the partners in this relationship will not worry about the replacement (Hofenk et al., 2011). Secondly, the commitment is the partner’s belief that this exchange is so crucial that it is worth every effort to retain it (Morgan & Hunt, 1994). Particularly, in relationship commitment, it indicates the eagerness of one party to contribute to a relationship by investing physical, financial resources or the relationship-based resources. The relationship commitment can continue to be classified as normative and instrumental commitment (Brown et al., 1995; Zhao, Huo, Flynn & Yeung, 2007). Within instrumental relationship commitment, the business relationship is mainly driven by external rewards and transaction performance. From there, it says that meeting individual interests of one party is the focus in the established relationship (Meyer & Allen, 1991; Brown et al., 1995). On the contrary, the normative relationship commitment highlights the emotional aspects of the participants in a relationship that is expected to be maintained in the long run to achieve the mutual goals (Caldwell, Chatman & O'Reilly, 1990).

Furthermore, besides the trust and commitment, when users are in a situation which is hard to change to another 3PL provider since there is a deficient amount of choices available, then the dependence on current 3PL may arise (Handley & Benton, 2012). From there, the dependence of a user on a 3PL provider may come from two aspects. The first would refer to the high switching cost to change to a new provider. Secondly, it will be related to the relationship with current 3PL is strategically important to fulfill the objectives which is considered as goal dependence (Heide & John, 1988; Huo, Liu, Kang & Zhao, 2015). Moreover, there are two safeguards; shared information and coordinated

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process, which can consolidate the relationship by requesting the joint investment of resources (Huo et al., 2013). For information sharing, by utilizing different systems, the information can be shared and exchanged between partners in the 3PL relationship (Huo, Liu, Chen & Zhao, 2017). Thus, the capabilities of the users to process information and to do decision-making can be improved (Sahin & Robinson, 2005). For process coordination, it requests the build-up of compatible processes through the efforts, involving the formulation of a professional team together to solve problems and joint cooperation between two sides (Huo et al., 2017).

Additionally, in recent studies, the role of information technologies has been debated in terms of relationship management and has been revealed as a critical element which facilitates the development of the relationship between actors in a supply chain and helps improve the performance (Subramani, 2004). It has been argued that the information technology which used in supply chain would promote a closer relationship and Closs, Goldsby and Clinton (1997) propose that the level of logistics performance will be largely affected by the integration of information technology when the logistical activities are fully ready for that. Contradictorily, the study result of Börteçine and İsmail (2017) show that there is no significance on logistics competence by employing information technology, instead, the channel communication positively affects the competence both on sales and logistics.

2.3 Value co-creation and 3PL relationship

Although the study of value co-creation is originated in the marketing field, it has been further developed in other aspects, and there is a close link between “value co-creation” and “3PL relationship” which can be noticed from different perspectives in previous researches.

Based on resource-based view (RBV), the unique resource that an organization withheld will be the source of differentiating the performance among others (Barney, 1991; Hunt & Morgan, 1995). Meanwhile, in value co-creation, it is the recombination of resources between actors to create something in which one actor cannot simply achieve by itself (Borys & Jemison, 1989). In the outsourcing where the 3PL relationship is set up, the

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3PL user is looking for 3PL’s capability and resources to help them solve the issues, such as the storage of goods or specific problem consulting. In practice, Kohtamäki and Partanen (2016) investigate the impact of relationship learning on value co-creation, through surveys, the supplier-customer relationships among manufacturing firms from KIBS are studied in depth.

More than that, the European research project called Industrial Marketing and Purchasing Group, shortly as IMP targets seller-buyer relationships in industries (Håkansson & Snehota, 2000). As contradicted to the project’s initial goal to focus on single exchange in markets, the final finding is related to the business relationships through the interactions between companies. The case studies conducted in IMP involve daily operation will facilitate the understanding of value co-creation in B2B relationships and the scholars believe that the values would be generated through a process in which the interaction between customers and suppliers is promoted (Wikner, 2010).

Also, Grönroos and Helle (2010) propose a framework which facilitates actors to share values and targets the measurement of value co-creation in firm-firm relationships within the manufacturing industry. A mathematical evaluation equation towards the metric of mutual value creation is developed and verified, however, the authors also reveal that the challenges existed for the measurement of subjective data, such as the transformation of non-monetary factors. More specifically, Sinkovics et al. (2018) collect the surveys from hundreds of British manufacturing companies to investigate several linear relationships for value co-creation, such as the relationship between the resource commitment of a 3PL and the final performance of a manufacturer. However, due to the value concept’s complexity, Sinkovics et al. (2018) point out that only the manufacturers’ perspectives for creating values are accepted in the business relationships can be the limitations that need future studies.

To stand upon the relevant previous studies, in this thesis, we try to close the gaps: (1) to emphasize on the subjective cognitions on both value and relationship management and (2) to conduct the comprehensive investigation for the main topic of value co-creation in automotive-3PL relationship by involving both 3PL service providers and users.

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2.4 Research Model

As discussed above, few literatures attempt to show the extensive understanding about value co-creation in 3PL relationship, the concept of process in value co-creation remains abstract at the theoretical level and is rarely examined in practice.

However, the previous literatures (e.g. Grönroos & Helle, 2010) with a focus on value co-creation in business relationships has emphasized on some factors. In light of the earlier literatures and taking specific concerns in the 3PL relationship management, a research model is presented in Figure 1 to visualize and summarize the preceding theories discussion. To illustrate, within 3PL relationship management, the focal two parties are 3PL providers shown in the left and the specific interest of the users: the customers from automotive industry presented in the right of this model. In between, according to current theories, there are three business values that might be pursued by each party and created together in this 3PL relationship. Notably, the perceived value in this research is to emphasize on the trust and commitment. In addition, the model is used as our study framework to be examined and revised after the analysis of empirical finding. Therefore, due to the theoretical knowledge of value co-creation remains diversified and unclear for certain practices, “value co-creation process” which is presented in the middle cycle will be the central focus in this empirical study. The researchers’ comprehensive understandings on how two parties think, behave and what valuable activities, such as the offering, interaction, and learning should be conducted will be shown afterwards in another model when the whole research is completed.

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19 Figure 1 The preliminary research model

3. Methodology

______________________________________________________________________

In Chapter 3, it is going to explain the research process in details, involving the discussion about research philosophy and related research methods and techniques chosen to collect data in order to meet the purpose of the study. Meanwhile, the trustworthiness of the study and ethical concerns are included in this section.

______________________________________________________________________

3.1 Research philosophy

Saunders and Lewis (2012) describe that the research philosophy is to show how knowledge can be developed and accepted in accordance with researchers’ perception. For that, Ontology and Epistemology have become the central debates, and in this study, relativism within ontology and social constructionism within epistemology are adopted.

For ontology, it is the philosophical assumption about the nature of reality, and it mainly argues that one individual’s truth might or might not be shared by others, also, the facts would be dependent on the different viewpoints of the observers (Easterby-Smith, Thorpe & Jackson, 2015). This study aims for investigating both implicit thinking and explicit

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behaviors towards the topic regarding value co-creation in automotive-3PL relationship. The assumption of relativism is selected since it argues that there are many existing “truths” in the world, and the facts can be varied depending on participants' own understanding towards a specific phenomenon (Easterby-Smith et al., 2015). Under this guidance, it allows the authors to collect materials from different interviewees in order to dig more on the occurring events in which different viewpoints can be accepted.

Regarding epistemology, it is the study of the nature of knowledge and how it can be acquired in the social and physical world (Easterby-Smith et al., 2015). Within that, a group of scholars, such as Berger and Luckman (1967), Watzlawick (1984) and Shotter (1993) have focused on developing the social constructivist, they assert that people use the medium of language to share their experience in order to make sense of the world. In relation to relativism, which indicates that there is no single, universal truth about how value co-creation can be managed in the relationships between users and 3PL providers, the adopted social constructivism view will make it possible for the authors to interact between actors that are involved in such specific relationship. Therefore, the researchers’ understandings towards a phenomenon is deepened under the interpretation of the manifestation. Furthermore, the strengths of constructionism would be gathering valuable data from different sources, however, the weakness could be the difficulty of accessing the data or overcoming the cultural or institutional differences (Easterby-Smith et al., 2015).

Accordingly, inductive reasoning is chosen to provide guidance for the logical use of existing theories and empirical finding. Basically, deduction and induction are considered as the main logical models which allow the knowledge to be brought to the front (Eriksson & Kovalainen, 2015). A deduction is excluded because there is a restriction on the one-way development from the hypothesis to the final demonstration through collecting mathematical data, and the alternative explanations are not allowed (Saunders & Lewis, 2012; Easterby-Smith et al., 2015). By contrast, Zikmund, Carr and Griffin (2013)

explain that induction can show how a general conclusion is logically constructed through the investigation of a particular observation. Specifically, there is no well-defined relationship to be tested in this study, but it is to figure out how employees in the automotive industry and the related 3PL providers behave in the value co-creation

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process. Thus, this study is qualified as an induction study to develop the theories from the empirical findings.

3.2 Research approach

Under the guide of chosen research philosophy as well as the study purpose, the corresponding research approach is discussed in this chapter. Easterby-Smith et al. (2015) characterize qualitative research as an innovative process designed to understand how respondents understand their world. In comparison to quantitative research, because the subjectivity towards certain topics from different actors is inherent and hard to measure in quantities, qualitative research performs well in a complicated environment in which a thorough insight is asked to provide (Sofaer, 1999). In short, the qualitative research approach is applied in this study not just because of its usefulness in deepening the insights about value co-creation in a 3PL relationship management, but also as guided by the chosen research philosophy.

3.3 Research strategy

For research strategy, an exploratory study is employed in this study as we aim to gain knowledge on “how” values can be collaboratively created through the participation of 3PL service providers and the users within automotive industry. In addition, “why” underlined behaviours undertaken in the value co-creation process is considered (Saunders & Lewis, 2012). After justifying the use of exploratory study, we are going to conduct the case study as a method to collect and analyse the data in aim of recognizing the ambiguity and complexity (Gummesson, 2001). Moreover, a comprehensive view of a specific situation can be acquired through a case study, such as understanding the main points, process or relational issues (Gummesson, 2000).

Being clear, the case study in this research includes one relationship between a car manufacturing company and the local 3PL provider located in Sweden. Behind this one relationship, the car manufacturing is also in alliance with another car brand that uses the same 3PL provider within Sweden, thus, the other brand is also considered as the 3PL user involved in this one relationship. This situation also reveals the unique characteristic

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of a case study, which is the idiographic viewpoint (Bryman, 2002). Based on the above discussion, the case study would be a rational choice for the research method in this thesis.

3.4 Primary data and Secondary data

3.4.1 Secondary data

As mentioned by Polit and Beck (2012), secondary data is the data which already exists and can be directly used to test the hypotheses or explain the research questions. The strength of the secondary data would be the effectiveness on time-saving for researchers due to its immediate availability (Dunn, Arslanian-Engoren, Dekoekkoek, Jadack & Scott, 2015).

In this research, the contents of literature review are largely generated from the published articles that can be viewed as the secondary data. In addition, a narrative review is adopted in this study as it is considered as a general approach to identify a problem of interest in literatures (Demiris, Oliver & Washington, 2019). Moreover, an outline with four steps presented by Demiris et al. (2019) for doing a narrative review is followed step by step.

Firstly, to identify the majority of academic studies that are relevant to our interests, many databases are utilized in this paper to do a search for studies that includes Web of Science, Primo, ABI/INFORM collection, Scopus. That is to identify the majority of academic studies which are relevant to our interests. Secondly, the keywords to select articles are developed. The main keywords initially included in this search are “value co-creation in B2B”, “3PL relationship”, and “outsourcing”. At the same time, as more knowledge is acquired during reading related articles to expand the search of potential research, more keywords are developed which involve “value-in-use”, “resource commitment”, “collaboration”, “effective 3PL relationship”, etc. Thirdly, the collection of related articles is done with keywords search. Each article’s abstract and its theme are reviewed to make sure that it addresses our research problems. Finally, the documented articles in Excel are being further summarized and the previous findings are categorized into different groups. This enables us to figure out the gaps and emerge a new theme that is to be targeted and studied in this thesis.

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The primary data is associated with the empirical data that has to be collected by researchers themselves in order to use for a certain study (Easterby-Smith et al., 2015). The surveys or interviews could be seen as primary data, and the semi-structured interview is used as the main method for attaining the primary qualitative data in this study. However, there are several considerations that researchers should concern with to craft the qualitative data (Easterby-Smith et al., 2015). In the following sections, we will discuss how the primary data is collected from the step of preparation to the end of analysis.

3.5 Case selection

In this study, we investigate how value co-creation can be executed in an automotive- 3PL relationship, and the selected case should reflect on the general ideas and behaviors with a desire to extend the observations into the business field. Thus, an instrumental case study is picked in the aim of acquiring general conclusions by investigating a specific case (Stake, 2006). In detail, a multinational automobile manufacturer, also its partner within one alliance and the 3PL partners in Sweden are all together selected as a case to study in. As an international group, this case is studied within Nordic market in a way representing the automotive industry characterized as a global, cross-national industry (May, 2004). Furthermore, the most important reason of selecting this case company and the local 3PL in Sweden is due to their 9-year cooperated relationship, and the overall introduction for this certain case companies will be presented in the beginning of Chapter 4. This quite long-term relationship with their experience can directly contribute to this study because the researchers can obtain much knowledge regarding value co-creation in order to answer main research questions. In other words, other relevant parties in the business area can also learn from this case to gain know-how in creating values.

3.6 Sampling strategy

Bearing in mind that the studied process of value co-creation is embedded with the behaviors and complex mental activities, the interviewees from the case companies are

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selected carefully so that more thoughtful considerations can be offered to the researcher. Therefore, the criteria for selecting interviewees from 3PL provider should be the employees who often interact with the representatives from the case firm and/or it is the person who is in charge of some operational work related to customer’s requirements. And the corresponding working period should be reasonable long which means the interviewees can discuss the certain topic in details by using examples and able to illustrate their opinions for something that should be promoted or be avoided in creating values while maintaining the relationship with business customers. Similarly, the interviewees as customers of a 3PL should be the one who has been long time at management level to directly administrate this 3PL relationship and/or the employees in front line to actually track, report and communicate with 3PL providers in daily basis.

The way to elect participants by following a pre-required criteria that highlights the subjective judgements is regarded as purposive sampling (Flick, 2014; Easterby-Smith et al., 2015). This technique might be criticized due to the feature of non-probability sampling, however, it is suitable when a researcher attempts to obtain rich information from the right person regarding a certain topic (Saunders & Lewis, 2012). For finding the qualified interviewees, one of the authors is working as a logistics trainee in case company, in the meantime, the current job includes daily communication with local 3PL. Additionally, this logistics traineeship is only 6-month, so this short working period will not create bias in doing interviews or have any negative impacts on the following research process, but it is only regarded as a good access to rich information and the potential right interviewees for this topic are targeted depending on the author’s personal network as well as the suggestions gained from experienced colleagues.

3.7 Semi-structured interview preparations

To compare with other methods, such as surveys or other types of the interviews, like the structured interview, the semi-structured interview with open-ended questions facilitates the researchers to gain much information in a relation to attitude, experience and relevant behaviors (Saunders & Lewis, 2012). Moreover, Zikmund et al. (2013) state that probing is allowed in semi-structured interviews, in which the in-depth reasons and further descriptions are promoted.

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However, there are some important elements to consider for a semi-structured interview. To do the interviews, a topic guide is suggested in order to cover all critical parts linked to the subject matter during the conversation with interviewees (Easterby-Smith et al., 2015). Regarding the design of the topic guide, some points should be kept in mind. At first, the core research purpose and strategy in the study should be reviewed to make sure the questions asked towards respondents are appropriate and meaningful (Easterby-Smith et al., 2015). Secondly, the elusive theories should be avoided in questions. In addition, to make interviewee feel comfortable, “icebreaker” questions and ending questions are necessary to be included (Easterby-Smith et al., 2015). Based on those considerations, a topic guide for this study is created (See Appendix 1).

3.8 The results of data collection

According to purposive sampling, we target the experienced employees within logistics from both the case company from the automotive industry and the local 3PL service provider in Sweden. As one researcher had the direct contacts with the case company, the potential employees are firstly targeted on the researcher’s own knowledge or advised by the colleague. After that, the researcher sent the emails to the possible employees, in which the research topic and aims were illustrated to ask for the possibilities of doing an interview. Eventually, there are eight employees in total from both the case company and 3PL provider showing the willingness to help. Once the interviewees are targeted, more detailed information including interview topic guide for different roles and personal data protection agreement are sent out to them, in the meantime, researchers are prepared for dealing with any concerns or questions raised from the targeted employees. Finally, according to interviewee’s schedule, the time and in which way to do the interviews are negotiated through mails. In Table 1, it shows the basic information about the interviewees and how interviews are conducted in sequence.

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Roles Job position Types Date and duration

Interviewee 1 3PL user 3PL development Manager

Skype 3rd March, 90 minutes

Interviewee 2 3PL user Logistics Manager Skype 4th March, 50 minutes

Interviewee 3 3PL provider

Logistics engineer Face-to-face 5th March, 60 minutes

Interviewee 4 3PL provider

Administrator Face-to-face 5th March, 45 minutes

Interviewee 5 3PL provider

Warehousing Manager

Face-to-face 6th March, 65 minutes

Interviewee 6 3PL user Inventory controller Face-to-face 6th March, 60 minutes

Interviewee 7 Another brand

Logistics development Manager

Skype 25th March, 45 minutes

Interviewee 8 Another brand

Spare-part warehousing Manager

Skype 26th March, 30 minutes

Table 1 The basic information about the interviews and interviewees

As can be seen from above table 1, due to the proximity to interviewees who work in warehouses (3PL provider) and in local offices (3PL user), the majority of interviews are decided to do in Face-to-face condition. However, the last two interviews are prolonged

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till the end of March and conducted via Skype because of the impact of COVID-19 in which the employees are made working from home since the middle of March. Meanwhile, it is difficult to ask for the scanned copy of the GDPR agreements with personal signatures because of the unavailability of printers at home, thus the last two agreements are confirmed electronically with digital signatures but the scanned copies are collected for the first six interviews .

In the following text, we will present each interviewee’s personal background with a focus on the logistics experience.

3.8.1 The interviewees

• The interviewees from the case company

Interviewee 1: The interviewee 1, he has been working in the field of logistics for the case company for about twelve and half years. As started, he was responsible for the different kinds of inbound flows from different sources all over the world. Currently, the main focus for him would be the 3PL management in which the warehouse is outsourced to external companies, such as the individual 3PL studied in this research.

Interviewee 2: The work of interviewee 2 has been related to 3PL since 2000. Within these 20 years, he has been working in companies whose logistics work was outsourced. Also, he has gained lots of different work experience related to warehousing and logistics in nine countries, currently, he is in the title of logistics manager at the case company. Interviewee 6: The interviewee 6 is working as an inventory controller for case company now. She firstly started her logistic career in 2005 at a 3PL firm and after that, she worked for the case company since 2011. Therefore, she has gained quite long-time experience both as a 3PL user and provider, and understood the difficulties and needs on both sides. Furthermore, she is the first contact between the local 3PL provider and the case company for the ongoing problems.

Interviewee 7 (the partner within alliance): The interviewee 7 is from another brand under the alliance, and now he, as a logistics director, is mainly in charge of the management of warehouse operations within Europe. Meanwhile, he has been working within the logistics field and related to the 3PL relationship management for around 11 years. For

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Nordic market, he is closely working with the case company for the development of the 3PL relationship as the logistics services which include distribution, warehousing and transport solutions are offered by the same 3PL provider.

Interviewee 8 (the partner within alliance): As a spare-part warehouse manager, she has been working with the 3PL provider at local level in Sweden for around 4 years. Previously, she has been in different roles, such as working within the department of customer support and supplier management.

• The interviewees from the local 3PL providers

Interviewee 3: According to self-introduction done by Interviewee 3, she has been working in the logistics field for 6 years. From the beginning, she worked as operator down in shop floor, then she was working as a supervisor to be responsible for the whole shop floor management. After acquiring the degree of business engineering, she is in the role of logistics engineer who manages IT and physical building for all the 3PL’s sites within Sweden now.

Interviewee 4: For interviewee 4, there has been nearly 31-year experience in logistics and 3PL industry. He has gained experience from the basis of warehousing operation till the management level which is his current role as administration leader. Furthermore, he has been also invited to work for the automobile company itself to offer help, therefore, he has been involved for both sides before, and understood the difficulties and processes for each side.

Interviewee 5: Interviewee 5 started his career in a leading 3PL company ten to twelve years ago. Now he is the supervisor who takes the responsibility regarding the daily operation in the warehouse related to direct customers. He frequently communicates with the case company to make sure occurring problems are realized and works with the employees from the case company to see where can be improved for better.

3.9 Data analysis

When it comes to data analysis, Easterby-Smith et al. (2015) summarize seven approaches that can be used to frame and interpret qualitative data in order to reduce the complexity

Figure

Table 1 The basic information about the interviews and interviewees
Figure 2: The business flow of stakeholders within the automotive-3PL relationship

References

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