Keywords: third-party logistics; Economies of scale; Support conditions; Logistics alliance; comprehensive
I. Introduction
Logistics has only experienced more than 80 years from its initial practice to its vigorous development in the world today. As the symbol and representative of modern logistics industry, the third party logistics has only appeared in the west for more than 20 years, but it has formed a certain scale. When it was in the process of gestation and development in China for more than ten years, the world-class large-scale logistics enterprises in Europe and America have begun to take the road of merger, reorganization and alliance [1]. To some extent, the emergence and development of modern third-party logistics embodies its inherent characteristics of economies of scale. The author tries to explore the scale economy characteristics of the third party logistics from the perspective of the supporting conditions of scale economy, in order to seek the general law of the development of modern third party logistics.
Second, the meaning of third-party logistics economies of scale
In economics, scale economy refers to the economic phenomenon that the average cost decreases with the expansion of the production scale of manufacturers (or enterprises). Under the condition of market economy, the existence of scale economy means that when there is scale expansion to improve efficiency and save costs, as long as the trend of improving efficiency and reducing average costs is endless, enterprises will continue to expand production scale and gain benefits from it [2].
Since logistics refers to the physical flow of goods from the supplier to the receiver, logistics activities are an organic combination of basic functions such as transportation, storage, loading and unloading, packaging, distribution processing, distribution and information processing according to actual needs. Therefore, from the perspective of logistics enterprises, the essence of logistics is to create the space-time value of goods. The temporal and spatial characteristics of logistics activities determine the network production characteristics of the third-party logistics industry: transportation and distribution are the ties and tools of logistics network-the most important carrier of temporal and spatial characteristics; Storage, loading and unloading, handling, distribution processing, etc. It is the temporal and spatial characteristics of logistics network, the auxiliary carrier of node production; Information processing is the organization and command of network operation-the production carrier of spatio-temporal information. According to this understanding, we define the economies of scale of third-party logistics (or third-party logistics activities) as the phenomenon that the average logistics cost of third-party logistics enterprises on the logistics network decreases with the expansion of logistics output. This is a very general concept, because the third-party logistics contains many different elements, so we extend the meaning of scale economy of third-party logistics enterprises to the following specific forms: scale economy of logistics network coverage, that is, scale economy of third-party logistics enterprises' operation network, such as scale economy of distribution network; Economies of scale of logistics equipment, that is, economies of scale of production of transportation fleet, warehousing, loading and unloading tools, information systems and other facilities; Economies of transaction scale, that is, the influence trend on average cost with the increase of transaction times. The former two can be regarded as economies of scale in logistics production, while the latter can be regarded as economies of scale in logistics sales (sales of logistics products).
Third, the third-party logistics economies of scale internal support conditions
(A) the internal technical support conditions of third-party logistics economies of scale-the technical level of logistics functions
As mentioned above, logistics functions can be divided into transportation, storage, handling, packaging, distribution processing, distribution, information processing and so on. The economies of scale of a single logistics function and the matching degree between functions determine the overall economies of scale of the third-party logistics. On the one hand, for a single function, its economies of scale depend on its specialization level. Adam Smith, the originator of economics, believes that the development of division of labor and specialization is the source of economic growth, and the advantage of division of labor is that it can improve production efficiency [3]. Yang Xiaokai and Borland (199 1) have proved that with the gradual evolution of division of labor, the evolution of endogenous comparative advantage brought by specialization is the driving force to accelerate knowledge accumulation and improve productivity [4]. The improvement of production efficiency means that more products can be obtained in the same production time, and the average cost can be reduced. Because the evolution of division of labor is restricted by the scale of production, the obtained division of labor economy and specialized economy are finally embodied as economies of scale in economics. In modern society, the improvement of logistics efficiency requires independent logistics functions such as transportation, warehousing, loading and unloading to be more specialized in order to improve the production capacity of a single subsystem. In actual production, it is reflected in the investment and use of specialized, high-tech and automated logistics facilities.
On the other hand, for specialized third-party logistics, its advantages are not only reflected in the production capacity of specialized subsystems, but also in the resource integration of subsystems-independent and closely related functional subsystems match each other to form a seamless supply chain. In the actual operation of logistics, it is reflected in the application of highly systematic, integrated and information-based management system. Therefore, the internal technical support conditions of third-party logistics are mainly manifested in the constraints of the optimal allocation of production capacity of logistics functional subsystems and the optimal combination of main technical and economic indicators, and the economy of its overall scale depends on whether it can optimize and integrate the matching of logistics functional elements and break through the short board restriction in the "Cannikin Law".
(B) Third-party logistics economies of scale capital support conditions
The advantages of economies of scale are largely due to some mature technologies. The technical characteristics of the functional elements of the third-party logistics determine the economies of scale in the sense of logistics technology and economy. For example, the construction of expressway network expands the economic circle of automobile transportation, thus promoting regional logistics to obtain economy in a larger network coverage; The progress of information technology makes the integration of logistics resources between different regions a reality. The expansion of technically effective economic scale has promoted the trans-regional large-scale logistics operation of large-scale logistics enterprises. However, in the actual production process, to achieve greater economies of scale, especially the practice of European and American world-class logistics companies controlling more enterprises through capital mergers and acquisitions to expand economies of scale, can not be separated from huge capital investment. Therefore, the third-party logistics enterprises' own capital accumulation and agglomeration ability has become an important supporting condition for economies of scale.
(C) another internal supporting condition of the third-party logistics economies of scale-management and organizational capabilities
Since Marshall listed "organization" as one of the four elements of production, organization and management have become the key research objects of economists and business management masters. Some scholars and managers believe that the complexity of management and the workload of organization and coordination will increase geometrically when the scale of enterprises grows in arithmetic progression, especially when enterprises expand by merger and reorganization. For the third-party logistics, the efficiency of organizational management is not only reflected in the conventional human resource management such as dealing with personnel incentives and constraints, but also in the optimal operation of time and space resources. Because the temporal and spatial complexity of logistics will increase rapidly with the expansion of time and space, how to ensure effective management is an indispensable supporting condition for third-party logistics enterprises to pursue economies of scale.