International Logistics Criteria of Medicinal Products for Human Use: How Do They Relate to Cargo Logistics Providers?

Meng, Shiang-Min

This study explores the logistics criteria of medicinal products with logistics outsourcing. It examines the subjective decisions of the managers at medicinal product firms with regard to the outsourcing of logistics work to cargo logistics providers. The research targets outsourcing logistics decision makers from firms that manufacture medicinal products for human use in Taiwan. The empirical evidence supports five key logistics criteria factors: documentation, equipment, technology, certification, and training. The four key logistics outsourcing decision factors examined are quality, freight, service, and delivery. A significant relationship between the logistics criteria of the cargo logistics providers and the outsourcing logistics decisions of the medicinal products firms is also identified. The study provides an empirical validation of the two-factor construct to develop survey scales for international logistics criteria and client decisions with the establishment of a standard questionnaire, which uses 47 successful questionnaires and follows the Delphi method. Factor analysis was used on 40 criteria between the medicinal products firms and cargo logistics providers. The Pearson’s coefficients on the correlations applied the two factors of logistics criteria and outsourcing decisions.