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).