The relationship between institutionalization and logistics performance: A field research on organizations in business of logistics activities in the Western Mediterranean region

Day by day, businesses are becoming more dependent on each other, their sensitivity to their environment increases more and this leads to an increase in sectoral competition. Organizations that have to cope with the intense competition environment are on the way to institutionalization to have more professional and unique business processes. It is only a few of the important steps in institutionalization that organizing acts are subject to rule, being managed by professional experts with autonomous rights, and having an established organization of cultures. At the same time, the logistics performance, which is another variable of the study, deals with the issue of how businesses that have to respond to their complex logistics activities and stakeholders in the supply chain in the fastest way, are also interested in how businesses can achieve these goals. In addition to performing logistics activities in the most accurate way, catching optimization, superior to competitors, flexible and fast response to changes in the environment are the main characteristics of organizations with high logistics performance. In this thesis, the relationship between the concepts of institutionalization and logistics performance, which are of great importance both in institutional and operational terms, will be investigated with an empirical application on the enterprises operating logistics in the West Mediterranean Region. The fact that a study that takes institutionalization and logistics performance together and measures the relationship between them is not investigated in the literature is the main source of motivation in the preparation of this thesis. The hypotheses that we have established for these concepts, which are of great importance for organizations, have a positive relationship are supported in the research results It is thought that the results of the thesis will guide organizations in the sector who want to take more effective steps in the operational activities by increasing their institutionalization and logistic performance, and will shed light on the future studies by filling the existing gap in the literature.