Determinants of scale efficiency in the Brazilian third-party logistics industry from 2001 to 2009

This article investigates the Brazilian third-party logistics (3PL) sector which, increasingly competitive, offers clients a wide variety of services/information technologies in the quest to bolster efficiency. The main research objective is to determine which variables significantly impact 3PLs scale efficiency by applying two-stage DEA (Data Envelopment Analysis). Based on an unbalanced panel model, data from the annual study published by Revista Tecnologística (years 2001-2009) were analyzed. Results corroborate evidence in the literature that coordination mechanisms in the supply chain, supported by the availability of real time information and inventory synchronization, favor a more rational allocation of resources (inputs) to client demands (outputs).