ANALYZING CRITERIA TO SELECT BUSINESS PARTNERS FOR LOGISTICS FIRMS: APPLYING RANDOMIZED BLOCK DESIGN

Abstract

In recent years, cooperation between firms has gradually become one of the most common forms of running a business because empirical evidence suggests that it is beneficial to firms. Logistics firms are not an exception. Furthermore, the overall benefits brought by the partnership are also determined by business partners. Therefore, logistics firms tend to have their own set of criteria for choosing appropriate partners because they want to maximize the benefits of cooperation. This article employs a randomized block design method to assess the importance of these criteria. The results show a statistically significant difference between the importance of these criteria among different firms. However, all firms agree on the fact that the most crucial criterion is Partner reputation, and the least important criterion is the Geographical distance between firms.