Study On Fourth-Party Logistics Coordination Mechanism Based On Fractal Theory

Supply chain is constituted by various profit parts which have their own independent decision-making ability. To maximize the benefits of the whole supply chain, Supply Chain Coordination becomes one of the core issues in supply chain research. According to the past literatures, different levels of the supply chain coordination systems or the coordination systems between enterprises were introduced and developed. For example, Virtual Enterprises and Strategic Alliance have arisen in the macro-level coordinative organization between enterprises, as they provide a wealth of the theoretical reference in supply chain coordination. With the concept of Fourth-Party Logistics (4PL) introduced in 1996, a new organizational form was provided at the macro-level coordination of the supply chain. First, this thesis introduces a new concept of 4PL, which is a contractor of the supply chain coordination based on the division of community and the outsourcing development. The concept enriches the connotation of 4PL and broadens the thought for 4PL development. Secondly, a model, based on transaction costs, is established by using Transaction Cost Theory (TCT) as the theoretical analysis tool of 4PL coordinating supply chain. Through the model, we draw some trendy conclusions to provide theoretical support for 4PL's practices. Thirdly, according to the characteristics of the supply chain in the different duration of the collaborative relationship and the dynamic characteristics of the supply chain, we apply the fractal theory to establish a fractal system of 4PL coordinating supply chain and propose different strategies for 4PL coordinating with different types of supply chains in the various links of the system. Moreover, some strategic and proactive thinking are provided for 4PL's practices. Finally, the effect of 4PL's practices is analyzed in Lucent's case and some of the theories and strategies proposed in this thesis are validated.