Competence Influencing Factor Evaluation Of Internet Of Things Based Third-Party Logistics Enterprises

The Internet of Things (IoT) adopted by the third-party logistics enterprises (3PL) will inevitably have a profound impact on its core competence, competitive advantage and the business management methodology. Therefore, how to make the strategic decision of whether the IoT technology should be adoped, as well as how to analyze and evaluate the new core competence and competive advantage as a result of IoT adpotion, have become a challenge for both academia and business industry.Firstly, the thesis will conprehensively review the research achievements (literature) regarding 3PL, IoT, core competence and competitive advantage; Secondly, an in-depth analysis on the value chain of 3PLs that have implemented IoT will be conducted, in order to identify the value activities that contribute to its core competence, as well as discuss the methodology of transforming such core competences into competitive advantages; Furthermore, by comparative analysis and comprehensive induction of previous research work, a hierarchical model for the influencing factors of the core competence of 3PLs with IoT technology has been developed. The Expert Assessment Method is adopted so as to obtain the judgment matrices of influencing factors, which lay the foundation for the quatitative analysis on the relative importance of the above influencing factors. These results will provide a valuable reference on how to construct and sustain core competence for 3PLs who have adopted IoT technology.The theoretical value of this dissertation is implementing the Value Chain Model to analyse the value activities of 3PL companies with IoT technology, so as to further develop the Value Chain Model and the methodology of core competence evaluation. The practical value lies in that it provides reference to 3PL companies on how to take advantage of IoT technology to foster and enhance company's competitive advantage.