SCOPE AND INTENSITY OF LOGISTICS-BASED STRATEGIC ALLIANCES - A CONCEPTUAL CLASSIFICATION AND MANAGERIAL IMPLICATIONS

Strategic alliances are at the forefront of current management practic e. Firms with complementary skills are taking advantage of synergies a mong them to reduce operating costs and to secure competitive advantag es. Whereas strategic alliances can take many forms, this article focu ses on logistics-based strategic alliances. In these alliances, buyers , sellers, and third-party service providers in the distribution chann el engage in business relationships designed to reduce the joint cost of two or more firms. We propose a typology that classifies logistics- based strategic alliances along the dimensions of scope (broad versus narrow) and intensity (high versus low). Based on this typology, we of fer guidelines for firms involved or interested in logistics-based str ategic alliances and raise issues for further research on this topic. (C) Elsevier Science Inc., 1997.