Understanding the integration of digital service companies in supply chains via the concept of intermediation[Approche de l'intégration des entreprises de services du numérique dans les supply chains à travers le concept d'intermédiation]

Although Logistics Service Providers (LSP) historically played the major intermediary role for physical and digital flows between different actors in Supply Chains (SC), over time it is digital companies that have taken the place of LSP and have become the new major intermediaries in SC. While this role change has an impact on inter-organizational relationships (IORs), the literature on logistics intermediation and organization strategy has little studied this phenomenon. Therefore, this study is interested in understanding how the mobilization of the concept of intermediation in a context of digitalization of the SC is opportune in the management of the relations maintained between the order giver (called principal in this paper because he chooses the digital company and the LSP to work with), the LSP and the digital company, generating the digital intermediation. To do this, the research aims to theorize the triadic relationship formed by the principal, the digital company and the LSP on the model of previous research carried out in the retail sector. From a managerial point of view, the research allows us to consider managerial reading grids to understand and act within the framework of digital intermediation, and to identify the success factors as well as the main risks associated with the latter. The research is a continuation of Pardo (2015) work on the analysis of triadic relationships in the retail sector, with the aim of applying the research approach in a digital intermediation context. LOMAK, in a process of digital transformation, is an ideal empirical ground to understand how a principal-digital company dyad can influence the relationships in the principal-LSP dyad within principal-digital company-LSP triad.