Impact of firm resources on the performance of 4PL Bulgarian companies on the international transportation and freight-forwarding service market

Abstract

The study has the aim to explore and investigate what is the influence of the firm resources on the business performance of Bulgarian freight-forwarding companies.

The first theoretical sub-part aims at discovering what is the position of the freight-forwarding firms in the hierarchical system of the service sector the logistics chain and the transportation system.

The resource-base view, the types of resources in possession of the firm, as well as their impact on the organization’s competitiveness and performance are discussed also.

Empirical questionnaire survey has been conducted among 73 Bulgarian companies which are members of the National Association of the freight-forwarders in the country.

The results show that those comparatively small and young companies consider that human resources as the most important internal strengths. According to the respondents only the proper and efficient deployment combined with high level of flexibility and larger range of services could make them more competitive and improve their business performance and respectively their profitability.