Purchasing Consortia of Transportation Services in Humanitarian Logistics

Abstract: Purpose - The thesis aims to provide a framework of measuring the performance of pur-chasing consortia humanitarian sector. The performance measurement seeks to identify the competitive advantages of being a member of purchasing consortia during purchasing activities of transportation ervices. Design/methodology/approach – The research is based on a qualitative study with de-ductive and explanatory approach. Semi-structured interviews with experts within the humanitarian sector have been conducted to gain necessary and credible data. Findings – It has been identified that purchasing consortia do not mutually operate physical purchasing activities. However, the consortia performance measurement framework, derived from the resource-based view, illustrates that being a member gen-erates the capabilities of decreased purchasing complexity, learning capabilities and ca-pacity sharing. These capabilities have a significant impact on the purchasing process for transportation services and lead to the competitive advantages of (1) having access to extensive knowledge, (2) reducing operational efforts, (3) reducing lead-time and (4) improving learning procedures. Research limitations/implications – As the literature on humanitarian logistics is still in its infancy, further applications from the commercial sector were considered to strengthen the results of the framework. Practical implications - The extent of collaboration of purchasing consortia indicates that managers of HOs are able to gain significant expertise and offers advantageous opportunities in handling purchasing activities in humanitarian logistics. The implications cover strategic as well as operational issues. Originality/value – The thesis gives an insight about practical purchasing operations of existing consortia and detects previously unknown aspects within the literature of humanitarian logistics.