Theory of Logistics Service Providers Integration: A Literature Review

Supply Chain Integration (SCI) refers to the sharing of information, resources, and knowledge to manage the flow of products, information, and finance from upstream to downstream. SCI is identified with three forms of integration: supplier integration, internal integration, and customer integration. In the growing stream of SCs, there is an expansion of the range of integration, namely the role of the Logistics Service Provider (LSP) in SCI. A literature review of LSPs' integration has been undertaken by numerous researchers but with the emphasis being on the content, methodology, and decision-making criteria. However, there is still limited literature that discusses the theory of LSPs' integration. Hence, this paper's purpose is to identify the theoretical foundation of LSP integration through a literature review. Based on the results of the literature review, this paper obtained four theories from seven articles, namely transaction cost economics, resources based view, resources dependence theory, and relational view that addressed the LSPs' integration.