Business Commons^™

New Frontiers In Logistics Research: Theorizing At The Middle Range, Theodore P. Stank, Daniel Pellathy, Joonhwan In, Diane A. Mollenkopf, John E. Bell

Peer Reviewed Articles

Logistics has evolved from a description-based discipline to one based upon theoretical grounding from other business disciplines to define, explain and understand complex interrelationships, resulting in the identification of the discipline’s primary domain and major concepts – the “what’s” of logistics. General theories, however, lack the domain specificity critical to understanding the inner workings within key relationships – the how’s, why’s and when’s – that drive actual outcomes. Middle-range theorizing enables researchers to focus on these inner workings to develop a deeper understanding of the degree to, and conditions under which, logistics phenomena impact outcomes as well as the mechanisms …