11. Supply Chains and Logistics Services

No market economy can operate without a complex and extensive service industry that supports flows of people, money, raw materials, components, customers and completed products and service delivery systems. Thus, no business functions in a vacuum as it must be integrated into a set of inter-organizational relationships facilitating innovation, development, manufacturing and the co-creation of services. A key element within this network of inter-organizational relationships is logistics, or the industry that has been developed to transport and manage inputs that flow between places and across space. Thus, logistic services are one of the catalysts behind internationalization. Reading service business involves understanding the ways in which logistic services and supply chain management support outsourcing, offshoring and inter- and inter-firm movements of all types. This includes the services that support flows of raw materials, components, completed goods, people, expertise and information and finance that are the focus of this chapter.