Alignment of transportation strategy with supply chain strategy: a conceptual framework with illustrative evidence

Alignment of core supply chain functions with corporate supply chain strategy is a key success factor for firms. Misalignments can lead to inefficiencies, higher costs, risks, and weaker performance. In particular, misalignment between transportation strategy and supply chain strategy can reduce responsiveness and flexibility, increase risks, and amplify environmental impacts. Although classic supply chain frameworks established the theoretical foundations of supply chain strategy, they treated transportation as a secondary issue and overlooked contextual decision factors such as product density, perishability, product life cycle, resilience, and sustainability. Consequently, a conceptual model that systematically integrates the complexity of the transportation and supply chain strategy alignment is not yet present in the literature. To address this gap, we develop a conceptual framework that introduces four transportation strategies, i.e. Cost-Oriented, Flexibility-Reliant, Modal-Control-Intensive, and Value-Enhanced, mapped against supply chain strategies across thirteen contextual criteria. Using the Best-Worst Method, we supplement the framework with an illustrative survey study of Global Fortune 500 companies. The results indicate that no single transportation strategy is right across all supply chains, but tailor-made service bundles can lead to alignment. Our study extends alignment theory to transportation and offers practical insights for managers of shipper firms and logistics service providers.