Effect of logistics resources on logşstşcs acticities: A research on the chain and group hotels

Interest towards logistics activities has been increasing both in Turkey and in the World. Although logistics was seen as an activity that involves only transportation earlier, nowadays it is accepted as a system that includes both pre- and post-manufacturing activities such as purchasing, demand management, marketing and customer services. Logistics resources should be reached at desired time, cost and amount so that logistics activities can be utilized as a tool for competition by practicing logictics efficiently and on time. Therefore, in companies both general logistics resources which are used during logistics activities, and among which affect(s) logistics activities, should be determined. In this study, logistics resources have been evaluated as a group that contains skills and assets. In the literature survey, firstly logistics management and logistics in hotels were analyzed. Then, the literature on resources were investigated according to the resource based and the resource dependency theories. This study was performed on hotels which play important role on service sector in Turkey. Survey method was used to collect data in this study. Main factors of the logistics resources were determined via factor analyses. According to those analyses, the logistics resources can be classified under four factor groups. ANOVA test was employed to evaluate whether the logistics resources exhibit difference according to number of rooms and star rating of the hotels or not; however, no significant difference was observed among the hotels. When effects of the factor groups on each logistics activities were investigated, it was found that the most effective factor is operational resources factor which is composed of warehouse, warehouse tools, supplier relations, teams, fast deliveries and coordination of logistics. In addition, human resources (number of employees, relations among employees and qualified employees) and technological resources factors (management information systems, automation programs, computers and computer programs) were also found as the logistics resources which affect the logistics activities. However, no significant effects of information and innovation resources (collection of information, sharing, problem solving skills, monitoring new trends and adopt them to firms, frontier in applications and logistics service development) on any logictics activities were observed. In conclusion, the hotels perform the logistics activities. However they should have operational resources, human resources and technological factors so that they can perform the logistics activities efficiently and use them as a tool for competition. Keywords: Logistics Activities, Logistics Resources, Logistics, Hotels.