Class I LTL freight motor carrier based logistics providers: A transactions cost analysis approach to investigating a service expansion into warehousing

Logistics outsourcing appears to have experienced growth recently, however, the level of growth and how the growth has been achieved is not well understood. The current research is designed to improve the understanding of when, why, and how Class I LTL motor carriers expanded their service offerings to include warehousing.;The research is designed to help determine if asset specificity, uncertainty, and frequency might be key variables impacting (1) the decision to offer a logistics service beyond motor carriage, and (2) how the expansion is achieved. Additionally an S-shaped innovation path will be estimated to examine when service providers expanded their service offerings to include both transportation and warehousing. This will help to provide insight into growth levels of motor carriers expanding service offerings to include warehousing.;The research found support for asset specificity being a significant variable both on the decision to expand into warehousing and how the expansion was achieved. The research did not find support for uncertainty or frequency being significant on the decision to expand warehousing or how the expansion was achieved. The research also found support for increasing growth rates. Both the number and percent of motor carriers expanding service offerings to include warehousing has been increasing during the research period.;The methodology used to investigate the expansion of motor carriers into warehousing will encompass a Transaction Cost Analysis (TCA) framework. The data analysis of the three key TCA variables (asset specificity, uncertainty, and frequency) will be performed by using two binomial logit models. The first model will focus on the examination of motor carriers expanding their service offerings to include warehousing. The second model will focus on the examination of how motor carriers that expanded into warehousing achieved the expansion.