This Master’s thesis concentrates on the investigation of the automotive third party logistics (3PL) industry in China. Therefore the overall aim of this thesis is the investigation of the Chinese 3PL environment with the focus on automotive industry. In order to clarify this aim, following four research objectives are set: 1)      Identify barriers and conditions of the 3PL market, taking automotive market as an example market for 3PL services. 2)      Identify market specific logistics services and compare different logistics services providers in this environment. 3)      Assess the Chinese industrial structures and their impact on foreign enterprises and create an actual picture of the automotive industry. 4)      Detect industrial structures’ influences on logistics services competition. Such a research is important as existing research focused on these objectives is extremely rare or not present. The research objectives are solved by a multi-method approach. In wide areas this thesis is a descriptive study. Thus barriers and conditions of the 3PL market, taking automotive market as an example market for 3PL services, are identified in an extensive literature review and combined with findings from interviews. These interviews are performed in a case company which is active in the Chinese automotive 3PL market. Many important characteristics and circumstances which can mainly be seen as barriers for logistics business are identified in the areas of Infrastructure and equipment, Supply and demand of logistics services, Importance of relationships, Legal issues and Staff requirements. Market specific logistics services are also identified in a literature review. In a next step these services are used to compare seven relevant 3PL providers in the industry by doing a questionnaire survey. The research shows that services mentioned in literature present in the industry. No significant differences between different competitors can be found. Thus none of these companies shows a competitive advantage due to their service portfolios. Industrial structures for both industries automotive manufacturing and automotive 3PL are assessed by combining findings from literature and from empirical internet research. Thus industrial structures in China are ruins of earlier years in China’s history. State-owned enterprises play an important role in China’s automotive manufacturing industry. These companies are involved in the overwhelming share of the passenger car production. An interesting finding is that most passenger cars arise from joint ventures between these Chinese car groups and foreign car manufacturers. The Chinese car groups and the joint ventures create a network like structure in the industry. 3PL providers appear differently. Major companies identified are wholly-owned foreign companies, joint-ventures between Chinese car groups and foreign logistics providers or subsidiaries of car groups. Affiliations between logistics joint ventures and Chinese car groups indicate that competition might not be unrestrictedly present in the market.

The paper presents specifics of logistics outsourcing, gives recommendation on how to execute outsourcing relationships, and conducts a research focused on preferences of companies on logistics services to help providers better target their potential clients.

Background: as a convergence of business activities and information technology, e-commerce has brought massive changes to the supply chain management. Today, many e-commerce companies choose to cooperate with third party logistic service providers to perform or improve their logistic services. Meanwhile, those e-commerce companies con-sistently affect the operational processes of their logistic service providers. This thesis fo-cuses on the case of AliExpress, which is an e-commerce company that collaborates with third party logistics in terms of their transportation, warehousing, etc. The collaborations have evolved through time, and developed by three stages, each of which aims at having better logistic performances to generate more profits. Aim and purpose: the aim of this research is to analyse the development of logistic ser-vices for e-commerce by partnering with third party logistic service providers in the setting of international trade. By studying the development, the benefits will be identified. Method: the authors used inductive approach to fulfil the exploratory purposes. In order to gather primary data, the authors applied interviews. Company documents, journal papers, articles and books were collected as secondary data respectively. Result and analysis: the authors obtained empirical findings from three interviews. In the findings, the authors depicted the process of logistic service development and comparisons between logistic service development benefits for e-commerce and sellers have been made. In terms of data analysis, the authors used the theoretical framework in conjunction with the findings to answer the research questions. Conclusion: in the final chapter, the authors answered the research questions based on the analysis. The authors conclude that logistic service development for e-commerce has three stages which are: partner with 3PL, work towards channel collaboration and build an e-fulfilment strategy. The benefits of such development are equitable and shared for both e-commerce company and sellers.

Services of 3PL providers are nowadays very commonly used by production and merchant firms. It is happening due to companies' concentration on their own core-business and outsourcing of many of their activities to external suppliers. This thesis is focused on marketing activities of a 3PL provider, which is a specific part of the B2B market, as well as the logistics market. The thesis consists of three parts. First chapter is focused on theoretical definition of marketing and individual aspects, which marketing is concerned with. In the second part, the logistics, the specifies of 3PL logistics and the logistic market in the Czech Republic are presented. These theoretical findings are applied to a particular firm. Its marketing strategy is evaluated and a set of recommendations is proposed to enhance marketing position of the company.

Introduction – Supply chains increase in size and complexity, more actors are becoming involved and an increased collaboration among actors are a necessity. Still, undesired conflicts occurs and are unavoidable in a collaboration. There are ways to reduce the negative effects and improve management of conflicts provided by previous researchers focus on conflicts and conflict management in general. However, this thesis emphazises on investigating what conflicts that occur within different collaboration setups that can be attributed to the type of logistics company involved. Therefore, the following purpose is stated: Investigate what types of conflicts occurring during collaboration that can be attributed to the different roles of 3PL and 4PL companies. Methodology – To answer the purpose a single case study was conducted which involved a focal firm and its collaboration with two different logistics companies (a 3PL and a 4PL) within the same economical climate. Due to the uniqeness of the case, a multiple methods qualitative study was performed and to strengthen the validity of the data collected both documantary analysis as well as semi-structured interviews were conducted. Respondents were handpicked based on knowledge of both collaboration setups, to ensure quality of the data collected. Gathered data were sumarized and categorized using Mamad and Chahdi (2013) conflict factors, and later analyzed to accurately detect key points to generate a result and answer the research questions. Result – To summarize the result, findings of what we discovered through our data analysis generated similarites and differences in conflicts occurred within both collaboration setups. These conflicts are linked to Mamad and Chahdi (2013) conflicts factors regarding collaboration among actors, in order to clarify why and which conflict area these conflicts occurred in. Analysis – From the conflicts identified in the result, further analysis were conducted. Where, previous literature regarding logistics companies (3pl and 4PL) were applied in order to enable attribution of conflicts to company types. Conclusion – Through the analysis, many conflicts that occured are based on factors such as operational structure, problem solving and company policies which are not affected by the company type. However, three conflicts and problem areas can be connected to be generally more common either with 3PL companies or 4PL companies. The first lies within the commitment area where 3PL companies can generally be seen as less committed. The second area is communication were important information were more often late due to passing through more actors, causing more conflicts when collaborating with a 4PL. The last problem area were within formalization where findings suggests that there are conflicts caused by 4PLs using several carriers which causes problems such as varying regulations and truck dimensions from carriers.

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The aim is to analyze role of 3PL in inbound logistics. Solution, which developed DHL Exel for Jaguar-Land Rover plants is practical part of the thesis.

Bakgrund: Flexibilitet eller förmågan att reagera på osäkerhet i omgivningen utan att det medför brister i tid, ansträngning, kostnader eller prestationer, har blivit allt viktigare. Flexibilitet i en leverans innebär att företagen ska ha förmågan att genomföra förändringar i en pågående leverans för att uppfylla konsumentens behov.  Syfte: Syftet med denna studie är att undersöka vilka krav konsumenterna har på flexibilitet inom e-handeln, samt hur företag som verkar inom e-handeln kan anpassa sig efter och bli bättre på att hantera konsumenternas krav på flexibla leveranser. Även hur företag inom e-handel kan utveckla förändringsförmåga i en omvärld som är i ständig förändring.  Metod: Studien utgår från en kvalitativ forskningsmetod och har genomförts genom en fallstudie. Studien har genomförts genom en semistrukturerad intervju på fallföretaget men även genom mejlintervjuer och enkäter till fallföretagets 3PL-kunder. Studien har ett realistiskt synsätt och ett deduktivt angreppssätt Slutsats: Det finns olika brister i PostNords order-och leveransprocess: Brist på integration med 3PL-kunderna, brist på hur leveransen ska ske, brist på att leverera same-day, brist i tidsintervaller och brist i uppföljning efter leverans. Dessa kan bland annat åtgärdas genom att öka integrationen med 3PL-kunderna genom system och avtal, öka konsumenternas valfrihet i tid och plats genom exempelvis collect-in-store, snabbrörlighet, affärsutveckling för att konsumenter ska kunna delta i uppfyllandet av kraven inom flexibilitet, self-collecting för att minska antalet misslyckade leveranser, prestationsmatriser för att fastställa en kundservicestrategi och genom att anställa mer personal. / Context: Flexibility, or the ability to respond to uncertainty in the environment without causing shortcomings in time, effort, cost or performance has become increasingly important. Flexibility in a delivery means that companies should be able to implement changes in an ongoing delivery in order to meet customer needs.  Purpose: The purpose of this study is to investigate what requirements consumers have on e-commerce flexibility, and how e-commerce companies can adapt to and be better at managing consumer demand for flexible deliveries. Even how e-commerce companies can develop changeability in an environment that is constantly changing. Method: The study is based on a qualitative research method and has been conducted through a case study. The study has been conducted through a semi-structured interview at the case company, but also through email interviews and surveys to the case company's 3PL customers. The study has a realistic approach and a deductive approach.  Results: There are various shortcomings in PostNord's order and delivery process: Lack of integration with 3PL customers, lack of how delivery should be done, lack of delivery of same-day, shortage of time intervals, and lack of follow-up after delivery. These can be resolved by increasing integration with 3PL customers through systems and agreements, increasing consumer choice in time and place through collect-in-store, agility, business development to enable consumers to participate in meeting the requirements of flexibility, self -collecting to reduce the number of failed deliveries, performance matrices to determine a customer service strategy and by hiring more staff.

This Master's Thesis focuses on outsourcing of logistics services. In the theoretical part of the thesis there is a general description of outsourcing of logistics services, advantages and disadvantages of logistics outsourcing, history and current state of the logistic market and attitude of providers of logistics services towards sustainable development. Next part of the thesis describes phases of outsourcing process, types of contracts and tools that help control outsourcing relationship. In the practical part of the thesis in-depth interviews are used to analyze needs of 3PL client. Based on the information gathered from the in-depth interviews recommendations are created. These recommendations are supposed to raise client's satisfaction and evolve and improve cooperation. The aim of this Master's Thesis is to determine gaps between client's request and real state of provided services.

The main issue of this diploma thesis will be to introduce actual situation in maritime container shipping, which has been developing few last years. The biggest changes were in technologies, liability issues and documentation. These changes influenced every company at this maritime market, but the customer was influenced too. In the thesis there are analyses of 3PL and 4PL providers, who are cooperating with these customers the most. The SWOT analyses were used to compare the differencies or similarities between these companies. The objective of the thesis is to recommend the right type of provider to normal customer at the market, who wants to find some help with transportation of his products