O Transporte Aéreo como Fator de Integração do Comércio Internacional – Evolução Regulamentar Internacional
Norberto António Leite Bessa 
1
1 ISCET – High Institute of Business and Tourism Sciences, Porto, Portugal
To cite this text:
Bessa, N. A. L. (2013), Outsourcing Logistic Activities in Portugal: Current State and Future Tendencies, Percursos & Ideias, Vol. 5, pp. 29-40.
Abstract
This research aims to determine the status of third-party logistics (TPL) activities in Portugal, a country with a great potential for logistics activities due to its strategic geographical location. In 2009, a questionnaire was sent to the largest 500 Portuguese firms of the manufacturing sector, selected on the firms’ total sales volume and on the total number of employees. The responses were treated statistically by using SPSS software. Several analyses were carried out in order to determine the behavior of firms in what concerns their logistics service providers and to categorize the respondents. The use of logistic operators in Portugal can be considered as a successful phenomenon, since the great majority of companies are satisfied with the use of TPL and nearly half of the companies declare, in the near future, to increase the use of these services. More than a half of the firms indicate that the decision of outsourcing logistics activities is made at a strategic level and it is one of the administrators’ priorities. Further research work should focus on managing TPL relationships. Case studies are needed to further investigate how multinational firms manage the TPL decision process at different organizational and regional levels. The results give managers and administrators evidence to support the benefits of outsourcing logistic activities. It also contains practical information for the providers of contract logistics services on the most frequently used services. This is the first thorough study about outsourcing logistics practices in Portugal. This study makes a significant addition to literature on logistics outsourcing as little empirical research has been previously reported from Portugal.
Keywords
Outsourcing, Logistics, Transportation, Third-party Logistics, Supply chain.
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