An evaluation of logistics and transportation professional o

Logistics and transportation have received increasing recognition as vital business and educational disciplines since Drucker(1) identified logistics as an important but overlooked function. Noting that a lack of knowledge existed about the logistics concept, Drucker said, "We know little more about distribution today than Napoleon's contemporaries knew about the interior of Africa. We know it is there, and we know it is big; and that's about all." The importance of logistics was thus identified, establishing the need to develop a better understanding of logistics as it relates to managerial decisions and government policy. Over the past thirty years, the level of understanding regarding logistics has increased substantially. Even so, many managers and policy makers continue to view logistics as a satisficing support function rather than as a strategic weapon.(2)

This situation emphasizes the need for continued education concerning logistics and transportation management. Numerous resources exist in the form of professional organizations, college and university programs, and academic and practitioner publications to help meet today's educational needs. However, the quantity and diversity of resources available makes it difficult for the average manager (or educator) to be aware of all the possible information outlets. This article therefore endeavors to evaluate the existing educational resources for logistics and transportation management.

METHODOLOGY

The data for this study were collected using a four-page questionnaire mailed to 177 logistics and transportation educators. The objective was to target all college and university educators involved in logistics and transportation education throughout the United States. The questionnaire consisted of three major sections; that is, one section for each of the three primary sources of logistics and transportation education--professional organizations, college/university programs, and publications. The final section focusing on publications was divided into two distinct parts representing academic journals and practitioner periodicals. The questionnaire was further structured so that respondents rated the various criteria that are frequently used to evaluate the different sources of information before they actually evaluated the educational sources themselves. This approach helps develop some consensus such that the different respondents work from a similar reference point as they perform their evaluations. A total of 101 usable questionnaires were returned (response rate=57%) and used to provide the basis for the following discussion.

PROFESSIONAL ORGANIZATIONS

By the early 1990s, a variety of logistics and transportation professional organizations offering a wide range of educational services existed. Some organizations such as the Council of Logistics Management and the American Society of Transportation and Logistics serve the general needs of professionals who perform a variety of managerial functions-related to logistics management. Other organizations, including the Warehousing Education and Research Council and the National Defense Transportation Association, are designed to meet the needs of a more specific and targeted audience. Thus, the educational role and influence of these organizations varies considerably.

To assist in evaluating these diverse organizations, respondents were asked to rate five factors that influence their opinion regarding the value of membership in each organization. The five criteria of interest were: (1) seminars or workshops offered by the organization, (2) overall prestige of the organization, (3) national conferences sponsored by the organization, (4) the role adopted by the organization in educating professionals, and (5) the characteristics of membership. The results of this rating process are displayed in Table 1 (a five-point scale was used with 5=very important and 1=very unimportant). With a rating of 4.46, the national conference of each organization was considered to be the factor that most influences the decision to join a professional organization. In general, the "state-of-the-art" information relating to the field is presented and discussed at the national conference. Further, the national conference provides perhaps the best opportunity to network with and learn from other professionals involved in similar managerial and/or research endeavors. The only other factor to receive a rating greater than four was the organization's efforts in educating professionals. Organization prestige and seminars/workshops sponsored by the organization received equal ratings of 3.92. General membership characteristics were viewed as only somewhat important.

Based on their perceptions of how well the different organizations meet the combination of criteria discussed above, respondents were asked to rate the organizations themselves. Again, a five-point scale was used to perform the evaluation (5=outstanding, 3=average, and 1=poor) (see Table 2). (Table 2 omitted). Information regarding the respondent's familiarity with each organization was also gathered. The Council of Logistics Management (CLM) received a 4.45 rating--almost half a point higher than the next most highly rated organization--and is thus perceived to be the most educationally influential professional logistics organization. The Transportation Research Forum, an organization that focuses more on "pure" transportation issues, was the only other organization to receive a rating greater than four. o other organizations were rated highly--the Transportation Research Board and the American Society of Transportation and Logistics. Both of these organizations tend to place greater emphasis on more traditional transportation issues (economics, policy, and regulation). These four organizations tended to possess the greatest following among the respondents with each scoring well in terms of respondent familiarity. In fact, only one organization that is well known by the respondents failed to receive an above average rating. Thus, an organization's ability to create an overall awareness of its activities appears to influence educators' perceptions of the benefits and influence of the organization. Among the very specialized organizations, the Warehousing Education and Research Council received the highest evaluation. Also, the American Production and Inventory Control Society (APICS), an organization that is only tangentially related to areas of logistics and transportation management, received the fifth highest rating (interestingly, with a membership of 70,000, APICS is the largest management organization in the country). Finally, four organizations received below average ratings.

The final issue that was explored focused on the emphasis that different colleges and universities place on their faculties' membership in professional organizations. Respondents were asked to indicate the extent to which their schools encouraged membership as well as whether their schools reimbursed membership dues. The results from this question are displayed in Figure 1. (Figure 1 omitted). An overwhelming percentage (72%) of the respondents indicated that their schools encourage membership but do not pay membership dues. This finding suggests that schools consider membership to be important to the educator's ability to stay current with the logistics and transportation field. Also, participation in the activities sponsored by professional organizations is frequently viewed as essential to promoting the school's visibility. The next largest grouping of respondents indicated that their schools neither encourage nor discourage membership. A total of 9% of the respondents noted that their schools pay for membership in professional organizations. Finally, none of the respondents indicated that their schools discourage active participation.

COLLEGES AND UNIVERSITY PROGRAMS

Within the typical university curriculum, logistics has long been discussed as the physical distribution component of marketing's 4P's--product, price, promotion, and place--while transportation has been taught from an economics/policy perspective. However, this approach does not adequately provide the educational foundation required to support the management of logistics and transportation within today's competitive environment. Indeed, the emergence of these two fields as major business disciplines has required a rethinking of the business curriculum. One result has been a dramatic increase in the number of courses and programs specifically designed to teach logistics and/or transportation management at the college/university level. An effort was therefore made to evaluate North America's numerous logistics and transportation programs.

Using a five-point scale (5=very important; 1=very unimportant), respondents were asked to rate seven general criteria that impact the quality and reputation of logistics and transportation programs. The seven criteria were faculty, research contributions, department reputation, graduate and undergraduate curriculum, alumni visibility, and overall college or university reputation. Table 1 contains the results of this rating process. The logistics/transportation faculty is perceived to be the most important single factor impacting on the quality of the program and received an average rating of 4.82. Research contributions were rated as a strong second followed by department reputation and graduate curriculum. Each of these factors were rated as important to very important. Interestingly, undergraduate curriculum was rated as somewhat less important than graduate curriculum. The impact of alumni as well as the overall college or university reputation also play fairly important contributory roles in determining how logistics and transportation programs are perceived by educators. (It would be interesting to perform a similar study targeting logistics and transportation professionals instead of educators to investigate the differences in perception regarding these criteria.)

A second question was asked to better define each of the major criteria (see Table 3). (Table 3 omitted). Faculty visibility at conferences and membership in professional organizations were both considered to be important for programs to be highly recognized. By contrast, faculty consulting efforts were viewed as having no substantive impact on the program's educational reputation. With respect to research contributions, publishing in academic journals was considered to be very important to the program's overall reputation. With a rating of 4.58, such scholarly efforts are viewed as among the most important of faculty endeavors. Indeed, demonstrating leading edge thinking is considered to require an active research effort by a program's faculty. Publishing in practitioner journals was viewed as considerably less important; however, educators generally indicated that such efforts are useful. This contrasts sharply with the focus in many other business disciplines and is evidence of the business orientation that typifies the logistics educational environment. The ability to place students was rated as the most important factor influencing department reputation. Department size in terms of number of faculty and number of students was also viewed as important. Course content and the overall quality of the business curriculum were viewed as vital to offering well founded logistics and transportation programs. The number of field-related courses offered was viewed as being important but at a much lower level. Thus, a few well designed courses that tie in with the rest of the business curriculum are perceived as being more important in building a quality image than the creation of a large number of stand alone logistics and transportation courses. The alumni's influence in industry is noted as having greater impact than their success in academia. Finally, it is important to note that some "halo effect" results from the overall business program's (and college or university's) reputation.

Based on the criteria discussed above, the respondents were asked to identify and rank the ten best logistics and transportation programs in the United States and Canada.(3) To facilitate the ranking process, the respondents were provided a list of 56 colleges and universities identified from a Council of Logistics Management research study on logistics education and career opportunities.(4) Space was also provided for the respondents to identify schools not on the list. School rankings were determined by allocating ten points for each first place ranking, nine points for each second place ranking, eight points for each third place ranking,..., and one point for each tenth place ranking. Point allocations were then summed to arrive at a total score for each school. The results are shown in Table 4. (Table 4 omitted). Penn State received the highest point total--662 points, over one hundred more than the next highest ranked school--as well as the most first place rankings. Moreover, Penn State was identified as one of the top logistics/transportation schools on almost all of the returned surveys. The next three schools--Tennessee, Michigan State, and Ohio State--were grouped tightly, separated by only twenty points. With a total of 373 points, Northwestern rounded out the top five. Among the top ten schools, five offer general logistics programs, three focus more on transportation economics and regulatory issues. and two are more technical, engineering oriented. In fact, an analysis of the returned surveys revealed that the respondents could be placed into one of three overall discipline areas--logistics, transportation, or engineering. To achieve a top ranking, a school had to be ranked highly by respondents from at least two of the three discipline areas. The schools in Table 4 are also listed with their primary peer institutions using this same discipline area orientation. The fourth category--other--contains a variety of schools, including a few that once had reputations as major programs but have since greatly reduced their logistics/transportation emphasis. Other schools offer some courses in the area but do not have programs or majors.

ACADEMIC JOURNALS

Because most major universities place substantial emphasis on research in the tenure and promotion decision as well as the annual merit activity report, numerous attempts have been made to evaluate the quality of academic journals.(5) In 1983, Ferguson developed a composite index (using a survey format, a four-point scale, and nine questions) to measure the perceived importance and influence of different journals that publish articles related to business logistics. The Transportation Journal, Logistics and Transportation Review, Harvard Business Review, and Journal of Business Logistics were the four most highly rated journals. As part of the current study, an updated evaluation of logistics and transportation related journals was performed. In contrast to Ferguson's earlier study, only journals that emphasize logistics and transportation were included for evaluation. Even so, 22 journals were considered.

To assist in this evaluation, the respondents were asked to indicate the importance of seven different factors that affect perceptions of journal quality and prestige. A five-point scale was used to collect the data (5=very important and 1=very unimportant). The seven factors in order of importance were: quality of articles, impact on the discipline, relevancy, readability, timeliness of topics, theoretical versus application orientation, and variety of topics covered (see Table 5). The ratings for the three top-rated factors suggest that the key to achieving a high status as a journal is to publish high-quality articles that are viewed as relevant to both academics and practitioners. Journals that publish this type of article have considerable impact on practice and thought within the discipline. The low score was a 3.6 suggesting that all of these factors were viewed as being quite important.

The respondents were asked to use these seven factors to assist them in their evaluation of the logistics and transportation journals. A five-point scale with five equal to outstanding and one equal to poor was used in the evaluation. Transportation Journal remained as the top-rated journal, and was closely followed by the Journal of Business Logistics (see Table 6). (Table 6 omitted). Journal of Transport Economics and Policy and Transportation Research also received average ratings greater than four. It is interesting to note that the two quantitative journals--Transportation Research and Transportation Science--were both among the top six in average rating. This represents a significant increase in recognition afforded to quantitatively oriented journals when compared to Ferguson's findings. Further, Logistics and Transportation Review dropped from second in the Ferguson study to sixth in the current study while the International Journal of Physical Distribution and Logistics Management moved from number eight to number five. Additional information regarding readership and familiarity is also reported in Table 6. Somewhat surprisingly, only two journals are read on a regular basis by more than half of the respondents (and only six are read by one-fourth of the respondents). Further, familiarity scores were consistently 20 to 40 points higher than readership scores,

PRACTITIONER PERIODICALS

A similar set of questions were asked concerning ten practitioner-oriented periodicals. Again, the educators were asked to rate the seven criteria as to their importance in evaluating the quality of the periodicals (see Table 7). The most important criterion for practitioner periodicals was readability of the articles. Timeliness of topics and variety of topics covered were also viewed as much more important for practitioners than for academics. These findings reflect the sentiment that managers want to be kept abreast of current practice without having to spend a lot of time sorting through various publications. Of the three most important criteria for academic journals, only relevancy retained its position of importance (journal score=4.40, periodical score=4.46). The two criteria that decreased in importance within the periodical environment were quality of articles and impact on the discipline. Quality of articles was rated as the fourth most important criterion for practitioners whereas it was the most important for academics (a total ratings decline of .39 points occurred for the quality factor). The impact factor decreased by .86 points, suggesting that educators feel that the material discussed in trade publications is not state-of-the-art. Rather, the content of these periodicals tends to be anecdotal, relating actual company experiences in different settings. Also, the periodicals report the latest information regarding public policy and law.

Traffic World was rated as the best practitioner periodical (see Table 8). (Table 8 omitted). Traffic World also received one of the highest familiarity ratings and was most widely read by the respondents. Distribution and Traffic Management also received high marks from educators. Interestingly, Purchasing Magazine received an average score of 3.50, placing it fifth--ahead of four periodicals targeted specifically at logistics and transportation professionals. Five of the ten periodicals are read by at least one-fourth of the respondents, and average readership of the periodicals exceeded average readership of the journals by three points. Again, familiarity percentages were 20 to 40 points higher than readership percentages.

CONCLUSIONS

The areas of logistics and transportation management have gained important ground in recent years as critical management disciplines. As greater emphasis is placed on integrated value-chain management, the role of logistics and transportation management as competitive differentiators is certain to increase. A wealth of resources exist to help assure that logistics and transportation managers have the knowledge and skills necessary to assist their firms in achieving competitive excellence. However, efforts must be made to insure that the resources available are capable of meeting the emerging education challenge, especially as it relates to integrated knowledge creation and dissemination.

TABLE 1

CRITERIA USED TO EVALUATE PROFESSIONAL LOGISTICS AND TRANSPORTATION ORGANIZATIONS

Criteria--Rating

National Conferences--4.46

Role in educating professionals--4.24

Prestige--3.92

Seminars or workshops--3.92

Membership characteristics--3.75

TABLE 5

CRITERIA USED TO EVALUATE ACADEMIC LOGISTICS AND TRANSPORTATION JOURNALS

Criteria--Rating

Quality of Articles--4.80

Impact on the Discipline--4.67

Relevancy--4.40

Readability--4.22

Timeliness of Topics--4.01

Orientation (Theory vs. Application)--3.84

Variety of Topics Covered--3.60

TABLE 7

CRITERIA USED TO EVALUATE LOGISTICS AND TRANSPORTATION INDUSTRY PERIODICALS

Criteria--Rating

Readability--4.67

Relevancy--4.46

Timeliness of Topics--4.46

Quality of Articles--4.41

Variety of Topics Covered--3.99

Impact on the Discipline--3.81

Orientation (Theory vs. Application)--3.74

NOTES

1 P. Drucker, "The Economy's Dark Continent," Fortune (April 1962): 135.

2 S. Fawcett, "Strategic Logistics in Coordinated Global Manufacturing Success," International Journal of Production Research 30, no. 4 (1992): 1081-1099.

3 D. Vellenga, B. Allen, and C. Riley, "An Analysis of Author Affiliations for Publications in Transportation and Logistics Academic Journals, 1967-1979," Transportation Journal 21 (Fall 1981): 44-53; and B. Allen and D. Vellenga, "Affiliation of Authors in Transportation and Logistics Academic Journals--An Update," Transportation Journal (Spring 1987): 39-47.

4 P. Zinszer, A Study of University Programs in Logistics and Industry Demand for Entry Level Logistics Employees (Oak Brook, Ill.: Council of Logistics Management, 1985).

5 N. Daniel and J. Jones, "The PDM Literature: Practitioner Views," Transportation Journal 15 (Fall 1975): 40-46; and W. Ferguson, "An Evaluation of Journals that Publish Business Logistics Articles," Transportation Journal 22 (Summer 1983): 69-72.

ABOUT THE AUTHORS

Stanley E. Fawcett is an assistant professor of logistics and international business at Michigan State University. He received his Ph.D. in logistics and operations management at Arizona State University. His research has appeared in several logistics and operations management journals.

David B. Vellenga is dean of the Haworth College of Business at Western Michigan University. He received his Ph.D. at Penn State University and has taught and researched extensively in the logistics management area.

Lawrence Truitt is assistant professor of aviation management at Southern Illinois University. He received his Ph.D. in public policy at Arizona State University. His research has focused on airline and tourism management.

Copyright Council of Logistics Management 1995
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