Despite growing interest in logistics across the social sciences, there is still a persistent gap in relation to work that explores the organizational and competitive dynamics of the independent logistics industry, a sector worth almost US$1tn a year. This paper explores the nature, causes and consequences of commoditization in the third-party logistics (3PL) industry, using evidence derived from over 30 corporate interviews with the leading 3PL providers in the Asia-Pacific region. Commoditization captures a mature stage of industry and market development in which goods and services are widely available and interchangeable with those provided by other companies, and hence price-based competition predominates. The paper profiles the strategic responses of 3PL firms to the challenges of commoditization, which are associated with accruing scale, offsetting risk and seeking to deepen relationships with clients, arguing that they are variegated due to the different geographical and sectoral origins of the firms. Overall, it offers a profile of 3PL as a maturing industry heavily conditioned by its intersections with client global production networks.

尽管整个社会科学领域对物流的兴趣日益浓厚，但在探索独立物流行业（每年价值近10亿美元）的组织和竞争动态方面，工作方面仍然存在持续的差距。本文使用来自亚太地区领先的3PL提供商的30多次企业访谈中获得的证据，探讨了第三方物流（3PL）行业中商品化的性质，原因和后果。商品化占领了工业和市场发展的成熟阶段，在该阶段中，商品和服务可广泛获得并且可以与其他公司提供的商品和服务互换，因此基于价格的竞争占主导地位。本文概述了3PL公司应对商品化挑战的战略对策，这些挑战与应计规模，抵消风险并寻求加深与客户的关系，认为由于公司的地理和部门来源不同，它们之间存在差异。总体而言，它提供了3PL作为一个成熟的行业的概况，该行业受到与客户全球生产网络的交叉关系的严重制约。