Logistics Management and Marketing Performance of Selected Small and Medium-Sized Manufacturing Firms in Port Harcourt Metropolis, Rivers State (Published)
The research examines the effect of logistics management on the marketing outcomes of SMMFs in Port Harcourt metropolis, Rivers State, Nigeria. Given the crucial role logistics plays in optimizing business performance, this research specifically focuses on four key logistics management practices: demand forecasting, lead time, supplier relationships and packaging. The research seeks to evaluate the effect of these practices on marketing performance. This study adopted cross-sectional survey research design with a sample of 156 employees from eight SMMFs in Port Harcourt. The data were obtained by a structured questionnaire and analyzed by the software SPSS; simple linear regression was used to verify the hypotheses. The results reveal that demand forecasting, lead time, and packaging enhance the marketing performance but supplier relationships deteriorate the marketing performance. The findings indicate that while accurate demand forecasting, short lead time and good packaging strategies improve marketing performance, the opposite is true for supplier relationship management. This research conclude that logistics management practices can be used to improve marketing performance, particularly for SMEs, which are scarce in logistics literature. This study provides recommendations for SMMFs to enhance their logistics strategies in order to enhance customer satisfaction, minimize operational expense, and gain market share.
Keywords: Lead Time, Logistics Management, Marketing Performance, Packaging, Port Harcourt, Supplier Relationships, demand forecasting, small and medium-sized manufacturing firms