Which supply chain topic captures the most attention from scholars in the field? It's logistics outsourcing, also known as third-party or contract logistics.

Remko Van Hoek and fellow researcher Mark Johnson of the Cranfield School of Management in the United Kingdom examined the 100 most frequently cited papers in three top journals in the logistics and supply chain management field: The Journal of Business Logistics, International Journal of Logistics Management, and The International Journal of Physical Distribution and Logistics Management. Those 100 papers were authored individually or jointly by 149 authors, who hailed from 13 countries and 72 colleges or universities. The articles were published between 1988 and 2004.

Following third-party logistics was in frequency was information technology. Van Hoek said that 38 of those 100 articles were conceptual in nature while another 30 dealt with empirical statistics. The most frequently cited author was Dr. Lisa Ellram of Miami (Ohio) University's Farmer School of Business, followed by Dr. Douglas Lambert of The Ohio State University's Fisher College of Business, and Dr. Patricia Daugherty of the University of Oklahoma.