Determinants of fifth party logistics (5PL): service providers for supply chain management

Current Advancements of and Future Developments for Fourth Party Logistics in a Digital Future

“…advancements have been always identified to be an important driver in upcoming outsourcing developments [15,23] and an important success factor for 4PLPs [24]. Whereas the 4PL concept has been widely discussed in extant literature [7] and case studies from successful implementations are known (e.g., [8,15,[25][26][27][28][29][30][31][32][33][34][35][36]), information on future configurations of the 4PL concept are rarely available and mainly focus on potential drivers for future development. This situation thrives to identify services future 4PLPs will offer along with benefits for their clients.…”

“…Although studies at the early stages expected a high growth of the 4PL concept until 2010 [4], it has only gained significant attention in recent years with increasing importance [5][6][7][8][9][10][11]. Moreover, authors like [12][13][14][15][16][17] vaguely proclaim further developments towards higher levels of fifth party logistics (5PL) or even more, which may be merely speculation than real trends observed.…”

“…However, there is an uprising trend of digitalization [18] coming along with a disruptive transformation of supply chains [19] and resulting in a change of product or service offering [20,21] which impacts significantly how organizations manage their boundaries [22]. This offers new opportunities for 4PLPs to benefit from better technological abilities for integration arise as IT advancements have been always identified to be an important driver in upcoming outsourcing developments [15,23] and an important success factor for 4PLPs [24]. Whereas the 4PL concept has been widely discussed in extant literature [7] and case studies from successful implementations are known (e.g., [8,15,[25][26][27][28][29][30][31][32][33][34][35][36]), information on future configurations of the 4PL concept are rarely available and mainly focus on potential drivers for future development.…”

Learning platform for supply chain system optimisation

“…These figures suggest the need for constant improvements in the operations of supply chain and logistics management. Changes in purchasing and customer service functions require development of new transportation modes, management methods, and business contexts (Hosie et al, 2012). Companies should simultaneously balance flexibility and efficiency in their supply chains (Viswanadham and Gaonkar, 2009).…”

Digital Smart Logistics. Managing Supply Chain 4.0: Concepts, Components and Strategic Perspective

“…These chains need new services from 4PL and 5PL providers who have evolved from 3PLs. As far as 4PLs are supply chain integrators managing resources and combining capabilities of many providers, 5PLs are dealing mainly with on-line coordination of activities and are focused on providing e-solutions for the entire supply chain (Hosie, Sundarakani, Wee Kwan Tan, & Koźlak, 2012). Popularization of 4P and 5PL services will bring significant changes to logistics systems.…”