A Modernized Framework for Transportation Decision-Making in a Hyper-Integrated Global Supply Chain Environment

Abstract

At the turn of the century, firms struggled to make transportation decisions in increasingly integrated supply chains that routinely stretched around the world. In “A Framework for Transportation Decision Making in an Integrated Supply Chain” (Supply Chain Management: An International Journal 5 [2]: 71–77) T. P. Stank and T. J. Goldsby proposed an original transportation decision-making framework to address the need. The framework is cited over 250 times in the academic literature and referenced by firms seeking to optimize cost-service tradeoffs in an environment characterized by higher levels of market freedoms, service innovation, and supply chain collaboration. Since the year 2000, though, the digital revolution, customer expectations, and supply chain resilience concerns have given rise to new demands for transportation decision-making, with operations residing in a hyper-integrated and further globally entrenched state. Therefore, we revisit Stank and Goldsby’s original framework to review major transportation decision areas and devise contemporary mechanisms to address the modern business environment. Our framework highlights the rapid and interdependent nature of today’s corporate transportation decisions to help firms tackle current business needs and long-term strategic interests. We also seek to illuminate prospective avenues for research endeavor.